Discover
My Passion:
DynaBo's and Custom Cars
My name is John H. Graham II and I'm the owner of Graham's Custom Bows. I started building bows in 1968 and stopped building in 1988. I'm the designer of the Graham T.D. DynaBo, the DynaCurve, and DynaDraw. These three models were built from 1978 to 1988. There were less than 5,000 DynaBo's built by me.
I started making bows in 1968 while I was a woodshop teacher in Pocatello, Idaho. One day one of my students asked me how to build a bow. I had no clue on how to build a bow, but I knew how to build laminated furniture from my college classes. Also, I built fiberglass surfboards in high school. So I went to the library to look up material and ideals on archery. In my research I found Bingham Archery of Utah.
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I went to my principal, Ray Holcomb, and asked if he would give me 75 dollars to build a bow jig and a hot box to build laminated fiberglass bows. I told Ray that I had a number of students that wanted to make a bow, plus some of
my adult education students also.
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Ray gave me the money to build my first hot box plus one bow jig. The first year we must have built at least 20 bows. Each time they got better looking and also shot better. By 1969 I had people coming to me asking if I would build them a bow. So on my summer break I would build bows for 35 dollars each.
In 1971, I got a new teaching job in southern California. I moved to fun filled Fontana, California. This is where my business really became a business. I met a man named Phil Alder. He owned a body shop and liked archery. I sold him a bow and he helped me get a business license. Phil also rented me a 600 square foot garage for 35 dollars a month.
The garage came with free electricity and air.
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At this time, I was building six different models of recurve bows. They all had laminated limbs with wooden risers. One day a student's parent saw one of my bows and said he knew a man that owned a foundry in Fontana. He thought my production could go up if the risers were made out of aluminum.
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The owner of the foundry was Dawson Ritz. He said that he could help me on the weekends to design and cast up a bow riser. After a couple of riser failures, I finally made a winner for my new T.D. Recurve. By this time I was selling my bows to Bob Williams of Seattle Archery, Hugh Rich Archery and George Jones of Colton Archery. I was making more money building bows than I was making as a teacher, but I enjoyed teaching. My interest in archery began because one of my students asked, "How do you make a bow?"
By 1974 more and more people were buying compound bows.
This is when Len Subber and I became friends. He had a new bow design. It was not a compound, but a bow that used two lever limbs and he called it a ZipBo. I built him a set of limbs and I sent him a riser from one of my T.D. Recurves. He built me a ZipBo, but it wasn't as good as a compound
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In 1974, my father gave me 1000 dollars for a Christmas present so I could purchase the Allen patient rights to build a compound bow. George Jones of Colton Archery helped me design my first compounds, so I named my 4 wheel compound after him. I called it King George. I also made a deal with Bob Williams of Seattle Archery. I built bows for him that were sold under the name Fasco Bows.
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I was swamped with compound bow orders in 1975. The first 3 months of 1975, I had enough money to buy a new Corvette, so I did. Next month I bought a new custom van for my business. That year my friend Phil Alder was killed. He had never raised the rent on the garage I used for my business. After Phil's death, his wife came and asked if I wanted to buy the garage and a quarter acre of land. I said yes because I needed more space. I was able to add on and had a 1200 sq. foot shop by the next year.
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Len Subber came back into my life in 1977. Len had a new bow design. It was a great idea, but there were some problems with his new DynaBo design. I didn't like stepping on the top limb and I didn't like the all metal bottom limb. The metal bottom limb was like the ZipBo. Martin Archery ran with Len Subber's design. It was better than a compound, but there were problems to solve. The Martin DynaBo had only one working limb. People damaged the top limb when they stepped on it to take it down or restring it.
By 1979, I had worked on my DynaBo design.
It had its own new riser and a new single cam system. The riser had two threaded studs so it could be taken down in about 30 seconds and put back together in about 60 seconds. Some criticized the design with the two studs, but no one had to step on the limb.
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By 1981, my shop had expanded to 2700 sq. feet and I was building a lot of DynaBo's and very few compounds. I sold my compound license to Jerry Johnson who started Golden Eagle Archery. I really loved the DynaBo. I was selling them all over the world. About 85% of each bow was built by me. I also signed each bow and shot each bow before it was sent to the customer or shop. If you bought a bow from me, I signed the back of your check. I was still teaching school and running a small archery business. I didn’t come out with a new model each year, because I was hoping that people would shoot my bows for a long time.
I personally believe shooting a bow is 90% mental — all bows are great.
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In 1985, I came out with the best bow I had ever made. It was called a DynaCurve. It was the greatest hunting bow I have ever made. It had a new riser design, and the lower limb was made of graphite/epoxy. I killed an elk in Brown’s Canyon in 1984 with this bow. Only a few of my best friends had seen this bow and they liked it. I had spent over eight thousand dollars on the DynaCurve. It was like shooting a recurve bow with 30% let off plus it was super fast. It was a full takedown and could retail for under $150.
It was so smooth and fast. It was hard to believe how great it was. I was shooting a #53 DynaCurve with a 2020 arrow weighing 580 grains with 4 fletchings, a Bear broadhead, at a speed of 238 fps and point on range was 78 yards.
Two great magazine articles were written about the DynaCurve.
I also received the North American Archery Award with this bow. I sent the DynaCurve bow to every major distributor in the country. No one wants to buy the bow. That same year (1985) Dave Gordon Sr. retired from Gordon Plastic. When I went to the Las Vegas Archery Trade Show , I was told that I would have to purchase $25,000 worth of glass to get the same price I did the year before. I told them no way. I was told that I wasn’t a real manufacturer. I was just a small bowyer. They knew I still was teaching school and had sold my license to Jerry Johnson. They asked what are you going to do. I laughed and said, “ I’m going home and I’m going to buy a new motorcycle.” Well, I did buy a 750 Honda plus 2 ATVs for my kids and a trailer. I still had enough material to build about 300 bows.
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In June of 1985, I got on my bike and headed towards Idaho. I visited with my old friend George Jones, who couldn’t believe I was going out of business. He wanted to buy more bows. I cut my ads in the magazines. On my way home, I bought a magazine about kit cars in Wyoming. After my two week bike trip, I had something new to look forward to. I was going home to build a car. I bought a kit car—an Auburn Speedster. After building the car, I added another 2,200 sq. ft. to my shop. I was in the business of building cars. I could build 3 cars per year. My cars were copies of vehicles people couldn’t afford to buy the originals of, but could buy from me for around $25,000.
Statement made by John H. Graham
~I, John H. Graham, am still alive. I’m 79 years old and retired from 38 years of teaching school.
My shoulders are blown away from all the bows I’ve shot. I feel great about my life because I have a loving wife, two great kids and seven wonderful grandchildren. I also feel great about the things I have seen on the Internet about the DynaBo. In 1995, Martin Archery came out with a DynaBo that was more or less like my 1979 T.D. model. It was missing the two studs on the riser. I also feel like my bow was the first single cam bow. Both Len Subber and myself liked the DynaBo cam system because it was easier to manufacture and it cost a lot less. When reading this, I hope you were one of the lucky people who came in contact with a Martin or a Graham DynaBo. I also hope you had the same great experience shooting a DynaBo that I did.~
April 13, 2024
John H. Graham II
Cars I Made After Building Bows in 1988
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Graham Car sold for $24,500
