Arrow Pass Repair

A lucky alignment of light filtering through  the trees in the wind created this snap. I couldn't have set it up like this had I wanted to. Seen here with our Hybrid ring in solid sterling silver and our semi-ottoman arrows of a project by the same name. 

We've all been there, worn through the arrow pass on our bow. Inevitable right? Well instead of replacing it with another thin strip of leather, quick to be worn through once again, how about something harder, better, longer wearing? Stingray skin is the obvious answer. 

We've all seen stingray skin, but what is it really? Ray skin, used in these applications anyway, has little calcified nodules somewhat like teeth. As a result is is extremely hard wearing. The white pattern so often associated with ray skin is accomplished by selective dying in some cases, or sanding of dyed leather in others. It is worth noting that, if like me you prefer an aggressive texture, ray skin will make an absolutely stunning grip wrap as well. 

Some pieces of stingray skin I had laying around, as well as the offending bow. 

To work! First off, we can see above the arrow pass one one of my favorite Korean bows. Clearly it is worn, but you can also see where the leather has finally developed a hole through to the birch bark. On this bow, rather than being a replaceable pad, it is a complete wrap. Not convinced I wanted to redo the entire wrap, I thought a pad replacement would be a good solution. 

Paper here serves as the basis for the template. 

The key to all good work is preparation and planning, the less skill necessary the better. To that end, rather than eyeball it or cut oversize and trim to fit, I figured a pattern would be in order. Paper is a good analogue here as it represents the relative lack of stretch of ray skin, while being cheap and easy to cut. I decided to go with a pad which blend with the existing wrap somewhat. Had this been a bow with a thread binding, I'd have probably opted for a more sculpted shape which stood out. 

Line up and mark carefully from the visible side.....

...to the back side, from which you have to cut with ray skin. A hammer and chisel deliver the sharp blows necessary for clean accurate cuts. 

The secret to cutting stingray skin is to go from the back, and use sharp impacts. You can't cut this stuff with a knife, at least not easily, and you'll do some evil to whatever blade you use. In this case I went with an inexpensive chisel which had to be reground anyway. Lay out the pattern on the front, so you have the area/look you want, and mark the corners so you can transfer the pattern to the back. Then cut away. It is worth noting I favored the larger pearls of the center, for purely aesthetic reasons. Because these will all experience wear, the white of the pearls will become visible wherever the arrow passes irrespective of what started sanded. 

Surface prep is key to successful bonding, a little sanding of the leather to even it out and ready the surface was necessary. 

The key to any good adhesive application is surface prep. So I carefully marked out where the ray skin would cover, and sanded to match. Adhesion can be accomplished with natural protein glues, cyanoacrylate, or contact cement. Because this application doesn't require significant flexibility post-bonding, I reached for my go-to high-toughness high-viscosity hobby grade CA adhesive. 

Effective clamping is also necessary, even with "instant tack" adhesives, the mating surfaces need to be held firmly until things have fully cured for maximum strength. 

First contact is a fraught moment, from Star Trek to adhesives, so no picture of the Titanic moment. After applying the adhesive and carefully cleaning up any excess, I quickly wrapped the whole thing in painter's tape. If you've never used good painter's tape, you should go out and buy one of the name-brand spendy roles. For masking and other release applications like this, the real deal really is worth the price. You don't want to leave sticky behind, and you don't want the tape bonding to your project, so while nothing is perfect in my estimation the good stuff is worth it. My 2c anyway. 

Another stark snap showing the beautiful ray skin pass, one of our rings in solid sterling silver, and custom house-made arrows. (also a project posted here) 

24 hours later the adhesive has cured, and I removed the tape to find this. Beautiful. Of course beauty is nothing without function, so I took it for a quick 50 arrow test drive. Works beautifully, and barely visible wear, so I'm labeling this one as a success!

Out of Office

We're out of the office until August 4th, during which time email inquiries may not be responded to in a timely fashion and some orders may be delayed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Because of this we're offering a 5% site-wide discount. Enter the coupon code 91G1HUI at checkout. 

Bow Performance Project - JZW Manchu

Jia Zhiwei's Manchu bow with house made arrows and our Manchu ring. 

Lets start off with a huge thank you to Tiger Tail Archery for supplying this bow for assessment. The rumor mill has it that this is the best of the breed, the Manchu replica to rule them all, the benchmark. What better place to start then? 

