In about the mid sixties or so Bear and a few other bow companies made bows with a bright blue/green glass color that I heard most often referred to as "seafoam". In his book, Jorge L. Coppen refers to "aqua" and "pea green". Are these all one in the same??? Maybe a better way to ask it is what is the proper/correct name for this color? As far as I can tell Bear made at least the Alaskan, Black Bear, Tigercat, Bearcat, Bear Cub and Grizzly with this color glass, maybe a few others. I have seen Shakespeare bows that had what appeared to be the same color glass. I ask this because I would like to add some of these bows to my collection and I would like to ask for the correct color. And also if there was anything peculiar I should know regarding this color or the bows made with it. As always thanks in advance for any info, it is greatly appreciated.

Aqua Marine

Wow, I like it...thanks for posting, that's the color alright!!! But another name, so now it's between "aqua", "aqua marine", "sea foam" and "pea green". Seems like one of them has to be what the factory called it.

Well, there's a fifth possibility...in an old Bear catalog they show the Bear Kodiak Special and refer to it as "soft tinted green".......

There are many, many bows out there from 50's and 60's that used glass of one shade of green or another. You have to remember that at one time Gordon wasn't the only game in town when it came to glass, and everybody was trying to get one up on everybody else.

I've seen Drakes, American Archery, Stemmler, and many others with a pale green glass.

My Black Hawk Scorpion from 1966 has green glass like that, it was made by Cravotta Brothers.

I would love to see a photo of it Mr. Stout!! It's funny, I started shooting and hunting with a bow in 1975. In all these years I just saw a bow this color back in the spring...I guess because it was mostly used on target or "all purpose" bows and I never really paid that much attention. I thought surely I have seen it before, it kinda jumps out at you being so bright but I don't remember ever seeing it.

Here you go, this post shows several. It's that color on both sides but I sprayed over the back of the bow with black for hunting.

http://leatherwall.bowsite.com/TF/lw/thread2.cfm? threadid=308320&category=88#4578699

Yep, that's it. What a pretty bow!!!Thanks for posting sir. One of these days i will find one for sale.

We just used to call it robin egg.

My 62 KS

This one is the most historically significant bow in the turquoise color. It is no less than the Holy Grail of Bows!

Joe

You guys are killin' me with these bows!!!! I really like these things. Which ones are for sale??? Brad???? I'd take a 62 KS, try me. Okay Joe, I bite....what is it??? Why is it the holy grail??? And how much???

Oh msinc, did you just open a can of worms....asking the Frisk those questions. You must not be familiar....but you soon will be ;)

No sir, I don't know the cat...but I will always listen to what someone has to say. I am slightly overdue for a good story anyways, especially if it involves a stick bow.

Funny that you call him cat, you'll see...lol....just remember..a grain of salt! He's our homegrown legend here on the Wall....a wealth of knowl....well,like I said you'll see. ;)

What is in a name, that which we call a rose by any name would smell as sweet.

There were many shades of blue, aqua, seafoam, etc. Gordon Glass made Gordon bows and sold glass to a lot of folks. 3M made glass used by Bear in 1962 and by Howatt from the late 50's into the early 60's. There was a popular theory that a pale blue or blue green glass on the belly side of the limbs was less distracting to field archers shooting outdoors. Pale green continued to show up at least until 1969 (Bear Alaskan and Cub.) There is some variation in the glass batches so different bows of the same model and year are slightly different in color. some great examples of production bows: 1961 Bear Polar, with "Ice Blue" glass on the belly side. 1961 Bear Kodiak Special with soft green glass, 1962 Browning Diana (shown)with ice blue on the belly, sky blue on the back, 1963 Browning Olympian with pale green on the belly, forest green on the back, 1962 Bear Kodiak Special with pale seafoam green on both belly and back, 1963 Bear Grizzly with seafoam green, and perhaps the aesthetic pinnacle, the 1960 Clan Gordon Royal Queen with sky blue glass set against a Brazilian rosewood riser. An under-appreciated color is the pale butter-yellow of the 1962 Bear Polar, set against a zebrawood rise. A good-lookng, great shooting bow. Turquoise limbs is an entirely different conversation

msinc- The bow I posted is none other than the greatest Drake Hunter-Flight ever made! It's 54" and weighs 1 pound 5oz. It's 45 pounds in draw and is priceless, made around 1963. This is the bow that defeated all Leatherwall bows! All bow down to the limb color! Did someone say fast? Fast? Man does this bow blow smoke! Quiet too. Unfortunately, I acquired a certain Bear TD that ousted it from the #1 position in bowdom. It's now the #2 bow on the Wall but is still quite a bow. Here's a photo of the new #1 bow next to the Drake.

Joe

Told ya...;)

Damon Howatt had the sole marketing right to the 3M glass and shipped to a lot of bow company's and individuals. When 3M got larger due to aerospace and Gov't. contracts they decided that the entire archery industry was to small for them and quit shipping bow glass. We used a lot of the light green glass on Ventura's. As late as 2003 they kept sending people out to explain why they probably would not be in the bow glass business again. Finally asked them to stop bothering me.

"Told ya...;)"...

Yes sir, you did. Interesting, to say the least. Frisky, that late model Bear takedown must be haunted with the very spirit of none other than Fred himself to have "ousted" such a fine example of a bow and knocked it down to the #2 spot!!! Of course if it's not really possessed by Mr. Bear than we need to take up a collection and see about getting you the help you need. Maybe someone can start a "Go Fund Me" for Frisky to see a shrink??? Of course, I could solve the whole problem and buy the now #2 bow from you and restore it to it's place of honor.....just sayin'

Mr. Hatfield, that is interesting. I never knew DH was the distributor for 3M. Was the Ventura the only bow you made that used that color???

Thanks for posting guys!!

I think if you use the search feature at the top of the page, you'll be able to pull up a thread we did a year or so back about turquoise glass in bows. Lots of pretty Howatts--Venturas, Hunters, Hi-Speeds--as well as Drakes and others with that shade of glass.

Joe you should sell me that Drake. You can kill anything with it so send it to me.

I took 3 deer in 3 seasons with that Drake! Might go 4 for 4 this season.

Joe

msinc, Damon read an article about a fiberglass 3M developed for the fuselages of jet airplanes and contacted them. Other than the quality of the material, it could be glued with Urac-85 which made the bow limbs very stable to lateral twist. Gordon glass demanded epoxy and glue creep.

Interesting, thank you sir. Thanks for all these posts fellas, it is greatly appreciated.

1961 Howatt Diablo.

1964 Howatt Hunter.

Clan Gordon Custom.

62 Kodiak Special.

Excellent examples!!!! Thanks for posting sir!!!

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