# Lets see those Franken Bows, here is mine ...



## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

Back when I was in college I saw an Indian XI bow with a wood riser. I thought at the time it was a wonderful design. I clipped a photo out of an archery world magazine and stuck it in one of my books and promptly forgot about it. about 5 years ago while packing my stuff for a move I bumped into it. I though gee that still looks like a cool bow for an antique. A short trip to eBay.com and I had this little gem for my own. The original was a dark dark brown stain without any of the carving.

*Here is what I did:*
*Riser: *I sanded the riser down completely and with carving tools and a Dremmel I added the oak leaf carvings at each end. I then stained the riser with a water based green stain this was rather tricky as the wood did not absorb the stain nearly as well as I would have liked. I applied a hand rubbed polyurethane finish. I was even able to salvage the golden and black silk screened button on the back side (sorry not in photo)

*Limbs:* The limbs were a complete mess about half of the original silk screen graphics were gone and there were all sorts of scratches and dings in them. I painted them with a standard primer with multiple coats. A light sanding bot them to look some what passable. From there a base coat of mottled black, green and dark brown was added. I then cut out some leaf and limb templates from lightweight cardboard. and started to add the leaf pattern, by sprayi8ng different colors through the hand held templates. I used a sharply to some fine lines and small details to really make the pattern pop. I finished it off with several coats of mat finish to add some durability.

*Cams:* The original cams I think were 45% let off so they wen in a trash can. These are actually PSE wheel/cams again purchased from eBay. The original setup was the standard 1980's strings and cables and I replaced everything with strings. Yes the floating yokes are a bit long, I agree I just haven't gotten around to replacing them. The Axles on the original did not stick out either side so I replaced them with what I think were old Martin axles. A spacer and 2 brass washers make up the string posts on either side of the limbs.

From a performance stand point this is old technology and it really doesn't stand up. But I think it looks cool and a lot of kids in my youth program have shot it and enjoy the aesthetics. How about you guys have you done a franken Bow? If you have lets see em and hear your stories.


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## strikefirst (Mar 30, 2009)

That thing looks great!


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## ullr88 (Oct 19, 2010)

Good work! Nice bow


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## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

thanks guys for the kind words.


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## ruttnwapati (Sep 22, 2008)

Nice Work.


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## B.Hunter (May 4, 2009)

Very nice bOw-bender! - carvings really adds to it!


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## DavidParenteau (Sep 23, 2011)

Thats a very nice bow, good detail.looks awesome


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## Andy. (Jan 12, 2011)

Pretty cool!!!!


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## TOMAXIMUS (Aug 2, 2010)

Real nice.


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## Sleipnir (Dec 22, 2011)

Looks great man!

Closest thing I have to a franken bow is just the various brands of stuff I slapped onto my bow (ya know - stab, sight, etc) lol :embara:


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=87090

Here is a link to a thread about my Frankenbow. Maybe the first on ArcheryTalk? What makes my 'creation' a frankenbow is that I used 3 manufacturers parts together to form the core bow: Darton riser, XI limbs and limb pockets, Revolution Archery Cams. I don't count them as part of the frankenbowness, but the cables and string originally lived on a PSE.


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## haywoodhunter (Aug 7, 2011)

thats cool!


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## Martin_Shooter1 (Jan 25, 2012)

That is cool as you know what! Seriously that is neat. I am redoing an older Martin, although not an antique just not current technology. And i often pondered replacing my Z cams ,which are awesome cams, with something newer that had speed bearings instead of bushings. But I haven't looked very hard cause I am sure more modern cams would cost a small fortune and I am not sure if I would need different axles. 

I guess not trying to hijack this thread but does anyone know if most axles are a standard diameter through the years? And do cams with speed bearings need special hardened axles? I doubt I will go to the trouble. But it is fun to think about.


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## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

We'll on this particular bow I have noticed that the axles were slightly different in that the original axles fit tight while the others were a bit sloppy but I expect that was the difference in suppliers. I believe that the vast majority of the Shaft diameters have remained consistent.


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## Bigboar (Sep 18, 2010)

I have been having an issue posting a reply because of a Spam Count problem, so I may have to do this with a couple of posts. Hope you don't mind.

Back in 1976 I got an Astro compound that was made in Wisconsin. It was custom made to my specs with 80 pound limbs and 32" DL. This bow had laminated wood limbs and after several years Astro was out of business and the limbs had totally delaminated in an explosion of splinters. I had just set it aside and got later hold of a Barnett Banshee for a backup bow. Figured this would be a good bow since they were big into crossbows. I had this bow for quite a few years and had made a few modifications to it. I was shooting it at 92# at 32"DL


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## Bigboar (Sep 18, 2010)

START WITH THE PREVIOUS POST

I then had some solid fiberglass limbs made for the Astro and I wanted them to come out at 100# but they actually drew about 120#. I gave up on this because it was slower at 110# (my comfortable limit at that time of my life) than the Barnett was at 92#.

