Wanted: Flight Archery information/memorabilia

[oldbohntr]

I am putting together as complete a collection of Flight Archery history as I can.  I have a lot of items and information in the display now but am still looking for all the photos and information that might be available.  Harry Drake is the focus of most historical flight memorabilia, of course and I am very interested in everything I can find on him.  However, there is much more to it than one bowyer/archer, even if he was the probably the most influential person in the sport.

Bows, arrows, pics, and information on flight archers other than Drake are important.  So are rules, flight records, and a comprehensive list of winners and divisions.  Even scraps of information are worth preserving.  I am revising my flight display now and will post a picture on this forum soon.  

Contact me at [email protected] or call 509-670-1770.    Tom Baldwin

[2treks]

Wish I could help Tom, but I will just be able to enjoy your efforts. Flight shooting is great and I look forward to seeing your display.
If I do find anything I will let you know.

Now that I think about it, I did just get some old publications from a friend that I will thumb thru for you.

Good luck

[Larry m]

Your likely aware of this but over the years there have been several excellent articles in Primitive Archery Magazine on flight shooting and the yearly events held on the salt flats in Utah. A quick search will bring up the issues.

[Hobow]

Tom,

The last I knew, Ted had a beautiful Drake and some of Harry's (and others) flight arrows out at Raptor Archery.

Brad

[oldbohntr]

Brad, Thanks for the lead.  I'll check with him right away.
Tom

[oldbohntr]

Here are a few pics of my flight display.

 
 
   

The bows on the lower level are longer Harry Drake bows, Firedrakes on top and Hunter Flites on the bottom. Those will be moved if and when I find more suitable display items.
 

 

[Larry m]

Very Very Nice .....

[bowhunterfrompast]

Excellent display of some very unique pieces of history.

[Liquid Amber]

Somehow "impressive" doesn't seem adequate for your collection or work chronicling this history.  I for one want to thank you for saving this history.

History seems to highlight the impact of fiberglass backings in the flight game and development  of the composite bow.  It is rare I see noted the importance of plastics facings in those early days.  

I've researched W.L. Miller for many years and wonder at the lack of credit he gets developing and marketing the plastic facing.  From 1941 to about 1952 when fiberglass suitable for facings became widespread, Miller's facings were the dominate product.  
He had sufficient inventory stashed before the War dried up his source of materials to provide Robin Hood Archery his facings, the only marketed synthetic facing or backing available to the archery community during the War.  

Many, and I'm being conservative here because I don't know for certain, of Harry Drake's early flight records were set with Eicholtz glass backings and Miller's plastic facings.  If you thumb through the early periodicals it is found that Miller's facings dominated the synthetic facing market.

I should be pestering you for information.         But, in the event I might can provide something on Miller you may have overlooked, feel free to holler.

[doug77]

I aggree with LA, that's impressive !!!!!!!!!!!!


doug77

[oldbohntr]

LA
The two statics at the top of the one pic are early Drakes that show some unusual materials and construction.   These bows came to me via one of my Tradgang friends and his brother…..I am grateful they were willing to let me add these to my collection.   Dating is only estimated, but they did know the man to whom Drake gave the bows.
The longer one is yew, backed with sinew.   The static ears are fairly typical construction for the 40s.    The shorter one is osage, backed with Eicholz(?)glass.  The belly lam looks like the plastic I have seen used on some bows from about 1950(Cravotta Bros used a lot of it.)   The ears are finely crafted and the “overlays” are translucent plastic(looks like celluloid from that era.)
These are the earliest “modern” flight bows I have actually seen.    A pretty common photo shows Drake with an unstrung Turkish style flight bow which is so reflexed it’s tips appear to touch.   Shortly before his death, Drake was obsessed with duplicating the recorded distance records of the early Asians, using the materials and tools they used.

I'll be happy to talk with you anytime, but I really have so little information that it's pitiful.  Almost nothing was written about flight in the early magazines.  The curious thing about this quest is that everyone who sees a Drake era flight bow or arrow feels it must be as rare as a hen's tooth.  Well, what's even more rare is to find a bow by or information about ANY other "early modern"flight archer!  That's how dominant his influence was. And information about modern flight archery before his rise.....well, just forget it!

I have maybe 75 documents-photos, rules, score sheets, lists of class winners from various years, all from the late 60s-late 70s.   Unfortunately, for a long time, I was much more interested in Drake's other bows, than I was in the flight area.  A flight bow or arrows would come along and I kept them, but never really looked for the rest of the story.  Now I'm going to try to do that, and the only way is to ask everyone for any scrap of information they have.

Note: I am also going to document flight bow in recent years as well.  Much of all this documentation I hope to receive will be kept in a file cabinet, rather than on display.  Still, preservation is important.

Thanks to all for your interest.  

