Jim Taylor Bow? ....What can ya tell me???

[Terry Green]

Nothing fancy at all....looks like walnut and black glass belly n back.

This is all it says...

Jim Taylor
60-65
2811
USA

Anyone know anything about this bow or bowyer???

   

[Pat B]

Jim made lots of hickory backed black walnut kids bows over the years. Lots of folks carried them in their shops. I've never seen an adult bow made by him but that doesn't mean anything.

[Terry Green]

Pat...this is a man's bow...that's for sure...and 64inches I'd guess....where is he located?

[LoneWolf73]

Unfortunately Jim Taylor passed away last year. He was a Bowyer from Alabama, by Double Springs. Yes he  made lots of youth bows. Very talented.

[Eric Krewson]

I posted this on another site:

Bow maker Jimmy Taylor has died. A pretty legendary guy in a bunch of ways, both good and bad.
He has probably made more bows than all of us other bow makers combined, his business practices were in a word, atrocious. His generosity was legendary as he would give you the shirt of his back if he thought you needed it. He had a problem separating fact from fiction and told some pretty tall tales, as a friend I grew to accept this facet of his personality. You couldn't keep from liking him in spite of his flaws, unless you were on the receiving end of his shoddy business practices.

If you own one of Dan Quillan's bows from his later years Jimmy probably made it. He supplied a bunch of lower end glass lam bows for Martin, Nirk and others. He made thousands of hickory backed cherry, oak and hickory bows as well.

When I first met him he was selling wood bows for $20 each at the local flea market. I later watched him make one of these bows in his shop in less than 15 minutes, pretty impressive.

[Terry Green]

Thanks guys....a friend of mine bought it and he and I both wanted to know more about it.  It is about the plainest bow I've ever seen, and that is ALL the writing on it.

[rraming]

Only so much you can do in 20 minutes, I really like that story.

[LBR]

Eric is spot on.  A lot of people didn't like Jimmy (Randy to his family), for the reason Eric stated.  Simply put, he'd lie when the truth sounded better--and about really stupid stuff.  But, he had a heart of gold and gave away more stuff than anyone I know.

I think his biggest problem was his raising.  I didn't know it until I was grown, but his mother, stepfather, and younger siblings (at least 4 of them) lived down the road from me.  Jimmy's mom was as rough as a cob--she could cuss a blue streak, and did on a regular basis.  Those kids came up by the hair of their head.  As rough as she was, Jim's mother had that same heart of gold, and as I was told she had a really rough time as a child also.

Jim's problems didn't stop when he left home.  He had a few tradgedies in his life, ending with the cancer that took his life.  When it was time, he sent his friends away, sat down in his home, and waited until he died.

He was absolutely amazing with a piece of wood.  He made some beautiful furniture--he could do most anything with a piece of wood.  He was good friends with Dan Quillian for a long time--even Dan was impressed with him, and could overlook his faults.

I lost contact with Jim the last few years before he died.  He lived about 2 hours from me.  I kept thinking I would take time to look him up...I waited too long.  I got word of his passing from some mutual friends.

Eric isn't exaggerating in the least about the time it took Jim to make a wood bow, or the number of bows he made.  Of course those of you that know Eric know Eric doesn't embellish...Jim taught lots of folks how me made bows, even showed a lot of scouts how to make a "survival bow" with nothing but a tomahawk in less than 20 minutes.

Love him or hate him, if you ever saw him in action you have to admit he was something else, and one of a kind.  He's missed greatly by those who had the patience and understanding to overlook his faults.

[Mike Theis]

I have a rough finished hickory self bow of Mr. Taylor's. I have had it around ten years or so, and have not finished it. It pulls in the 50+ lb range, if I remember right. A simple, stout stick.

[Grey Taylor]

Wow, sorry to hear this news. I used to sell Jim's bows, including a number like the one Terry showed. I occasionally had difficulties getting my order from him. The last one took about a year and a half and I decided it wasn't the best business relationship. Sure sorry to hear of his passing, though. He was a unique and special individual.

Guy

[CoilSpring]

I hated to hear Jim passed.  Eric & Chad pretty much told the story.  

I met Jim at his home & shop south-east of Russellville, AL up on the mountain in about 2000-2003.  He invited me in and showed me around both, made me a hickory/cherry LB - yes that quick. Then he hand twisted a flemish string for it. I think he told me he was part Choctaw.  He drove a Harley, had a Chevy S-10, and a full-size van w/trailer to go to events.  He also worked as a mechanic in a local motorcyle shop later on, before he passed.

He grew some cane behind his shop for arrows, and made all his hickory lams. He rigged up an old welder or transformer to supply the juice to heat up his metal form liners to cure his fiberglass limb/epoxy layups.

On one visit, from out of a pile of sawdust and wood scraps, he pulled out what vaguely looked like a short recurved limb; he said it was a prototype for Dan Q's foot that had to be amputated after his bear hunt. Pretty cool. Jim was a character to say the least.    

At that time, Cliff and Thomas were helping him make bows - or maybe he was training them - neat guys.  

