Kellow and Kramer Dished Grips

[todd smith]

Does anyone know about the longbows the Kellow brothers out of Cananda used to build?  Many years ago John Dodge and I attended the Longbow Safari events and those two guys carried bows they built.  They were really good shots too!  Anyway, even though the bows were built similarly to a Hill style, the handles were dished.  I always admired those bows.  

I believe the Kramer longbows also had a dished grip.  I don't believe I've ever seen their bows in person, but it seems like I remember seeing pictures of them with dished grips.

Is anyone familiar with these bows and/or does anyone shot and prefer a dished grip as opposed to the straight grip you see on Hill style longbows?

todd

[Orion]

HH Archery will also make a dished, or indexed grip if you want.  I have two dished Howard Hills.  Not much difference between them and the straigh grip IMO.

[V I Archer]

I grew up and began my hunting careeer on Vancouver Island.  My mentor shot a cople of Kellow bows, built by John I believe.  I visited Ed once and did some shooting at his home, very knowledgable man, both the Kelows were incredible shots.  I was shooting a sky bow at the time, still am, very similar grips.  A nic, subtle shallow dish.  I remeber the Kellow bows being a little heavy on the handshock, but none of the people I know shooting them seem affected.

[JRY309]

I had an older HH Big Five that was built by Ted Kramer.It had a dished grip with a palm swell,it is a great feeling grip,I really like the grip.One of the best dished type grips I've felt,my Dave Paxton of Talon longbows had a similar dished grip another great example of dished grip.

[todd smith]

Thanks guys,

V I Archer,  it was in Sooke that I first met them.  I remember I just couldn't get enough of looking at the design.  I don't think I ever shot one though so I don't know about the hand shock.

I think the Kramers post on here sometimes so I was hoping they might see the post and chime in too.

I always liked the looks of them and just dished my old John Dodge longbow that got me my first big game animal, a barren ground caribou, and my second big game animal, an Alaskan moose.

I moved back to the lower 48 and hung it up on a hook.  Haven't hunted anything but cottontails with it in years.  Figured I'd break it out again this year and finally did the dish on the grip.  The finish is still curing but so far it feels good.

I just wanted to get some feedback from anyone who had shot them or maybe even from a bowyer who does grips like that and could explain the "why" behind it.

I sure liked the looks of those Kellow bows...  todd

[Roy Steele]

I've never seen those bows but i've built selfbows for 20 years and have slowly moved to a shallow dip.More concent grip with less tork.Yoy can fill it in your hand better.I believe the deeper the handle cut the more hand shock you have.This is why deep cut recurve handles have some hand shock it not tiller correct and one limb gets there quicker than the other.