First impressions upon release are, actually, pretty underwhelming. Given that you're shooting 1200 grain spear shafts, borrowed from our Manchu Arrow Project, out of a massive bow you're expecting armageddon. Instead, the release is clean, free of handshock, and the spears zip down range apparently unaware that they're about three times the mass of a normal arrow. Seriously. The arrows don't slowly trundle along, you're not desperately fighting form to prevent fishtailing, and there is no handshock. Granted these arrows are 40", and we all know forward mass helps with flight, at ~20GPP there is mass to spare to keep handshock at bay. The big surprise, and the one I still can't get over, is just how fast it is. How can arrows this heavy possibly fly this fast out of a bow this childishly light weight? The flight is beautiful and shots are easy to control. Lets talk more in-depth qualitatively and quantitatively about the bow, and how it accomplishes this. 

The thick walled version of our Manchu ring, seen here in it's jade-like incarnation. Next to it are some of our Manchu arrows and Jia Zhiwei's Manchu bow with house made arrows and our Manchu ring.

Straight out of the gate, this bow is physically heavy compared to the shorter Asiatic bows we're used to, .830 kilos to be exact. That is a lot next to a .365 kilo Hwarang that draws >100 pounds. Amusingly though, it's reflex is such that when unstrung it isn't terribly long. A Hwarang is 42" unstrung, a Kaya 39.5", and a Grozer Turkish 37". This JZW Manchu is only 53.5" tip to tip when unstrung, due to pretty aggressive reflex. If one were to place the tips of an unstrung bow on the ground and measure from the ground to the belly side of the handle as a standard for unstrung reflex, this bow ranks quite highly. An AF Turkish is 7.5", Hwarang 10", AF Tatar 10.25", Grozer Turkish 12", and the JZW Manchu a whopping 13.75" of reflex. The other thing to note is the sheer thickness and poundage of the limbs. While the Grozer gains its visually large limbs through a covering of very very thick leather, the JZW uses far thinner leather and simply has massive limbs. Pulling them below the siyahs, you'd expect them to belong to a bow easily in excess of 100 pounds. Puts the use of those big levers into perspective. 

Details seemed to matter to the bowyer. There are a lot of nice little details. The two colors of leather on the limbs, the tip inserts masked for different finishes, the obvious roughing for surface prep under the string bridges, the ray skin above and below the grip, thicker than normal serving, perfect fit of all the different leather pieces, and the double serving on the string at high wear points just to name a few. One nit to pick though if I may, and I must, is the serving around the arrow. It is symmetrical, centered, which is fine but there simply isn't enough of it. Shooting 1100 grain 1/2" diameter nocks, the nocking point is almost off the end of the serving. Over time, the lack of serving above the point means serving will inevitably drift upward, and of course it means I'll be handling unserved string above the arrow with my index finger. Could be just a fluke on this string, and re-serving a string is hardly the end of the world, but on a bow where so many of the details were clearly noticed and mattered to the bowyer, it is a bit out of place. 

Jia Zhiwei's Manchu bow with house made arrows and our Manchu ring. 

first draw was a little scary, because of crackling sounds. It isn't uncommon for bows to make a few cracking sounds the first time they're drawn, and I suspect this was from glue used in the addition of the leather limb coverings, but staring up at that massive siyah as you haul the bow back to 36" and hear crackling is sobering. Blissfully, it was a first-draw-only phenomenon, and the bow now silently, and impossibly smoothly, reaches 36" as the limbs go parallel with your arm. The siyahs are also noticeably further forward at brace, and generally run a more aggressive forward angle, than any other replica I've seen so far. This likely contributes to high early draw weight and late draw smoothness. The two metrics we use for that are percentage poundage gain of the last 2", and the slope of the last 2". Higher poundage bows necessarily have a steeper slope, but at 59#s full draw we're right in the middle of the pack so a slope of 1.5 is still quite good next to second best, the much lower poundage AF Tatar of 2.5. Gaining only 6% of it's total poundage in the last two inches of draw is also quite good, next to the second best AF Turkish which gains 10%. There is another interesting element to this though mentioned by the imitable Peter Dekker, in THIS article:

"Manchu bows are unique in that they have the highest initial tension of all bows, and thus are harder to pull at a given high draw weight than other types of bows. They typically are at 75% of their max draw weight at 20" pull already, where a longbow would pull around 45% of it's max draw weight there."

So how does this bow match up, given significantly less reflex than a horn-sinew composite? No dramatic buildup, it manages a respectable ~61%. That said, most of the bows we've tested were in the mid 50s, the AF Tatar being as high as 59%. While I'm out on a limb here, I'd posit that the Mughal bow, the other long siyah-extreme reflex design out there, might well also manage comparable high early draw weights. It is worth noting here that every bowyer places their point for draw length a little differently. We measure it as if it were an arrow, so 31" draw means a 31" arrow could be drawn this far. (middle of the handle) Given that this bow was sold as 55#s, I suspect the bowyer measures from the back of the bow.