My son was starting to get into archery and I had moved on to other bows so I once again modified the Barnett so it could go down to 60#. After doing this, I went to the range to sight it in and to my surprise had the bow break in two at full draw right in the middle of the handle. This was a huge shock and I was happy this occurred at 60# and not 92#.


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## Bigboar (Sep 18, 2010)

START BY LOOKING BACK 2 POSTS

So I had an Astro with no limbs and a Barnett with no handle. So what the heck, with a few slight modifications I was able to marry the two together and came up with a compound fishing bow. The Astro didn't have a cable guard rod so I had to make some more modifications to add the one from the Barnett.


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## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

I love it. It is also green in color which we all know is the perfect color for a frankenbow!
Thanks for sharing.
:tea:


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## Martin_Shooter1 (Jan 25, 2012)

Wow thats an oldie. Cool though


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## edmondsmatt (Dec 17, 2010)

*I have one of those Indian/XI bows.*
















Thinking about selling it now that I have a Oneida to bowfish with.


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## bronco611 (May 3, 2009)

I was wondering has anyone ever made a frankenbow take down recurve before? What I mean is an old style compound riser and the newer recurce limbs to make a take down trad bow. If so please post pics I am interested in how they would turn out and how well would they shoot.


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## Martin_Shooter1 (Jan 25, 2012)

What I am wondering is if anyone has made a frankenbow from a much more modern bow? Something that, minus the parallel limbs, is not considered an antique. Say something from the late 90s or early 2000s. These are all cool and bring back memories but man them are antique lol. You guys remember the browning compounds from the 80s? The excellerator 2 stage wheels? I always thought the brownings were beautiful bows. Their wood risers were gorgeous.


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## Martin_Shooter1 (Jan 25, 2012)

Don Schultz said:


> http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=87090
> 
> Here is a link to a thread about my Frankenbow. Maybe the first on ArcheryTalk? What makes my 'creation' a frankenbow is that I used 3 manufacturers parts together to form the core bow: Darton riser, XI limbs and limb pockets, Revolution Archery Cams. I don't count them as part of the frankenbowness, but the cables and string originally lived on a PSE.



I just seen this link after posting my last post. That is a cool looking bow. Is it still shooting or have you retired it? I think the lines of the bows from 10-12 years ago were graceful and IMHO some of the best looking compounds made from all the manufacturers. In some ways the newer they get the uglier they get. In some ways I like the looks of the new bows. I bought a 2012 martin and it is cool looking but I do think that they don't look as cool as the martins from 2006 on back to 1997.


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## Bigboar (Sep 18, 2010)

Martin_Shooter1 said:


> You guys remember the browning compounds from the 80s? The excellerator 2 stage wheels? I always thought the brownings were beautiful bows. Their wood risers were gorgeous.


I have one of those Browning bows, but it just hangs on the wall. They had lot of issues with their laminated limbs even when they were new. No way would I put it under load after all of these years.

Todays bows are so good there is not much reason to mess around.


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## Martin_Shooter1 (Jan 25, 2012)

Bigboar said:


> I have one of those Browning bows, but it just hangs on the wall. They had lot of issues with their laminated limbs even when they were new. No way would I put it under load after all of these years.
> 
> Todays bows are so good there is not much reason to mess around.


I understand what you are saying but some of us like to mess around. It satisfies our inner monster...:wink: I get so ansy when I am out of projects to mess with my wife gets tired of being around me lol. If I aint building, repairing, tinkering, or working I am usually bored out of my mind.


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## Shooter6 (Jan 5, 2012)

Good looking bows guys.


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

Martin_Shooter1 said:


> ...That is a cool looking bow. Is it still shooting or have you retired it?...


Because the limbs that I installed were straight rather than recurved, I thought the bow gave up some looks. I agree that bows like the PSE X series are just "too functional" to be estheticaly satisfying. I find my almost parallel limb 2006 Darton Tempest to be pretty nice. 

I retired Frank because there was some cracking in the JB Weld holding spacers I made for the limb pockets, plus I had taken the bow as far as it would go in competition. On the target range, my Darton Tempest out shot Frank, and my Darton Cyclone, and even my beloved XI Legend Magnum. Frank was faster than even the new (to me) Tempest, but the Tempest was with in a few FPS, and always shoots straighter.

In a lot of ways, Frank was the most satisfying to shoot bow I ever had. But today I have to say the best shooting bows I owned used for competition and hunting were: 1.) 06 Darton Tempest, 2) '89 XI Legend Magnum, 3) 00 Darton Cyclone, 4) FrankenBow. Note; the Legend Magnum, Cyclone and Frank were pretty close. The Tempest is way out front.

My latest back up hunting bow is a mid-90s Darton Wrangler with the same Revolution Archery cams that were on Frank. With the factory recurved limbs at almost 70lbs., the Wrangler is as handsome as any compounds of the era. Another 'looker' I owned was my XI Legend Magnum. At the time, I saw my compounds as utilitarian and not really handsome. I would say the first PSE X series bows set the newest trend of truely machine like bows. They look to me as utilitarian as a bulldozer. My old Wrangler is graceful in comparison. Of course, none of my traditional bow shooting friends like the looks of any compound. :wink:


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