I'm not convinced that
Stik , bless, has grasped the mettle regarding losing something "up front" and the subsequent aft change of cg.
Your nice new, light-weight MT wooden prop will reduce your MAUW, but might send the cg aft enough to exceed the aft legal limit. You could of course add a lump of swan-friendly lead to the firewall to compensate.
Stik: come to the fly-in that
Pitts2112 is (hopefully) organising in Norfolk this summer: I will take you flying and demonstrate the effect to you (in fact I can only do it with you in the aircraft...how's the diet coming?
)