With a minimum of 12GPP, notably 1 less than the Mariner, and a recommended 15GPP, this bow is overtly not for normal arrows.... even long normal arrows. 885 grains is more akin to a small spear than a typical arrow. 

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Force-Draw Curve

The Force Draw Curve yielded just about what one would expect, or maybe even better. The first 10" aren't terribly remarkable, the pack is all too bunched up to tell the difference and it is muddled by varying brace heights, but from 13 to 17 inches draw force is as high or higher than all the other bows excluding the 106# Hwarang. Given that the Gukgungwon is going to finish 12 pounds higher 4 inches sooner, that seems pretty remarkable. The slope from 17 to 35 inches is a meager 1.39, which is not only remarkably flat and smooth, convincingly makes the argument that this bow really doesn't stack given that the slope the last 2" is only 1.5. All good things. How does this compare to other Manchu bows? I don't know, we'll have to get others in to find out. The closest we have is an under-drawn example, once again pulled from Peter Dekker's website, which at a maximum of  82 pounds at 32" has a slope of 1.93. Lets remember though that higher poundage bows necessarily have steeper slopes, and if that slope were held the 35" draw weight would be a ~88 pound bow. 

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Stored Energy Curve

The Stored Energy Curve again yielded good results, allegedly typical of the breed, storing over 82 foot pounds of energy, the second highest of any bow here, again despite a poundage disadvantage. The closest in poundage is the AF Turk, at just 1 pound more, which stores a 25% less energy by full draw. 

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Stored Energy/Poundage Curve

Now we get to the fun part though, Stored Energy over Poundage. All bows are rendered equal, irrespective of draw weight, under this measurement. Here that high early draw weight, after a slow start, begins to make the bow shine and from 23 inches onward it solidly leads the pack. Even if you were to under-draw the bow to 31 inches, you'd be storing 1.28 foot pounds of energy for every pound draw weight, about 15% better than the next best bow. By full draw though it is storing almost 1.4 foot pounds per pound , which is about a 30% advantage over most of the other bows tested. 

This post has dragged on long enough, so catch us next time for results off the chrono. 

Manchu Arrow Project (part 4)

Our Manchu arrows seen here with our exotic Manchu ring and JZW bow. 

The major shortcomings in part 3 of the Manchu Arrow Project were points and nocks. At 1200 grains, we'd achieved war arrow weights, but the hand-trimmed 7" fletching and IDFK what points of dubious Asian retailer origin left something to be desired. Enter part four. 

Our Manchu arrows seen here with our exotic Manchu ring, rather jade like in appearance. 

Our semi-ottoman flight arrow project was a real inspiration. Our house-made ivory points not only looked great, but were functional and durable for target shooting. Why not apply the same tech to make some nice Manchu target points? So that is what we did. 

Next up, of course, was the fletching. We used our new fletching jigs to cut big 10" Manchu style feathers. 10" is a bit short next to some examples you say? True, however 10" is also about as long as you can get from most popular full length processed turkey feathers. We actually offer an 8" Manchu Mini as even 10" is a bit long in some cases. How do they work? We recommend a large rotary knife (they cost about 10$), or an air-bleeding-sharp knife with a curved blade. Place the quill in the corresponding groove on the jig, and align the feather front and back. Starting at the distal end of the feather (the end where the quill is thinnest) cut, allowing the jig to guide the blade. If you're using a curved knife, rather than a rotary knife, use a rocking motion, don't slide the blade. 

After a little practice, it becomes easier and more natural and you can quickly knock out dozens of feathers. So now you have 10" feathers, but what do you do with them? No fletching jig clamp is long enough. There are two paths here. The first is to make your own fletching clamp. This is easier than it sounds, but beyond the scope of this article. There is another trick to this though: fletching tape. Rather than a glue which has to be clamped, held, and is relatively irreversible, tape offers instant adhesion and a little wiggle room to adjust if necessary. Plan things out, mark your arrows where you want the top of the fletch to start and the end where you want it to terminate. Clamp your arrow shaft in a soft jaw vice, or similar. Then apply the tape to the quill, and grasping it firmly by the ends, pull it taught and lay it on the arrow using the markings for the ends you made previously. Once laid down, run your fingernail along the quill to firmly press the feather onto the adhesive. 

From there, it is the same process as seen in our Turkish Flight Arrow Inspired Project to wrap the fronts, and we're done. (this can be done manually, a lathe is just faster) 

Our Manchu arrows seen here with our exotic Manchu ring and JZW bow. 

Fletching Cutting Jigs - Product Introduction

JZW Manchu Bow, Manchu Thumb Ring, Manchu arrows w/ fletching cut on Manchu jig. 

