Hello everyone! Im new here, I stumbled upon this web site looking for info on Bill Stewart (the great bowyer) He was the Grandfather of my wife. I have recently came into possession of his hunting bow, fletching jigs, old broadheads and a few of his bows long and recurve. Some other odds and ends and its a pleasure to hold and shoot bows that had not been shot since he was alive. This site seemed like the right place to talk about a man like him where people would understand who he was. Thanks for reading. Ps these items are not for sale :)
Welcome to tradgang sir, and what a true treasure you have! :wavey:
You definately have some trad history there,should be some great storys that go along with his bows.
Welcome aboard, the guys and gals here at trade gang are great. You sure have some great traditional history, enjoy Todd, very good place to be.
Thank you for the welcome everyone!
Welcome ... Bill was a character to say the least and a very talented and inovative bowyer. I have had a few of his bows and met him once at his place in Yakima, WA when he made a riser for me. He and I had a good conversation on how the grip on my riser should go. I wanted it smaller and he thought it was fine like it was, we ended up with a compromise some where in between because he was determined not to make it as small as I wanted. As I got used to the size it turned into one of my favorite grips.
TODD - IN 1991 OR 2 I BOUGHT MY FIRST CUSTOM BOW FROM BILL. IT IS A MULTI-CAM LEFT HANDED LONG BOW, AND I'VE USED IT ALL THESE YEARS; STILL FLAWLESS. BECAUSE OF SHOULDER PROBLEMS I'VE LOANED IT TO A FRIEND; I MAY NEVER GET IT BACK! WELCOME TO THE FORUM. BILL WAS A GREAT BOWYER.
BILL TOLD ME THAT MINE WAS THE LAST BOW HE WAS GOING TO MAKE THAT HAD BROWN GLASS ON THE BACK; HE WAS SWITCHING TO BLACK. WELCOME AGAIN. SOUROWL
TODD - I GAVE YA THE WRONG DOPE IN MY OTHER EMAIL; IT WAS ONE OF MY OTHER BOWS I LOANED TO A FRIEND. MY STEWART BOW WAS RECENTLY SOLD TO AN ELK HUNTER THAT WILL USE IT AS IT WAS INTENDED TO BE USED SINCE I CAN'T PULL IT ANYMORE.
MAYBE I'LL GET AN ELK STEAK OUT OF THE DEAL? LATER AND WELCOME AGAIN.
I have passed on the comments to the family, thanks. They enjoy it, Bills Wife is here in MI visiting for another week, I told my Wife about the riser from Elkkens story and she said he was stubborn :) One of the recurves we have is one Bill made for my Wife when she was 9, our kids are now using it to learn to shoot.
The family thanks you all for the memories and respect.
Bill was a character for sure. I met him in the snow covered mountains near White Pass during a late season archery hunt. He was hunting with Mel Stottlemyre and his son. I managed to take a doe that morning and had taken it down to a road and was walking around to get my jeep. Bill was by his truck and when I walked past he commented that he had designed the bow I was shooting when he worked for Fred Bear. We had a great talk and I saw him almost every year after that on the same hunt in about the same place.
Good to have you and Bill's spirit here at TG.
Mike
My first custom bow was made by Bill in 1997. It was a 3pc takedown longbow, MTC limbs. I only talked to him over the phone but would have loved to meet him. His bow was one of the best shooters I ever owned.
He did alot for archery in his life time and developed alot of things he never got credit for. He sounded as excited talking about bows and hunting with me over the phone like it was his first time.A real nice guy.
I tried to get TBM to do an interveiw with him for their magazine but they never did.
Here's my 1993 Stewart that Bill sent me as a gift. Took many animals with this bow. I had the riser darkened because I didn't like the light maple.
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/P2080006-2.jpg)
I have had the pleasure of shooting 3 of his great multi-cam recurves. I will own one some day. Great shooting bows.
There is a nice thread on the history/collecting forum about Bill.
