Danon Howatt Recurve

[3Feather]

my son recently aquired a nice recurve. he got it with a couple of sad looking arrows.
suppossedly this bow has neve been shot. i'm not real sure on that.
when he got it it had a string with it that was in a box. the string looked to be pretty old. he was told that the owner had it possibly 10 or 15 years     if i remember right. the string  was served up on the ends including the loops.
i myself am new to traditional bows i have a sequoia longbow with dacron B50 flemish string. the old bow that sold me the bow showed how to make my own strings and have made a couple of strings. the string that came with my sons recurve is much different. would this be a fast flight string and my main question is wheather i can make him a dacron string. or is that not a good idea. because i understand that you can not use fast flight strings on older bows or bows that use dacron strings. does any one know what string he should use with this bow. and could anyone tell mee about how old this bow really is.

[Joseph]

A Dacron string that you make would be just fine.  If I remember correctly the string for a recurve is 3 inches shorter than the bow length.  I think that is correct and a longbow is 4 inches shorter?  It sounds like your sons bow has an endless loop string on it.  It is just a different style of string that is easier to mass produce.  Damon Howatt recurves are good bows.  I would not put a fast flight or low stretch string on it.  As far as how old it is that is hard to say, Damon Howatt bows have been made since the late 1950's.  Martin Archery purchased the company somewhere along the way, I think in the 1980's and have continued producing the same bows.  You might want to post a picture of it in the Collectors forum.  Someone there might be able to narrow down the year of manufacture for you.

[Hud]

Serving may indicate that it is older and is probably Dacron. Count the number of strands and order a flemish string of the same length. Damon Howatt made nice bows, if it has Martin on the bow it is still nice, just newer. I would not use FF on an older bow. Some of the tip overlays are wood and not plastic or fiberglass, and won't hold up to FF.

if you have the model, length, and weight someone might be able to tell you more.

[damascusdave]

Originally posted by Joseph:
A Dacron string that you make would be just fine.  If I remember correctly the string for a recurve is 3 inches shorter than the bow length.  I think that is correct and a longbow is 4 inches shorter?  It sounds like your sons bow has an endless loop string on it.  It is just a different style of string that is easier to mass produce.  Damon Howatt recurves are good bows.  I would not put a fast flight or low stretch string on it.  As far as how old it is that is hard to say, Damon Howatt bows have been made since the late 1950's.  Martin Archery purchased the company somewhere along the way, I think in the 1980's and have continued producing the same bows.  You might want to post a picture of it in the Collectors forum.  Someone there might be able to narrow down the year of manufacture for you.

Other way around, 3 inches for a long bow and 4 inches for a recurve. Or you can just saw off and make them all 3.5 inches shorter for both. Just remember a recurve will need a bit bigger top loop to fit properly down the limb so that you can get the string properly seated on the bottom limb nock.

Big question is what model of DH is it. I had a Ventura and sold it. I kinda wish I had it back. They are great shooters.

DDave

[AkDan]

you'll be fine with a b50 dacron string on any traditional or self bow.

[Night Wing]

I'm with the others. Get a dacron string and since it's a recurve, 4" shorter than the length of the bow. So, if it's a 60" recurve, get a 56" length string.

[uglyjake]

I have two Ventura models that I purchased in the mid 80's.  About half way down on the bottom limb is the bow information.  One of mine has 8103 so I would guess it is 1981, March.  The AMO is the bow lenght.  Hope this helps.

[reddogge]

Might be 1988...   8 103.

[Joseph]

I new it was one way or the other as far as how much shorter a string was for a recurve and a longbow