Our Manchu Arrow Project left off with the only major concession being the fletching. At 7" long, and free-hand trimmed, it was both too short and not quite the right shape. Similar can be said of our Turkish Flight Arrow Inspired Project, nocks, points, tapers, the full spicy enchalada, but we were short in the fletching department. No longer. We're proud to introduce a series of Fletching Cutting Jigs, allowing everyone to easily access modestly priced historical fletching designs. We're starting off with what we believe will be the most popular styles: Turkish Flight, Ottoman Military, Manchu, Manchu Small, Korean, and Japanese. 

Copper Ottoman ring. Ottoman flight arrows w/ fletching cut on Ottoman Flight Arrow Jig. 

The six styles we currently offer, available in both left and right wing, in order from top to bottom: Korean XL, Manchu Mini, Manchu, Ottoman Military, Japanese, and Turkish Flight. 

How do they work you ask? Align the quill in the groove, and cutting from the back (thin end of the quill) forward, use a rotary knife to trace the perimeter of the jig. It is as quick and easy as that. Rotary knives are available online for approximately 10$. An exquisitely sharp knife with a curved blade, paired with a rocking, motion can with a little practice substitute a rotary knife. 

Arrow Shaft Sanding Block Project

Completed sanding block being used on a massive Manchu shaft. 

This project is a quick and easy way to make a useful tool for both hand and power sanding of arrow shafts. We had a couple questions about this pertaining to our Manchu Arrow Project, so decided a quick illustrated guide would be a good addition. Why use this tool rather than simply holding the abrasive paper with your bare hand? A couple reasons. First is arrow precision. A raw spun shaft isn't perfectly straight and smooth, and hand sanding isn't perfect. Using a straight block will both even out the shaft and prevent you from hand sanding new high and low points into the arrow. This isn't a new technology, grooved stones used for the manufacture of arrows like this have been used for thousands of years. Second, it makes it much easier to add in precision tapers. Third is heat. Both manual and power sanding generate a lot of it, and this provides some good insulation to your hand allowing you to go harder and longer. Fourth, and finally, this reduces catch-failures. A plain piece of sandpaper has a tendency to wrap around arrow shafting, gripping it more tightly, and potentially breaking it or injuring the operator. A block such as this prevents that from happening by providing structure. 

Drilling the blocks

First step is simple, cut a piece of scrap wood to length and square it. Then longitudinally bore it in a diameter slightly larger than your arrow shafting. How much larger? At minimum the diameter of your arrow shaft plus twice the thickness of whatever abrasive you're going to use. For Manchu arrows, half an inch in diameter, spade bits provide an economical way to bore large diameter and very deep holes. Their minimal mass and thin shaft also improve chip clearance and reduce friction and re-cut. For this project, we went with two different sizes, [insert sizes here]

Sander belts make for long lasting coarse abrasives 

Cut the holes longitudinally, we used a table saw but a hand saw would work just as well. And we're ready to add abrasives. In this case, each half provides one sanding block. The coarsest abrasive will see the most use, so for longevity, aggressiveness of cut, and convenience we went with some pieces of expended sander belt. These will last a long time, but are quite stiff so will have to be glued into place rather than held by hand. This is perfect though because we'll have one half of each block for use with normal sandpaper, and one with ultra coarse sander belt for the initial cutting and tapering. 

Clamping the abrasive in the blocks as the adhesive cures

Gluing in rigid abrasives like cloth backed sander belt requires some force. Discard arrow shafting can readily provide said force and, conveniently, imparts the required radius. 

Completed sanding block being used on a massive Manchu shaft. 

The glued blocks provide the first coarse step, the empty grooves allow you to simply hold a piece of sandpaper in them, pinching at the sides, for all the finer steps. Keep in mind the first coarse stage does the lion's share of material removal, particularly if you're installing tapers. 

Bronze Sword - Mirror Polishing

Finished sword

This one is pretty simple. Initially, on this project, I had gone for a 1200 grit finish. Seemed reasonable, looked good, etc. At some point though I changed my mind, and decided I wanted a mirror finish. So over to the buffing wheel we went. Pretty simple, the images can tell the story. Masked off the handle to keep buffing compound off of it, loaded the wheel with some fresh jeweler's rouge, and being careful not to lose any fingers off I went. There is an image below which I feel really captures the contrast between 1200 grit and buffed, showing 50/50. 

Turkish Flight Arrow Inspired Project

So, arrows, we all use them, we all lose them, we all break them. This project has been an extremely long time in coming, but we've been chipping away at it in free time/off hours for.... gosh could it really be two years now? Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys a look at the build process, maybe even is inspired to make arrows for themselves. Fair warning though, this isn't a route to cheap and cheerful arrows. This has to be a labor of love, because by the time you're done these arrows will not be particularly cheap and a lot of TLC will have gone into them. Then again, are any of us really in archery for any reason other than love? 