I also got my first custom from Bill in 97. I was working in yakima for the day and decided to stop by after work. I shot his bows and we talked for hours. He showed me bows that he made for Bear. He had them lined up in the rafters. He must of had 10 - 15 Tamerlanes and then he took me over to a shelf behind his work bench and there were risers wrapped in newspaper stacked like cord wood. He opened one of them up and it was a Bear take down. He told me that he had one of the gold ones in there somewhere.
Well I was ready to make an order and told him I was going to be over in two weeks and could he have my bow ready by then. He said no problem. I showed up in two weeks and sure enough it was ready. My wife liked my bow so much that she placed an order not long after that. That is the only bow she will shoot. She even ordered two more sets of limbs in different weights as Bill wasn't getting any younger.
Bill was fun to talk to about bows. You could get him going really easy if you brought up Black Widow or some other big name bows.
Chris.
Just thinking of Mr. Stewart and found this thread from 2 years ago. If you have something to add, don't hold back.
In case you haven't read it, here's a site that has his old website and history.
http://www.w4wc.org/bill_stewart/home.htm
I was just over visiting a friend of mine in eastern Washington and he had a Bill Stewart 3 piece Multi Cam recurve that had a magnesium riser. First one I had ever seen. Bill's shop was something to see. The last time I was there he working on putting a whisker biscuit rest on a bow that you shot through the middle of the riser. Even in his late 80's he could still pull back more #'s than I could, he was showing me a few bows that he was pulling and I was straining to draw them and at that time I was shooting 60#'s.
Awesome bows. I wish I had gotten to know the man. And I really wish someone had carried on with his design. I would love to have a lighter set of yew limbs for my bow. Not the prettiest bows in the world but definitely one of the best shooting bows I've ever shot!
Several years ago Roy Coursey of Cooks Mountain Archery was making multicam bows, from what I saw they looked just like Bill Stewart's work. Sorry no contact info.
Thanks for that link Longbowz. :thumbsup: I have seen it, but it's been a couple years.
Roy learned his craft from Mr. Stewart and did make those multicams for a short while. Roy has since retired, but still makes all the shoots. My guess is he would make a set of limbs just to get back in the shop for a day or so.
Roy was at the Western States shoot recently and I enjoyed his stories about Bill which got me pulling up this old thread. :campfire:
Lon,
Tell the story about about what happened when Roy brought one of his early bows over for Bill to look at. ;)
That was a good story. ;)
Roy had this burning desire to make bows and spent hours in his shop. When he finally built a "good" one, he thought that working with Mr. Stewart would be most beneficial.
He knocked on Bill's door with a bow in hand and asked for a job building bows with Bill. As soon as Roy showed his finest creation to him, Bill took one glance and threw it into the yard.
Mr. Stewart said he might hire him when he brought him a worthy bow.
Roy said he had more that one bow thrown out before Bill agreed to hire him.
Funny story Lon.
I have had a few nice talks with Roy. Never had the pleasure to meet or talk to Bill. love his bows though.
CTT
I bought my first and best custom bow from Bill in 2000. I really enjoyed just talking archery and hunting with him. A great guy! I have always been surprised that no one continued building his bows.
Chuck
A couple years ago I purchased a set of Bear TD limbs with brown glass. Seller from CA stated he got them from Bill. Only brown limbs I have ever seen. Anyone know if these were indeed a set from Bill. He did great things with Bear.
http://www.w4wc.org/bill_stewart/about.htm
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/handles_zps69ed1647.jpg) (http://s13.photobucket.com/user/sf1oak/media/handles_zps69ed1647.jpg.html)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/BillStewartArchery1993_zps95ff1847.jpg) (http://s13.photobucket.com/user/sf1oak/media/BillStewartArchery1993_zps95ff1847.jpg.html)
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/P2080006.jpg) (http://s13.photobucket.com/user/sf1oak/media/P2080006.jpg.html)
The family found more of my wife's grandfathers stuff (Bill Stewart) Hopefully the pic is visible. If this works I will share more pics of items.
(https://instagram.com/p/BB_Y21kp6A5/)
https://instagram.com/p/BB_Y21kp6A5/
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :archer:
Great picture Todd. Welcome to the gang
Deno