So yesterday I was in Maple Valley and stopped at a pawn shop on my way home and found several trad bows there and came home with this one. No marks whatsoever. Woven fiberglass on the back, what I believe is Yew on the belly and very thick limb lams of what I'm pretty sure are maple. The bow is 66" NtoN, and the limbs measure 7/16" at the mid point. I think that this is a late 40's or very early '50's bow. Any help is greatly appreciated. Because of the Yew I'm thinking that it's a west coast bow. I suspect a heavy draw wt also. Thanks in advance. Lance

More to follow...

Any thoughts? Thanks, Lance

Unless someone shortened it those nocks look homemade

Funny - I had the same thought!

Maple vally WA? yeah looks home made

With limbs that thick, it must have a very high draw wt.

MP

Could be a Stemmler.

Whatever it is its very cool. Are you going to string it up?

CStyles; Nope, not even gonna try. I'll clean it up,and make a string for it and then it will be displayed. I'll probably put a leather wrap on it too since it looks like there used to be one. I'm leaning toward "home made" too. But, made by someone that knew what they were doing. Lance

Bow looks like a Cravatta Bros Blackhawk chief. Have one much like it.

Black Hawk did make an offset riser like that back in the 50's, I have a Warrior of their make with that feature. It also had the woven glass but on face and back.

I agree. I had a Blackhawk chief just like that!

Lance, you find some beauts!

Good find Lance! RKK

Cool find - the backing looks to be Fortisan to Me. Bob

Those tips don't look like BlackHawk.

If it's a Blackhawk, it could be an early one. They changed quite a bit as the recurve itself evolved. I'll get a photo of mine today. I think the glass is basically the same color and weave.

Lance. I wouldn't be afraid to claim it a Cravotta Brothers Black Hawk. Here's my 1957 Warrior, starting with the handle design.

Woven glass.

Tips. Although mine has overlays, you could see how they could have been like yours previously.

Riser from face of bow.

Thanks George and all others. Also thanks to Pdiddly, the first to see it via email. I thought it might have been an old Howatt, but Peter disagreed and said he thought it was an early Cravotta Bros. So again, thanks to all. You're all awesome! Lance

Went ahead and strung it up just to see if I could, and it's much lighter in wt than I anticipated. I drew it back slowly to 18" and got 25# on my digital scale. So I expected 55# or so at 28" but only got a smidge over 40#. Could be me with the scale as it "feels" much closer to 50#. Here's a photo at 7-1/4" brace. I cleaned it, waxed it and made an arrow strike-rest from some thin leather. I'm seeing a shiny coat of Poly in it's future. Lance

Looking good Lance.

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