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Asiatic archery equipment including custom fitted thumb rings and other historical archery reproductions.
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Kulak is a Turkish word for the small often stylized leather tab inserted between the pad of the thumb, ring aperture, and bow string. It pairs well with most of our ring designs, and can be used to reduce slipping, adjust fit, and increase comfort.
Our Kulaks are precision cut, and come in three convenient sizes and adjust fit accordingly. The taper around the waist of our Kulak design allows for additional adjustment of fit to be achieved, having more or less leather incorporated into the ring's aperture. The general rule of thumb (pun intended) is if your thumb knuckle width is 20mm you want a small or medium, larger than 20mm a medium or large. Installation is as simple as aligning the pad inside the ring, bonding it in place with either a contact cement or cyanoacrylate adhesive, and trimming any excess with a sharp knife. (.45ACP cartridge shown for scale)
Korean male rings often are fitted with a wedge of some sort to further tighten them on the thumb, most commonly this comes in the form of a tapered leather strip. While our Sugakji is specifically sized with this in mind, this accessory can readily snug up the fit on most of the styles we offer. Their function is quite simple: insert the narrow end of the leather loop through the provided slots, and secure in place with either adhesive or a stitch. Your level of overlap between thick and thin sections can be used to further adjust fit. One inserts their thumb with the thin portion of the leather inside the ring, and then rotates the leather until a snug fit is achieved.
Stingray leather, sometimes known as shagreen, is an incredible material, prized for thousands of years for its unique beauty and durability. It is seen on all sorts of military hardware in grips and wraps, anywhere traction or wear resistance was required. Perhaps most famous of these is on the handle of the katana, or in our case used as a wrap for grips or arrow passes on a wide variety of Asiatic bows.
But what makes this leather so special? The base is like any other leather, but on the surface the stingrays grow a pattern of hard bumps made from dentin and enamel, just like teeth. Enamel, the hardest bone in the human body, makes for a superb wear resistant arrow pass and is already seen on many higher end bows, but is also very challenging to work with. Thankfully, we do the hard part for you, carefully cutting the leather into the desired pattern. (custom designs are available upon request, anything from simple shapes to complex leather-work patterns) It can then easily be attached to your bow with the adhesive of your choice. Leather adhesive, contact adhesive, protein glues, cyanoacrylates, or even epoxies can be used depending on the underlying surface. We recommend using whatever sort of adhesive the leather arrow pass you’re likely replacing used.
Our replica of the famous Mughal style ring. This is definitely one of the most beautiful styles we offer. The design is somewhat related to the Ottoman/Turkish rings, but has a few distinct features including the “beak” at the rear, and a sensual swooping shape. To fully realize this beautiful ring profile, we omitted the the string shelf common to rings. This gives the ring an authentic profile, but does make it a more advanced design to use.
Depending on where you rest the string on the continuously curved face, you can achieve very different loading splits (knuckle sides vs. thumb pad). The advantage of more loading to the knuckle is is that it requires less physical strength to draw heavy bows, and becomes more comfortable with practice. The advantage of a more pad-weighted draw is that it provides more comfort to beginners. It all comes down to balance, angle, and wrist-rotation.
We custom-size every ring on a continuous spectrum for your perfect fit—no more settling for generic sizes. For the most accurate measurement, we strongly recommend using our Ring Sizer and ordering a set of three closely sized rings. For complete sizing guidance, see our Sizing Information.
Want to add visual flair? Check out our Ring Decoration service for metallic coatings and carved patterns.
Zihgir, the Turkish word for thumb ring. While our Ottoman design represents one common variant of the style, it is a very diverse genre. We wanted to recreate the higher sides and more aggressive release angle seen in many historic examples. The result is a ring which has a fantastic sharp, fast, and clean release. If you’re an expert shooter, or intermediate and looking to up your skills, this is a style you simply must try. It is also quite a beautiful ring, while being fairly unobtrusive.
Like the Ottoman, this ring represents a roughly 70/30-80/20 split of load from the knuckle/thumb pad as is typical of the style. This means less physical strength in the hand is required when drawing heavy bows, as there is less force trying to "open" the thumb. The sharp release angle kicks the thumb out of the way early, and keeps the string from riding down a long sloping ring, resulting in the characteristic clean, fast, and undisrupted release. This style pairs exceptionally well with a Kulak.