The below are some notes I kept of his bows he made.   The kids bow and Hickory lam'd Cherry were unfinished prices.  The recurves were named after the form/pattern he'd copied them from. I shot several that he had on hand and over time bought the Canebrake recurve (after Dan Q's form)-walnut & elm with clear glass, a hickory lam/Cherry LB, and serveral kids bows to get young-un's started.  
----------
Bow Prices as of December 2003

Kids Bow  48” Red Oak    $10

Laminated Hickory/Cherry Longbow  50”, 58”, 68”    $20

Recurve (Black Glass)
46”  York Classic  $35
58”  Ben Pearson Hunter II (Rev. Handle)  $50
62”  York Classic  $50

Canebrake 62”  $100
(Walnut riser w/accent stripes, Red Elm limbs, clear glass)  

Kodiak  60” $100

Reflex/Deflex Longbow   64”   $75?    Smooth

Long Hunter Longbow (Dan Quillen)  70" - $??.
-------
My brother and I both still have our Canebrakes - they shoot pretty fast, too.  Interestingly, his was the first skinny FF string I'd seen (10-12 years ago).

Terry, that bow is his "Reflex/Deflex Longbow 64 inches"  and it was indeed a smooth drawing bow.  I wish I'd bought one of them.  Jim shot some cedars out of one he had just made and then let me try.  He was a much better shot than I.

[CoilSpring]

Just found this...
---
from Jake Allen05-31-2012, 09:37 AM
His Obit:

Jimmy Randolph Taylor, 51, Russellville, Alabama passed away May 27, 2012 at his home. He was a member of the Historical Nature American Choctaw Tribe and the Church of Christ. Survivors include son, Mark Taylor; father, James Taylor; sister, Debra Handley. He was preceded in death by mother, Sue Loyd; grandparents, Ruby and Allen Dickens. A graveside service will be Saturday, June 2, 2012, 2 p.m., at Old Brick Cemetery in Ford City. Pinkard Funeral Home assisted the family.


A colorful character he was. I first met him 2008, on a hot August afternoon at a flea market in Carrollton, Ga. He had two tables full of bows, and about 300 more in the back of a truck.
He took a minute to use those claws he had on the end
of his arms, to show me how to twist a bow string from a wad of artificial sinew. :biggrin3:

Last I saw him was at the Pow Wow last August in Rome.
He was full of tales about the tornados last spring in Alabama, and how everyone was helping put things back together over there.
Tomi and I bought 4 kid's bows from him. I haggled the price, and told him the plan was to get these shooting, and give them away, and I would make the strings for them.
He sold us 4 bows for the price of two. Can't beat that.

He ask if he could help with the TBG Youth Trailer some last fall. Of course, I said, it will be an honor. I gave him my phone number, but never heard back.
He also attended at least one shoot at NGT that I know of; August 2009.
He did not shoot the course but once, but did hang around and eat watermelon.

God Speed Jimmy Taylor; and God Bless your family, and friends, and ease the grief during this time.
------

[heydeerman]

I got it from Larry Hatfield that he never made bows for Martin.

[Eric Krewson]

That's Jimmy, he said he made bows for Martin, like I said, he had trouble seperating fact from fiction.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Anyone who has been around archery a while has a Jimmy Taylor story to tell.
 
Once Jimmy put out a flier about the huge archery tournament he was hosting. He stated he had a challenging course with all new McKenzie targets, hundreds of NA friends from all over the country would be having a Pow-Wow at the same time at his place. All the archery greats at the time would be there as guest speakers.

When we got there there were 8 or 10 of Jimmy's NA friends, pretty well lit, having a fish fry. His tournament course consisted of trash bags that Jimmy had sprayed expanding foam in and shaped to some semblance of unrecognizable animals. None of the archery greats were in attendance.

That was Jimmy in a nutshell. We actually had fun on his archery course and got a good laugh out of the whole affair.

[ddauler]

Very interesting stories! I bet if you had Jimmy, Dan Quilian and Jerry Hill all in one spot now that would be a hoot. Never remember meeting Jimmy but I knew the others well back in the day.

[JAG]

I own a couple "Jimmy Taylor" Bows.  As has been stated everyone has a Jimmy Story!  Mine are all good, but I knew about his rep., so i just didn't get in over our heads.
Likable guy, generous to a fault, one of the best liars I ever had the chance to listen to.
I called him Friend, what more needs to be said.
Johnny/JAG

[Cherokee Scout]

Jimmy made a lot of those black glass bows (in picture) for me to sell. I am not sure but I think I sold them for about $125. He used hickory cores most of the time. He was buying the glass out of Canada.On a scale of 1-10 on value they were a 9, good buy for the money. Scoring on 1-10 on quality and workmanship, I would give them a 4-6 depending on who was in the shop running the gluing machine. I sold a ton of the kid's version of that bow. 3Rivers was buying them for awhile. I stopped shipping them to 3Rivers when quality faded and he could not keep up with the orders.Jimmy would always show excitement in the beginning of a project and quality was fairly good but as the excitement faded (quickly) so did the quality of the work, especially in the glass backed bows. Jimmy also had a problem with math. He would tell me he had 50 bows ready for me to  pick up. I would drive the 60 miles and find he had about a dozen ready.

[Terry Green]

Too Funny Eric.....

[Cherokee Scout]

One more point about those bows. I watched him many times as he wrote his name and weight on the bows. He would not use a scale to weigh the bow most of the time. He would pull it back and say "that's 55 lb", and then write that on the bow. I challenged him a few times on the weight and he would put it on the scale to see if he was right. Believe it or not, he had it right, within a pound or two almost every time. Because he did that, I had him stop writing the weight on the kids bows. I weighted them and marked them myself to be sure they were right.