Old Phartt Bow Styles – June 2011

I got into bow making because I wanted a glass laminate copy of the old 1940’s/1950’s classic lemonwood longbows that were offered by numerous companies.  These were simple, no shelf, basic bows built with a bit of string follow, which fairly quickly became quite a bit of string follow as they took a set.  They weren't impressive performers, but were smooth, easy shooters, pretty forgiving, and not expensive.  They took a lot of game and participated in untold tournaments. They were just good honest working bows and they seem to last forever.  There are still plenty of them shooting!

If you were a boy back in the early 50's you most likely shot a lemonwood longbow, and you most likely longed to be able to afford to send it off to one of the guys who were adding that new stuff called fiberglass to the backs and creating what became the American Flat Bow and then the Hill. Well, when I was hardly a teenager any more, sixty mumblemumble, I decided I wanted the bow I had longed for when I was one... a glassed version of my original lemonwood bow. Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to get any of the bowyers I was working with to produce what I considered a good, updated (glassed) copy of it.   Then I was offered the opportunity to learn glass lam building and make a copy myself.   That was my start. 

My other favorite bow was the Hill style that the old longbows had evolved into, as made by Hill Archery, Dan Quillian, Louie Armbruster and other bowyers who refined the design through the 1950's to 1970's and made it popular. The deeper cored Hill styles won out in popularity over the wider limbed versions, partly because of good performance but also, let's face it, because Howard was one heck of a promoter! I used to have a lot of Hill and flatbow style bows, quite a collection, in fact.   As I built a few bows I found myself using features from various of these bows.   I consider what I’m building now to be basically American Flatbows, but with a strong leaning toward Hill style.

I’ve tried a number of variations and have kind of settled on the four patterns below.   What I build at any particular time depends on the mood I’m in and what style I think would show off the particular woods I’m working with.   The style names are based on the riser form.

Please Note: This material is not presented as a sales pitch! I do not take orders for bows. However, so many people are in communication with me regarding my bowbuilding pages that I thought it would be helpful to have this up here for them to refer to when I get to rambling on about this or that style, or when I'm dealing with someone in a bow swap and I want them to see what I might be able to make for them.

"Traditional"

This is the name I’m giving to my standard more or less Hill style bows.  I’ve built them with straight, backset (reflexed) or slightly string follow limbs. I could build them with my extreme string follow limbs, but when I do that, I usually end up producing a Classic (see below) just because that limb style seems to call for it.  They’re pretty much basic Hill style D bows, maybe a little wider limbed and with more gently curved fades. I sometimes put all of the lams behind the riser, with only glass up the fades (as Howard Hill himself did) or sometimes split the lams on heavier bows or those on which I feel that for aesthetic reasons the riser should be centered in contrasting lams.

"Classic"

This is close to where I started, my copy of the old lemonwood longbows. It is truly a real traditional bow.   It has plenty of string follow and, like the old lemonwoods, no shelf.   You shoot it off the top of the hand, just like you shot bows when you were a kid.  (At least if you’re anything close to my age!)  The limbs are a lot slimmer and, frankly, less graceful than the old lemonwoods, because the addition of glass gives them more power with less weight, and the style as built likes more depth to the core.  These bows are light and as simple as a bow gets.   They are also completely ambidextrous… no more worrying about right hand/left hand.  You have to shoot one to appreciate just how sweet they are.  Unfortunately, most guys are wimps about shooting without a shelf and never find out just what a nice bow this style can be. One of the concerns is arrow matching, but it really isn't a problem; it just takes a bit lighter spine. Drop down a spine size and you're usually fine.

"Forward Scout"

This is a distinctive forward riser bow with a deep locator grip. I was building for a bow swap and was sent a picture of a bow that was suspected to be by John Schulz. I liked the looks of it and so did the swap recipient, so I said I'd give it a try. . It came out well and the recipient and I both liked the way it shot so much that I’ve kept building it.  It’s built with straight limbs, but with the forward riser it provides much of the same forgiveness as a string follow bow. With its deep locator grip, it seems to be an easy longbow for recurve shooters to adjust to. It can almost be regarded as a precursor to the hybrid style longbow becoming popular today.

"Javelina"

The Javelina is another forward riser bow, based on a pic I saw of a bow Ted Kramer built while he was at Hill Archery. I have seen Hills built as forward risers that were simply regular Hills layed up with the standard riser forward and the nocks cut in reverse. I'm sorry to say I don't care much for the look. They look to me more like something is wrong than like they are a style in their own right. This design changes that by slimming and streamlining the riser into a very graceful appearance. I think it combines features of the Forward Scout and the Traditional, being a straight limbed longbow but with a lot of forgiveness. I built several bow before I found just how much I had to slim the riser down to get this look. Javelina was the first I built that I felt I had gotten everything just right. I find it a really pleasant longbow to shoot and I'm quite excited about the pattern.  It's also, to me, a really beautiful bow.