# My Cravotta Brothers recurve



## oldfella1962 (Dec 5, 2016)

The Cravotta brothers came up in a thread by All American when I was asking about one of his recurves - or something like that. Anyway, here is a typical example of the bows they made. This is a Blackhawk Bee (they also made a "short" Bee which is the same length as the regular Bee)  40# from 1959. 

Notice the very short riser and skinny handle. And the general sweep/shape of the limbs is very gradual and elegant. Basically the "working portion" of the bow (being the limbs of course) takes up a very high percentage of the total bow length. 

Of course the bow is light as a feather. Despite this, the bow is still very stable. But you do "feel" every shot - it's kind of like a longbow in that respect. You can't really tell from the pic, but the back is green "basket weave" style fiberglass. The shelf is barely radiused (I might have sanded it off a bit to make it a bit more radiused) but so short that it doesn't matter - the arrow barely contacts the shelf anyway. 

But these guys made a wide variety of models - some recurve and some semi-curves too. You can get them cheap compared to vintage BEAR bows but they are very well made.


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## AllAmerican (Dec 6, 2016)

Awesome, that's a classic and cool design.  I found a bow stringer from Cravotta Bros. Inc. on Ebay.   Check it out, even has the logo that was on my bow with the Hawk holding a bow and arrow in flight.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintag...s-/172060571878?&_trksid=p2056016.m2518.l4276

Maybe get it to match your bow?  Thanks for sharing.


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## oldfella1962 (Dec 6, 2016)

AllAmerican said:


> Awesome, that's a classic and cool design.  I found a bow stringer from Cravotta Bros. Inc. on Ebay.   Check it out, even has the logo that was on my bow with the Hawk holding a bow and arrow in flight.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintag...s-/172060571878?&_trksid=p2056016.m2518.l4276
> 
> Maybe get it to match your bow?  Thanks for sharing.



I had no idea they sold anything other than bows. But I'll have to pass on it - I just use the push/pull method my step-dad taught me. But it is fun looking at that old-school advertising style. Thanks.


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