 
   

 
 
 

[oldbohntr]

Also interesting regarding the glass backed static shown above:  glass on the back and plastic on the belly.  probably an experiment with two "new" materials.  Sometimes it seems Harry never did the same thing twice - at least to look at his bows!  But, it's certain that he was always searching!  Why in the name of heaven didn't he write anything down for the rest of us?

[MR BILL SHORTY]

This stuff is great  

[Liquid Amber]

Tell you what Tom.  I have a pretty extensive file of published material on flight in chronological order.  When I finish what I'm working on right now, I'll make a copy of my stuff and send it to you.  You probably have most of the material but maybe you'll find something you missed.  Most likely by the end of the year.

If interested, just PM me your mailing address.

[Liquid Amber]

The rest of the story.  The reason W.L. Miller's plastic facings dominated the composite bow scene until 1952 or so is this.  In 1941 W.L. Miller applied for a patent on the plastic faced composite bow.  It was granted in 1943.  

Unlike Fred Bear, who sought patents to prevent folks from enforcing patented archery stuff, Miller enforced his patent.  Fiberglass wasn't covered under Miller's patent and when dependable fiberglass facings were developed, plastic facings became obsolete.  

Now, Eicholtz experimented with Lamicoid plastic as facing material about the time Miller's Patent was granted according to Eicholtz.  I don't believe Lamicoid was as good a plastic facing as Miller's, a chemist employed by the Department of Navy, and believe the market would have determined that had it been available.  

I have only seen one ad offering Lamicoid and that was one put out by Eicholtz in the late 1940s.  History records little to no information on Lamicoid as bow facings other than what Eicholtz has provided.  The reason may be that Miller enforced his patent against Lamicoid for use as plastic bow facings which prevented Eicholtz and others from marketing it.

This is pure conjecture on my part.  

[Liquid Amber]

You likely have these references already, but I'll post them anyway.

"History of the National Archery Association" - Robert Rhode, two volumes, 1879-1945,  Limited Edition, 1000 copies published 1978.

Has all the flight information from those years plus plenty other interesting stuff.  

You want to know where Howard Hill placed in the 1928 NAA Champion ship?  What flight record Hill established in 1928?  This is the Bible.

[oldbohntr]

Yes, I do have #s 270 of the Rhode books, but I will admit that it's been many years since I spent ANY time at all looking at them.  If I ever knew it had the early flight records, it escaped my feeble memory a long time ago.  No excuse for that lapse other than old age, I guess!  

I told you this interest in flight archery has been equipment driven, rather than researching the history.  Now, I've got a lot to catch up on.

I'll be scanning those pages to assemble a comprehensive list.

[Liquid Amber]

In 1945 Harry Drake was making and selling yew flight bows.  Most times I've seen him reference yew, he generally notes it's Ullrich yew.

Hill used an osage self ELB to set that 1928 record in Opa-Locka, FLorida, which was quickly eclipsed by others.  He obtained this osage stave from E.F. Pope; letter from Hill in an E.F. Pope Catalog.

Years ago I located an old marine who carried a take-down bow in the Pacific during WWII and talked with him twice on the telephone.  He met E.F. Pope as a youngster and learned to make bows under him.  Pope was an interesting man, hunted bear in the Big Thicket of Texas with Ben Lilly.

[Liquid Amber]

Herb Henderson was a well known flight archer, Chairman of the NAA Committee on Flight, and had ties to Indian Archery[Evansville], a company producing competitive flight equipment.  Not sure but he might had a stake in the company.

Archery, June 1948

Flight - Henderson, Herb

     This writing should be tribute to Frank Eicholtz.  We have noted with considerable regret that Frank Eicholtz has retired from the Conolon Field as an independent operator and is now going with the parent concern.
     Frank has done a lot of experimental work in Conolon for archery bow backing and to our way of thinking and from the experience we have had in the manufacture of flight bows and also hunting and field archery bows that with the aid of this parent concern he has developed probably the best backing material that we have yet seen.
     Along with Miller, who has perfected the toxhorn wood down to a fine point and which to our way of thinking is also the best bow with facing.  Much credit should go to both of these gentlemen for their work in the improvement of the archery bow.
     Harry Drake should also be given an assist in this as he was one of the first to successfully put on Conolon on the back of his superb flight bows, therefore, I want to take this opportunity in the hats-off department to pay my respects and those of our immediate family to both Frank Eicholtz for what he has done with Conolon and to Miller for what he has done in toxhorn wood.  They are both fine materials and now have been tried and tested and have been found to be all anyone could expect of them.
     The many splendid records that have been made in long distance shooting by Harry Drake and his various bows and I will say with due modesty that one or two we made in Evansville is a tribute to the use of Conolon and the backing along with plastic and toxhorn wood as facing materials. [pg. 10]

[kurtbel5]

Very cool Tom!!