Bow from my Uncle

[Ed Brooks]

I dropped some fish off to have my uncle smoke lastnight, when I was BSing him, he said i have some long bows, I'll let you have your pick of one. My uncle garage sales and he don't shoot or hunt with a bow. so I know he got these at a very cheap price if at a cost at all. one is a FG, i picked it up to look at it for my uncles benefit, he had one that almost looked like a Yew wood bow, home made for sure it felt spongy for lack of a better term (when bending like in floor tillering.)
The third bow, the one I ended up taking, is a factory wood bow, it has no string, has part of one sticker left and I have no idea how heavy it will pull or if it is any good it has some ruff spots on it. I thought maybe someone here may be able to help me figure out what kind it is anyway. here are the pics i have right now. thanks for looking. Ed
 

[Pat B]

Ed, it looks like a York Archery bow from the 1940's. It looks like lemonwood, a common store bought bow back in the day. Probably cost about $9 new back then.

[Ed Brooks]

tip to tip 68"
knock to knock 66.5"
1 5/8 wide out of the fade
3/4" at handle
handle fade to fade is 11 1/4"
5/8" wide a tip
limb 1/2" thick at fade 5/16 thick at tip.

Thank you for the feed back Pat.
Do you think it is worth trying to string an old bow like this up?

[cantshoot]

I heard that lemonwood becomes very brittle when it gets old. Don't see what good it is without a string though so why not?

[Pat B]

Ed, you have to retrain the wood to bend and recover. Start out on a long string and gradually work it out to brace height. Let it rest at brace for a while then unbraced it. Later do the same but leave it braced longer You can pull it a bit but short pulls; exercising the wood. Just like teaching a new bow to bend and recover. I have a few old lemonwood bows, one a York ELB style. I contacted the company that made them ad the gentleman I talked to sent me  copy of the original pamphlet.
 I was going to shoot mine but decided I'd rather keep them as keep sakes from years past.

[Ed Brooks]

Thank you very much for this information Pat. That is exactly what i needed, to be pointed in the correct direction. I was going to go home and string it up, really glad I got this 1st. I'll let you know if I blow it up or get a shooter. My Uncle did tell me I had to kill a deer with it and now I owe him a steak  . Thanks again. Ed

[BowEd]

Cool find Ed and info too Pat.Makes the bow somewhere's around 70 years old for sure????Older than me or you....ha ha ha.

[Pat B]

One problem with the older bows is that the glue that holds the riser on get brittle over the years and the handle risers can pop off.

[Badger]

  I have had the riser pop off a lot of these old bows. I have never had one break though.

[LittleBen]

Ed, it looks like a York Archery bow from the 1940's. It looks like lemonwood, a common store bought bow back in the day. Probably cost about $9 new back then.

Man Pat I can't believe someone beat me to the ID. I love me some York and that is a very old one. Cool bow.

[Josh B]

One of my 4h kid's dad brought me a lemonwood bow made by Ben Pearson under their"Locksley" economy line brand.  The handle had popped off, the grip was rotten and no string.  He wanted me to fix it.  I reglued the handle, made a new handle wrap and string and started slowly exercising it like Pat described.  It shoots wonderfully.  The guy that brought it to me didn't show up at the shoots for a couple years and I thought that he'd abandoned the old bow.  Nope, he showed up this spring and reclaimed it.  His daughter shot the whole season with it and loves it.  Kinda cool seeing that old bow still getting it done.  Josh

[bjrogg]

Neat of your uncle to save that one a give it to you Ed. I hope you can breath some life back in it and get it shooting again. Maybe even get that deer and pay your debt of the steak back. Wouldn't that be cool. I bet your uncles jaw would hit the floor.
Gun Doc cool story about that bow really neat that a 4-H kid shooting it too.👍
Bjrogg

[Ed Brooks]

Thank you for all the replies. I have been working the wood, back into a bending shape, so far so good. I have lightly sanded most of the old finish off the bow and put some commercial stain / sealer on it. I made a new strike plate out of a piece of Highland longhorn's horn. I added the 1st leather handle. & per my dads suggestion, I left what was left of the label on the bow.  Thanks for looking Ed

[Knotty]

I'd love to see some more pics, profile and full draw 😊 Great job recovering such an old bow!

[sleek]

I had a fellow bring me a bow identical to that,  except it had a rawhide back. He wanted me to restore it to shooting. I got it to shooting again, made it look brand new, and proudly gave it to him. First thig he did after showing him and stressing to him the proper way to string it, he dug his knee into the lower limb, popped the string on and left. I winced and tried to correct him but he got mad and walked away.