Back around 1978 the only ones building custom bows were Dick Robertson and Fred Asbell, Black Widows were doing little to nothing at all until Ken Beck bought out the company and turned it around.  Recurves and Long Bows were almost dead. Fred and Dick did a lot of promoting of Traditional archery and some more people started getting into it. I Think Traditional Bowhunter Mag had a lot to do with the growth of Trad archery in the 90's.  I talked to some people who were part of the Trad archery scene in the early 80's and this is the info I got from some of them.
You can learn alot at a PBS banquette.

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