We custom-size every ring on a continuous spectrum for your perfect fit—no more settling for generic sizes. For the most accurate measurement, we strongly recommend using our Ring Sizer and ordering a set of three closely sized rings. For complete sizing guidance, see our Sizing Information.
Want to add visual flair? Check out our Ring Decoration service for metallic coatings and carved patterns.
Huge thanks to Mike Loades for his collaboration on this project. The Chinese spur ring is an unusual historical design, originating from the Zhou Dynasty, and characterized by a large spur on the side of the ring which contacts the arrow. While it looks odd, these rings are actually remarkably easy and intuitive to use, much more so than many other designs. For this reason, out of all our ring designs, this is the one we recommend to beginners.
So how does it work? In essence, the "spur" part of the ring points upward, and presses against the arrow shaft just in front of the nock. There are a number of hypotheses regarding its function. Some are to help grip the arrow, or to counterbalance the force applied to the arrow by the index or middle finger. Our hypothesis is that, while it may do these things, it also acts as a string stop. You see, the spur presses against the arrow, which is attached to the string, thus preventing the ring for moving any further forward onto the string. Thus you have the string positioning of a grooved or lip ring, but without the associated disruption to release. When you release with this ring, the string leaves with that fast "SNAP" and clean release associated with the later Ottoman style ring.
There is another aspect to this which bears mentioning however: spur handed-ness and positioning. Having the spur on only one side of the ring, it only functions on one hand, so when checking out please select the hand you intend for it to go on. When flipped, the ring functions fine, the spur simply doesn't engage the arrow so the shooter must revert to balancing the string unaided. Furthermore, in order for the spur to function, some combination of wrist angle, string diameter, string positioning, arrow diameter, etc all must converge. Typically string positioning and wrist angle give you the leeway you need to achieve the grip and release you want. In some cases however, you may find yourself wanting to use a small file to adjust the spur's positioning to suit your particular application.
We custom-size every ring on a continuous spectrum for your perfect fit—no more settling for generic sizes. For the most accurate measurement, we strongly recommend using our Ring Sizer and ordering a set of three closely sized rings. For complete sizing guidance, see our Sizing Information.
Want to add visual flair? Check out our Ring Decoration service for metallic coatings and carved patterns.
The Yuanbao ring (元寶, named for its resemblance to the traditional Chinese ingot) is one of the most widely represented styles among surviving Ming dynasty thumb rings, found across collections from the Beijing and Taipei Palace Museums to regional museums in Nanjing and Chengdu. It occupies a distinct middle ground in the history of thumb ring design. The base of the ring carries forward the cylindrical form later associated with the Manchu ring, while the upper profile retains the lower, more open silhouette of the lipped rings that preceded it by nearly two thousand years. In practice, this means the Yuanbao engages the bowstring much as its much older predecessors did, even as its overall shape points toward what came later.
Our version of this ring uses a slightly elliptical opening rather than a circular one, a refinement we settled on after testing both. The elliptical shape gives the thumb more room to bend sideways within the ring, and allows a more comfortable distribution of force on the knuckle. In our testing, this design feels somewhere between a shallow hook ring and a Manchu ring, benefiting from a slightly bent thumb and a gentle twist of the wrist to balance the string. While a more advanced technique than some ring designs, it is extremely comfortable when mastered, with a fluid, intuitive release.
We custom-size every ring on a continuous spectrum for your perfect fit—no more settling for generic sizes. For the most accurate measurement, we strongly recommend using our Ring Sizer and ordering a set of three closely sized rings. For complete sizing guidance, see our Sizing Information.
Want to add visual flair? Check out our Ring Decoration service for metallic coatings and carved patterns.
Our rendition of the classic Manchu style cylindrical ring. Slick on the outside, textured on the inside, this ring is a solid performer. Rev introduces a new enhanced texture and extra enhanced texture interior versions that provide even more grip in all conditions. Our classic color options of Nocturnal Blue, Metallic Copper, Metallic Silver, and Metallic Gold come with the enhanced texture while Rugged Black, Slate Grey, Mist Grey, Twilight Blue, Brick Red, and Desert Sand are extra enhanced for a zero slip surface.