Rough sawn boards ready to be cut to blank length. (three per board in this case) 

Wood arrows all start from the carcasses of dead trees in one way or another. In this case we went with the delicious smelling corpse of a red cedar, rough sawn to 1" nominal. 1" nominal seems to be getting thinner and thinner by the year, these boards were 3/4" and a whisker, but such are the times. You're looking for as straight, tight grained, and knot free as you can find. The whiter (sapwood in this species?) yields lighter arrows, while the darker (heartwood?) yields stronger ones. We'll use all of it. My god have cedar prices gone up, while you're looking at enough for ~100 arrow blanks, granted at 100% yield which never happens, it was also almost 100$ worth of lumber. We're on the chop saw here to cut each board to rough length. Why we do this before ripping will become obvious in the next slide. 

Planing the boards to align one side with the grain. This results in arrows with longitudinal grain, which is stronger, as wood arrows tend to fail along grain boundaries. 

So here it is, the reason to cut it into blank length first: each board must now be planed so that the grain runs close to longitudinally in the arrow as possible. If this were done to the whole board at once, your losses at one end would be massive and would be much more work. Ergo blank length first. My personal rule of thumb, which I'm sure a master fletcher would dispute, is that so long as  a single grain line runs at least 1/2 the length of the finished arrow, you're okay.

Sawing blanks on the table saw

From here we head over to the tablesaw. In a perfect world we'd be using a thin kerf ripping blade, so your losses go from 1/8" to 3/32" or even 1/16" in some extreme cases. But it isn't a perfect world, so 1/8" loss per cut it is. Each blank has to be sawn twice, once to get it out of the board and a second time rotated 90 degrees, to achieve a square 5/16". This process makes absolute mountains of sawdust by the way. Not as much as the next step though. 

Spinning blanks into shafting on the lathe. This produces immense quantities of chips. 

Next we take the square blanks to the wood lathe and spin them round. Simple enough concept. This is a fairly stressful process in the life of an arrow, so typically any arrows weak or with flaws die here long before they can blow up on your bow. This only results in a straight shaft though, not the sexy double taper we're looking for, we'll add those in later. 

I wasn't kidding when I said mountains of shavings. 

Rough shafting

Using a sharp knife, rolled along the ouside of a shaft, to quickly and easily cut it to length. 

The resultant cut, quite clean. 

From here we cut arrows to length. Easily done, without splitting, by rolling a sharp knife on the arrow shaft. 

The super professional looking taper cutter, built to generate adjustable tapers on a wide variety of arrows. 

We've designed special nocks and points in house, just for this application. The nocks are actually a derivative of the Bulbous Nock Project we did with Mike Loades, these offering a longer nock with deeper string groove. Both go on a taper, so over to the taper cutter we go to cut one on both ends. 

Point glued on. Using the lathe and abrasive papers to apply the longer front taper as well as finish sanding, up to 1200 grit. We went with our ivory polymer, in Ottoman flight arrow style, to produce a light weight and durable point. 

Using the points and nocks as a rough guide, we apply first the long taper from the point end then the shorter taper from the nock end. The shaft is then sanded to final finish, 1200 grit, and a thin layer of varnish applied. Turkish inspired, we went for ivory colored polymer. This is the same stuff we use in our rings, and a testament to it's durability not only is the nock fully functional the point is as well. Some members of this set were excluded for abusive testing to see what it all could take. Aside from becoming a little less shiny, nocks and points survived just fine.

Whoops...... 

Occasionally things get exciting. If your abrasive paper catches and wraps itself around the shaft as you sand, it'll pop one of these shafts before you know what has happened. And by pop I really mean mini-explosion pop. You'll be finding splinters in places you didn't even know you had and you'll never find enough to even pretend piece the shaft back together. Good demo of the longitudinal grain though allowing the shaft to fail more at random than along a single longitudinal grain boundary. 

Finished shaft, from the point end. 

Finished shaft, from the nock end. 

Arrow with varnish applied. No need for heavy coats here, these arrows are to be light more than all-weather. 

Fletching.... the before shot. 

Time for fletching. This can easily be done by hand or with one of a myriad of different jigs. In this case we used Bohning fletch-tape. If you've never used it before, it is a product that allows incredibly fast fletching, but comparatively poor adhesion. For heavy use applications I'd recommend either another product, or to wrap both ends of the quill. 

