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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: flint kemper on August 04, 2022, 07:08:03 PM
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I know Dave passed away years ago but did or does anyone own one of his longbows? I had heard that his bows where very good. If you have photos or a brochure of his I would love to see them. Thanks
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I have a few of his longbows and a couple of his recurves too.
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Dave lived only about 40 minutes from me so I was in his shop often. I had Dave build 3 or 4 bows for me but I don't have any of them now as they became too heavy for this old guy. The last time I saw Big Jim's used bow rack this summer, he had a left-handed Talon which at one time had belonged to me--53#@28. They were excellent ASL style bows, and Dave was an ardent follower of the work of bowyers from years ago and was a wealth of information about longbow design. I wrote an interview article on Dave which TBM ran years ago. He was overwhelmed with calls for brochures and information because there seemed to be a great desire for those kinds of bows. He also made a copy of the 59 Bear Kodiak which he called the Talon Swift which was a great little bow as well. Dave was a fine bowyer but short on business management which hurt his business reputation a good bit due to delivery time issues. Dave had heart trouble and reached a point where he decided that he would not have any more treatment for it, and he was found deceased in his home where he lived alone in a small cabin he built himself. If you can find one of his bows, I think you would find it a fine example of the American style longbow.
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I always thought that maybe I had one of the last ones he built. I ordered it after reading about them in TBM and sent him a deposit. I think he was running 4-6 months wait. After 4 or 5 months Dave wrote or called, I can't remember which, to let me know that the bow was finished and to send the balance. I sent it and after waiting about three weeks with no bow I gave him a call. I got a message that his phone had been disconnected. I didn't know what the internet was back then and it was a lot harder to track down information. Anyways after another couple of months I had written it all off and all of a sudden the bow showed up. I never heard much of anything about Talon longbows after that. I loved the bow and the craftsmanship was excellent. From the TBM article I sure liked his thoughts and insights about longbows. If I had only ordered the bow at 45# instead of 65# I would still have it....