Kevin, to best describe the performance of my longbows, it does them justice to compare the way they handle to a Bear Montana, or a Martin Stick or any of the bows named after spiders. But I try to keep design and looks simple but every now and then an order comes along where sombody wants me to re-envent the wheel, and I really don't mind that. I will try my best to make maple hot pink, or blue , purple, or green. (that's what diamond wood's for, right?)
The difference with the other longbows I mentioned is mine aren't mass produced and I use little machinery. Infact the only "machinery" I use is the bandsaw to cut out lams and risers, and the drum sander to make the lams the right thickness/taper. Oh I almost forgot I also employ a rotory tool for getting in tight spots and shaping nocks. Other than that, all hand tools.
So while my longbow may perform like bows named after bugs they don't look like them, but for 1/4" the price you really can't expect them to.
To put it in perspective; the fancy high priced bows out there are the Ferrari and my bows are the GMC truck, they'll both get you there, but with the GMC you don't mind getting it a little muddy, with the Ferrari you look cooler and turn heads.