Using the machine lathe and a friction tool to wrap the front of the quill. This improves fletching durability/retention, protects your thumb, and adds quite a nice visual appeal. Also purple is the color of warriors, bite me. 

Speak of the devil. We went over to the metal lathe, with it's lower spindle RPMs, and using a tool to apply constant tension wound thread onto the front of each quill. A dab of glue to secure the thread end, and that is it. Done. Ready for prime time. 

All done. Three lighter cedar arrows against three darker ones. Seen here, anachronistically, against two Korean style bows and our Byzantine style ring. The bright outdoor light really makes the ivory points and nocks pop. 

A few concessions were made in this project for the sake of usability. For one thing, the nocks could have been made even lighter and more delicate. The points, and really the whole point end, could have also been given a much more aggressive taper. Goodness knows the Turkish versions were more aggressively barrel tapered, shorter too for use with a siper. These are much longer, 33.25" tip to tip, giving 32.75 inches of solid draw length. The lighter sapwood shafts are 380 grains, give or take, while the darker heartwood shafts are 410 grains. All in all, I'm very pleased with how this project came out. There is also plenty of unused shafting for further projects. 

Manchu Arrow Project (part 3)

The finished product in use. God these things hit hard. 

So here we wrap up the first batch of these increasingly semi-Manchu arrows. (find part 2 here) Perhaps heavy war arrows would be an increasingly accurate name? I digress. We are offering these shafts, with without nocks, for sale by the way. Not a standard item listed, but if you'd like to purchase some feel free to message us. They come rough-finished, and still require sanding, straightening, lacquering, fletching, etc. 

Our super fancy professional taper cutting tool. 

So, nocks first. Start with a standard 11 degree taper. Nobody, to my knowlege, makes a pencil-sharpener-style taper cutter for arrows this large. Could have bought one, and maybe adapted it, but in this case it was easier to just build a jig for the disc sander. Worked like a charm. 

Top was an experimantal bulbous shallow nock, middle is the final nock design, and bottom is a normal arrow for comparison. 

We custom designed nocks for these arrows. Initially we wanted to use a bulbous design based off a project we were doing with Mike Loades. It quickly became apparent however that any design increasing the diameter over that of the shaft looked ridiculous, particularly in light of the comparatively spidery modern strings we use. The other problem is string angle. The wider your arrow, the deeper the nock need be. 

So we opted for something a little more practical which, hopefully, doesn't look comical. In the process of testing this though, a woopsies happened. That arrow blew straight through the backer, which stops normal arrows, and stuck itself in the concrete wall. Normally, when a screwup like this happens, you break or blow the nock straight off the arrow. Not this monster though, still just like new. Even the shaft survived undamaged. The point seated itself a little too far on the shaft, and was a right **** to get out of the wall, but with a new point you could shorten the arrow a tad and you'd be back in business. Shot was taken at 16 yards. 

Those feathers look gnarly. Going to require trimming before use. 

Manchu arrows exhibit a great diversity of fletching length. None of it would be described as short however. The longest we had on hand were some goose feathers which, while extremely long by normal standards, are still at the short end for Manchu arrows. The next problem was that there are no fletching jigs for arrows this large in diameter or feathers this long. We could have built one, probably, but wanted this build-along to be reasonably accessible to regular people. So, with the help of Bohning fletching tape whose instant-bond allows you to manually lay down fletching quickly and accurately, we did it by hand. Wrapped the front in some waxed thread as well to help keep the tips from coming up and to be easier on the thumb as the arrow goes by. Still in desperate need of a trim though, my god do those look ugly. 

Finished arrows. They shoot well, fly beautifully, and strike with IMMENSE power. 

Again, trimming the fletching presented a problem. Normal hot-wire-cutters aren't long enough. We could build one, but again that may be beyond what most people would want to do or be capable of. There is always the blow-torch and bent coat hanger solution, however we ultimately just went with the easiest: scissors. The results were very reasonable, but somewhat short of excellent. And, as you can see from the above image, they are a success. 

So, project completed, what did we get right and what did we get wrong or would we do differently? Real Manchu arrows have complex taper, shallow bulbous nocks for HUGE strings, different points, and are (allegedly) fletched with eagle feathers. For a set of display arrows, adding tapers would be very reasonable. In this case though, we're questing for extreme mass on arrows that'll actually see not-insignificant use. Tapers then would be both time consuming and counterproductive. Manchu bows are significantly taller than the majority of bows I own and shoot. Shallower nocks would be incompatible with such string angles. So, once again, I thing a practical adaptation was made here although another nock variant would be perfectly possible. 