Examples of antique Manchu rings exhibit a great diversity of styles. Manchu rings should, ideally, be as thin walled as the string will allow. This improves the speed and cleanliness of the release. Bearing in mind historical Manchu strings were significantly thicker, we find our slim rings make them particularly well suited for use with modern bowstrings. That said, to meet demand for users with more traditional bowstrings, or who simply prefer a thicker ring, we've now introduced a much thicker walled variant. For those who’ve found their perfect fit, but looking something a bit more special, we recommend our Exotic Manchu Rings. Designed with the help of Peter Dekker, and tweaked feedback from the community, we owe this successful design to all of you. Thank you.
We custom-size every ring on a continuous spectrum for your perfect fit—no more settling for generic sizes. For the most accurate measurement, we strongly recommend using our Ring Sizer and ordering a set of three closely sized rings. For complete sizing guidance, see our Sizing Information.
Want to add visual flair? Check out our Ring Decoration service for metallic coatings and carved patterns.
Gao Ying's archery has drawn renewed attention over the past several years, due in large part to the thorough translation and analysis by Jie Tian and Justin Ma in The Way of Archery. Their work paired Gao Ying's original writing with clear explanations and demonstrations, and it gave practitioners a real entry point into a tradition that had mostly existed in fragments before.
When we first developed this ring, good Gao Ying style rings simply weren't available. Most rings on the market followed Korean conventions instead, which sit and release quite differently and load the thumb in their own particular way. We went back to the illustrations and descriptions in the book and built our interpretation to match Gao's "Four Victory Ring" as closely as we could. We were the first to bring this unique style to market, and we're glad to see it's since become a more common option. We still think ours is worth a close look.
This style of ring suits what's often called the shallow-hook technique, where the thumb stays minimally curled through the draw. The release angle on this design is more aggressive than most, which gives it a notably crisp let-off, but the two-pronged guard does a good job of shielding the string contact, which means it also masks some of the feedback you'd otherwise feel. Archers newer to ring shooting should be careful not to over-curl the thumb as a result. This is a ring that rewards a light touch, so we'd point newer shooters toward a more forgiving design first.
This rev. 2.0 version further improves the fit and feel. The original had a smooth internal taper that, under load, tended to squeeze the knuckle more than we liked. Since the shallow-hook draw puts a larger share of the load on the knuckle rather than the thumb pad, that pressure mattered more here than it would on other styles. The new internal shape is contoured to cradle the sides of the knuckle directly, which spreads the load more evenly and makes a real difference in comfort over a full session.
We custom-size every ring on a continuous spectrum for your perfect fit—no more settling for generic sizes. For the most accurate measurement, we strongly recommend using our Ring Sizer and ordering a set of three closely sized rings. For complete sizing guidance, see our Sizing Information.
Want to add visual flair? Check out our Ring Decoration service for metallic coatings and carved patterns.
Our wall mounted bow display shown here with honeybee gold accents and a selection of bows and arrows. The arrows were made in house with our nocks and our fletching designs.
A fully bespoke ring designed for a customer. This ring offers both tongue and spur, vaguely similar to the King Rui style ring.
Our crack at the world’s largest thumb ring. Learn more about this, and other archery-related-content project on our BLOG.
Our reproduction of the bronze Sarmatian ring IN SOLID BRONZE! The Sarmatian ring is one of the oldest thumb rings ever found, and perhaps the oldest metal ring found to date? Found in the Ukraine and dated to 1st-2nd century AD.
Showcase your bows without damaging your walls!
This sleek, minimalist bow display puts your bows front and center, where they belong. The clean, low-profile design can fade into the background, or add a subtle pop of color with the accent covers, letting the sinuous curves and craftsmanship of your equipment take the spotlight.
Each set includes two wall mounts that work together to cradle two bows horizontally (or one bow plus arrows, or simply a collection of arrows—your choice). The mounts attach using 3M Command Strips, so there's no drilling, no anchors, and no holes in your wall.
What's Included:
Two wall mounts
Two accent covers
Two large 3M Command Strips (pre-selected for compatibility)
Specifications:
Hook depth: 38mm (accommodates slightly wider bow limbs if needed)
Hook spacing: 25mm
Rated weight capacity: 10 lbs (5 lbs per mount)