I am starting to look at Black Widow recurves on a "popular auction website", as my Bob Lee is at the factory getting fixed. I have no idea when I'll see it again. No biggie.
Not wanting to miss out on the action, I've been shooting my father-in-law's Palmer, Black Widows, and Dale Dye recurves. I like them all. So while on "the popular auction website" I saw a BW in my price range. However, it has an aluminum riser that appears to be a solid piece of metal, and the fit was suspect in my opinion.      

I have seen them with a metal skeleton grip but I don't know much about BW history or the models they have made in the past.

The bow in question has a camo finish and you can see the maker's marks on it as well as the BW medallion.

My concern is the riser is aftermarket.

Were solid alu risers ever made for BW TD recurves and if so when?

Is the camo finish a ding on value? Could that riser be replaced?

Thanks guys!

I have a pamplet from Black Widow dated 1990. It shows a solid metal handle (black0. It looks like their TF model. The model # is HS. They also show a handle forward model in metal. The HS listed for $380.00.

I used to own an HS model, built in '93...the riser had a profile similar to the current PTF.
I e-mailed BW factory with the serial#, and they were able to tell me the date of mfr and draw weight, which was not written on the bow limbs.  Mine was all black, solid AL riser, with just a BW sticker on the lower limb...if you could contact the seller and ask for serial#, Roger and the boys could probably fill you in on the details.  BTW, I sold mine through the classifieds for about what M60 lists...

fatman

Cool....I will ask seller about that serial #.

Black Widow made several versions of aluminum risered bows.

The HS models were good shooting bows.  Haven't tried any other alum. models but these are nice bows...Mike

I owned one that had the grip out in front of the riser part that the limbs bolted to . It was a type of overdraw. Dont know why I bought it,as it was`nt that great. I think that was around 1978 or so.

i still have an HS model,had it built for me in 93. i got mine to bowfish with,good shootin bow(duuuuuhhh, its a black widow).

The skeleton handle Black Widows were made in the early 1970's.

I never cared for the HS and Express solid handle models as they were heavy and not comfortable to shoot. The HF1200 and HF1225 models (A frame) on the other hand were some of best shooting Widows ever made in my opinion. I sold a bunch of them for Bill when he owned the company and still have a couple.