What did we get right? Well going off the fantastic article by Peter Dekker, poplar was a correct wood choice, minimal finish on the surface is authentic, correct fletching orientation, and most importantly correct weight. The fletching is an odd tossup of sorts. These examples are on the fringe short end of the spectrum for Manchu. In this case though, these arrows already have more fletching than I need. Nobody is penetrating armor anymore, and the larger mass combined with lower velocities are very forgiving when it comes to form and flight. I can shoot these off a fickle Korean bow bare at 16 yards without fletching. Furthermore, I can do this well enough to penetrate the backer and then concrete as you saw above! If I were to do this again, I'd use normal 5.5" fletching that didn't interfere with the early stages of draw, or potentially the vertical second and third feather orientations.

And, finally, the correct weight was what we were going for here, so we can safely shoot very heavy bows to produce ferocious power. In this respect, we were unequivocally successful. While chrono data will have to wait for another day, preliminary numbers suggest the powerful AF Tatar is over 150fps, while the Hwarang is about 190fps. 

Bulbous Nocks - a Mike Loades project

Our final iteration of the Mughal style nock or, as Mike calls them: "the MikeL-Nock

So lets start this off with a big thank you to Mike Loades for supplying images, dimensions, arrows, and ultimately the impetus for this entire project. To that end, we've been working on Mughal style bulbous nocks, but made for modern arrows and strings. Mike's stated goals for this project were to create a modern interpretation of a Mughal bulbous nock to aid in mounted archery speed shooting. 

To be clear, before someone nitpicks historical inaccuracies of this project, no these nocks are not nor were meant to be perfect replicas. Furthermore, we've been modifying dimensions and tuning the design for Mike Loades' specific application, rather than aiming at the general public. As the project evolved, to achieve functionality and its ultimate ends, we've drifted further and further from the design's historical roots. 

Our first, and failed, attempt at a bulbous Mughal style nock

Initially the host arrow was Gold Tip Traditional 500 arrows. Our first gen, seen above, was a failure, but not for the reasons you might expect. Given a string diameter supplied by Mike, we matched the depth as a ratio to width of multiple historical examples, which I should add were surprisingly consistent. The result, equally surprisingly, was that the string angle on short bows was too extreme for the nock. Unless one were to draw the bow using the nock itself, or some sort of device to balance the string above and below, I simply can't imagine a way this type of nock could function. And this seems like it would be the case irrespective of string diameter, sure a larger diameter string would necessitate a deeper nock, but the ratios and string angle would remain the same. Perhaps the diameter of the bulb remaining constant would be sufficient? A puzzle, certainly. 

Progress! An arrow propelled into the target by a 60 pound bow. 

The next gen offered a MUCH deeper string groove, and initial shooting tests were successful. With a thumb draw, you can really feel your index finger drawing the bulb backward onto the string. Unfortunately, upon further evaluation, we discovered these nocks too were unsuccessful. This time though, the gremlin was more insidious: nock mass. Upon impact, arrows endure a great deal of flex, whip, and off axis forces. Most nocks are thin, hollow,  light, and only as long as they need to be. This improves their durability as that neck in the arrow, which is a fixed maximum diameter, has less external mass to whip around. We're now doing the opposite, building a taper and large bulb on the end. The, now-obvious-with-hindsight result? Nocks failed at the neck where they insert into the arrow with sufficient shot count. 

Our final iteration of the Mughal style nock or, as Mike calls them: "the MikeL-Nock"

Clearly then, on carbon arrows this wasn't going to work. But what about a more reinforced design? How about nocks for the more typical 11 degree taper found on most wood and some bamboo shafts? This appears to have solved our durability problem, reduces the mass of the nock itself, and the results performed as desired. Mike was extremely pleased with the results as well, so much so he named them "the MikeL-Nock."

We were so pleased with the results on these arrows that, in a sister project, we adapted the design to fit our 1/2" in diameter Manchu arrows. As can be seen above, one of these was given quite a test when the arrow was slammed through the backstop lodging itself into the concrete wall with enough force to stick..... and be difficult to remove. Quite a testament to it's durability, granted at absolutely comical proportions. 

This may not be the last we see of these either. Other nock designs for other style arrows may be in the works. ;) 

Bow Performance Project - Gukgungwon Chrono Data

Gukgungwon bow shown here with our Hybrid ring in sterling silver

For the sake of having everything in one place, as this post completes the analysis of all our bows on hand, the force draw et al. charts are attached at the bottom, even though this post only updates chrono data. This is where the rubber meets the road: how effectively can these bows convert that stored energy into kinetic energy? 

