Talon Longbows by Dave Paxton

[flint kemper]

I know Dave passed away years ago but did or does anyone own one of his longbows? I had heard that his bows where very good. If you have photos or a brochure of his I would love to see them. Thanks

[tippit]

I have a few of his longbows and a couple of his recurves too.

[David Mitchell]

Dave lived only about 40 minutes from me so I was in his shop often.  I had Dave build 3 or 4 bows for me but I don't have any of them now as they became too heavy for this old guy.  The last time I saw Big Jim's used bow rack this summer, he had a left-handed Talon which at one time had belonged to me--53#@28.  They were excellent ASL style bows, and Dave was an ardent follower of the work of bowyers from years ago and was a wealth of information about longbow design. I wrote an interview article on Dave which TBM ran years ago.  He was overwhelmed with calls for brochures and information because there seemed to be a great desire for those kinds of bows. He also made a copy of the 59 Bear Kodiak which he called the Talon Swift which was a great little bow as well.  Dave was a fine bowyer but short on business management which hurt his business reputation a good bit due to delivery time issues.  Dave had heart trouble and reached a point where he decided that he would not have any more treatment for it, and he was found deceased in his home where he lived alone in a small cabin he built himself.  If you can find one of his bows, I think you would find it a fine example of the American style longbow.

[yaderehey]

I always thought that maybe I had one of the last ones he built.  I ordered it after reading about them in TBM and sent him a deposit.  I think he was running 4-6 months wait.  After 4 or 5 months Dave wrote or called, I can't remember which, to let me know that the bow was finished and to send the balance.  I sent it and after waiting about three weeks with no bow I gave him a call.  I got a message that his phone had been disconnected.  I didn't know what the internet was back then and it was a lot harder to track down information.  Anyways after another couple of months I had written it all off and all of a sudden the bow showed up.  I never heard much of anything about Talon longbows after that.  I loved the bow and the craftsmanship was excellent.  From the TBM article I sure liked his thoughts and insights about longbows.  If I had only ordered the bow at 45# instead of 65# I would still have it....