Since 1987

Four decades of the long game

Tycoon Bow began as one man, one workbench, and a stubborn belief that a bow should outlive its owner. Four decades later, the belief hasn't changed — only the workshop has.

The Tycoon Bow workshop bench with tools and timber staves

The Founding

From a Portland garage to the podium

In 1987, Elias Vane Sr. set up a single workbench in his Portland garage with a drawknife, a tillering tree he welded himself, and a stack of osage orange he'd aged for six years before making his first sale. He refused to sell a bow that hadn't passed his own hands for a full season of shooting.

That rule — nobody ships a bow the maker hasn't shot — is still the first line of our workshop charter. Every bow that leaves Tycoon Bow has been drawn, tuned, and signed by the bowyer who shaped it.

What grew from that garage is now a riverside workshop of fourteen master bowyers, a national-team supply contract, and 12,400 numbered bows in the field. The workbench is still there. So is the rule.

The Road So Far

Milestones worth numbering

1987

The first workbench

Elias Vane Sr. sells his first three bows out of a Portland garage. All three are still being shot today — we know, because their owners write to us every year.

1994

Olympic debut

A Tycoon Bow recurve is strung at the Olympic trials for the first time. Our tillering records from that season become the basis of our tuning library.

2006

Carbon limbs arrive

After four years of field testing, we introduce aerospace carbon limbs on the competition line — wood where it wins, carbon where it wins.

2015

The Sovereign launches

The flagship is born and sells out its first run of a hundred in eleven days. The waiting list has never been shorter than a year since.

2024

The riverside workshop

Fourteen master bowyers move into a purpose-built workshop on the Willamette — with the original 1987 workbench mounted at the center of the floor.

2026

Bow number 12,400

This year the ledger turns past twelve thousand four hundred bows. Every one of them is numbered, signed, and covered by a twenty-five-year warranty.

The Hands

Master bowyers

Fourteen bowyers work the floor. These are the four who lead the benches — and the ones you'll meet at a fitting or commission.

Elias Vane

Founder & Master Bowyer

Forty years at the bench. Still shapes every Sovereign riser himself, and still shoots every one before it ships.

Mara Whitlock

Head of Tillering

Keeps the tuning library honest. If a limb doesn't flex to her standard, it goes back to the bench — no exceptions.

Tomas Reyes

Design Engineer

Draws the geometry behind the carbon line. His limb profiles have stood on podiums on four continents.

June Okafor

Finishing Atelier

Owns every grip, every oiled finish, every burnished edge. Her hand is the last one on each bow before the signature.

What We Won't Compromise

Four values, set in 1987

Precision

Tillering is measured in grams of force, not feelings. If a bow doesn't meet spec, it doesn't meet a customer.

Patience

Timber waits five years in the shed before the first cut. A commission can wait fourteen months. Rushing is the one failure we've never had.

III

Stewardship

Every stave is sourced from managed forests; every antler from ethical harvests. A bow for the next generation shouldn't cost the one after.

Craft over volume

We cap every series at a hundred pieces a year. When a run is done, we'd rather wait than lower the standard.

Come see where the work happens

Workshop tours run every Friday. Watch a riser take shape, then book your own fitting with the bowyer who'll build yours.

Plan your visit