I was just looking at new Marten Archery stick bows and notice all the shelves are cut flat as back in the day.

Been shooting a recurve for many years and up to the early 80s I order my first non-production recurve with a radius shelf which the bowyer was taken back but understood.

I use to either use a rest or took a piece of WD40 spray tube and put it under the shelf plate as my elevated rest to get good arrow flight.

The question is after all these years is why weren't the shelf cut radius by Bear, Pearson, Hoyt etc. Would like to get educated, never too old to learn something.

I suspect the flat shelf was faster, easier, cheaper to build. There's more hand work involved in crowning the shelf and radiusing (if that's a word) the site window.

My 1952 Bear Kodiak K4 has an original radiused shelf. Don't know why newer bows changed to a flat shelf

If your not using an elevated rest, makes no sense to have a flat shelf.

First of all, companies like Bear and Pearson alone were turning out thousands of bows each week...it wasn't your one man, two bows a week operation. The designs were made to be repeated by many different bowyers...maybe over twenty working at a time so the effort to get 4000 bows a week made...which is what Ben Pearson, Jr. said their company was making in the 60's, you needed speed an as many shortcuts as you could do. A flat shelf was the easiest to accommodate that.

It makes no difference anyway other than looks and maybe more ease to shoot off the shelf. By the late 60's, more folks were using elevated rests and by the end of the 60's the metal risers were making inroads....they were also easier to make with flat shelves also.

You have to understand the times and the amazing amount of bows being turned out at the time. In 1976 Bear Archery turned out over 300,000 bows, and when they were making only recurves they still were turning out 200,000+ bows per year. Folks today only know what happens today, they don't dig into the history of the sport to learn.

We really never gave it a thought. Far as I have seen radiused shelf’s is some new “Trad” invention. Anyway, a piece of a toothpick under the shelf material at the right place solves any issues.

okie dokie,just because thats the way they did it back then it must be best. They used to make cups out of lead, that wasn't to smart but they didn't know any better...

Well, I never had a problem shooting off a flat shelf. I'll stop at that and leave out any smartass remarks.

Never saw a lead cup, but we used to bite our lead split shot on to our leader for fishing all the time. Never seemed to bother us...ush....uss...uz.

I shoot all sorts of bows with 1/4" mohair or seal on a flat shelf.

No effect on arrow flight.

Good question. They could make them all radiused, and an elevated rest could still be used if wanted. So maybe there's something to the faster, easier, cheaper, sameness aspects of the construction of it. Personally those aren't things I value in bow design. I wouldn't own one due to how they look and feel, and they're just not practical for me. I don't care what else a bow has going for it, a big ol flat shelf is a non-starter. Any part of my bow that's flat ain't done yet ;^)

I have radius the shelf, and site window on several bows.

It didn't take me long to discover it to be unnecessary.

Give me a flat, or a radius either one. I don't care.

I'll usually wind up modifying whichever to get it like I want it anyway.

It's easy to do without removing any material from the bow, and I'm not talking elevated rest either.

Rick

An elevated rest is anything but a flat one. If you put a pencil under the rug...it's elevated. Most folks do that to clear the shelf, and most of us old guys didn't care one way or another. If any of you were around back in the day, you wouldn't have given it second thought either because the midset was different. We didn't have bowyers to send custom orders to, and we weren't 'trad' back then, so we were pretty accepting. I still put a stick-on rest on any recurve I get and keep. Longbows generally not since there isn't enough shelf to be concerned about.

It's easy being particular when you have a hundred bowyers just waiting for orders, versus five or six big manufacturers that put out bows as quick as Snyders makes potato chips.

My rests aren't flat, or elevated... and I ain't 'trad'.

Now I'm confused. I give up ;^)

Never gave any rest any thoughts just pick up the bow and shoot it and learn it .

Steady as she goes

The only thing I never liked about the flat shelf was how wide they generally are. The "flat" in & of itself isn't a problem.

That said, I really like the look of the radius, and glad they started doing it.

Rick

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