Full disclosure, I love this bow. On the day we tested it though, I had basically spent the earlier part of the afternoon shooting it until my shoulder told me to stop. So when someone popped their head in and said "time to chrono" that evening, I groaned a little bit. Shooting through a chrono, if you've never done it before, is hard. Particularly it is hard with a Korean bow. You're down on the ground, shooting at a weird angle to try and get the arrow through  the sweet spots on both sensors. And you've got to get that flight darn near perfect, lest you smash an arrow into one of the diffuser supports or simply miss one of the sensors. I don't mean to lead in with excuses, but lets just say this was not my finest hour. 

The results though were quite good. Despite my shoulder, and what I suspect was me under-drawing, we're within a deviation of being the fastest bow we've ever tested. We're also cleanly over 70% efficient. And then there is the twist, if we go with the highest KE produced, rather than the average, it is not 71% efficient, it is 76.2% efficient beating the heavy AF Tatar's 75.6%. Of course, applying the same standard to the AF Tatar, it'd be 79.3% efficient. The point? In terms of stored energy and velocity, I am betting I could take both these bows out again and see the roles reversed. They are within margin of error of each other. Cool huh?

And that concludes our additions to bow performance data for now. Own a bow and want it tested? Manufacture bows and want some unbiased independent testing to show off? Send us a message. There are a thousands of beautiful bows out there, and we'd love to add yours to the list. 

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Chrono data

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Product Announcement - Manchu Rings

Our two Manchu ring variants, thick on the left and slim on the right. 

Our original Manchu ring was a huge success. Slim, sleek, it was the perfect pairing with modern bowstrings. Nevertheless, we've gotten feedback that some users would like a thicker option, which we're now proud to introduce. We now call our original version "Slim" and the new version "Thick." Sizing remains unchanged, being identical between the two, so if we know your size in one we can easily fit you for the other. These variants are also available in our Exotic materials, carbon fiber and glow. 

Bow Performance Project - AF Turkish Chrono Data

AF Archery Turkish bow shown with our Hybrid ring in sterling silver

The last complete project analysis prior to this post, force-draw curves et al., can be found HERE. It contains the complete breakdown of bow poundage, how much energy is being stored, and how efficiently the bows store energy. This though, this is where the rubber meets the road: how effectively can these bows convert that stored energy into kinetic energy? 

AF Archery has been landing a lot of winners in terms of physical beauty, efficiency, and smoothness of draw. The Saluki style isn't without its drawbacks, namely being somewhat less durable, but my god are they seductive.... particularly this example hand-painted, bamboo laminations under clear glass, ivory colored discs inlaid at the arrow pass, and a silky smooth draw. (remember, in terms of percentage of total poundage gained in the last two inches of draw, this bow is the lowest we have tested at just 10%). I was typing "it is easier for lower poundage bows to pull off this trick, and this bow is comparatively low poundage being a mere....." before noticing it is 60#s at 31". I guess it isn't actually low poundage, it is just smooth enough to feel like it. Whoops. Anyway, enough salivating, how did it do? Remember, this bow has the second highest energy storage per pound of any we've yet tested. Sadly, not a knockout, only managing 67.5% efficiency, with fairly low deviation. If I were to guess why, I'd point to the fact that the siyahs are both thicker and deeper than the Tatar's, while being about the same

length. The laminated on tip protectors are larger too. To that point, the bow itself is shorter than the Tatar, while having the same mass. This doesn't make the bow awful, far from it, even knowing all this I'd buy it again without a second's hesitation and 200fps is far from slow, but it does sadly mean not all AF bows are absolute monsters. I guess things had to come back to earth eventually? It is also possible, being the newest of my AF bows, that they had been experiencing failures from running too close to the edge and this bow was beefed up to address that. 

Stay tuned, next week we have the Gukgungwon up on the chrono. This, tied with my Hwarang, is my favorite bow. Qualitatively, it is a real screamer. It may well be the fastest bow we've ever tested. 

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Chrono data

New Ring Color - Ivory

Our Ottoman ring in Ivory

We're pleased to add another color to the lineup: ivory. Obviously no, not real elephant ivory. We  struggled with what to call this material. Perhaps it could best be described as an odd love child taking an ethereal almost pearlessence of silk, hints of jade's translucency, and the beautiful creamy-white hues of young ivory. We did up samples and showed them to people, asking them what they'd call it. The unanimous response was ivory, and we agree. These make for truly striking and exotic rings, in a way that almost defies description. 

Our Chinese Spur ring modeling all four standard polymer colors, from left to right: Black, Silver Gray, Nocturnal Blue, Ivory

Bow Performance Project - KTB Kingdom Chrono data

KTB Kingdom shown here with our Byzantine ring in bronze 

The last complete project analysis prior to this post, force-draw curves et al., can be found HERE. It contains the complete breakdown of bow poundage, how much energy is being stored, and how efficiently the bows store energy. This though, this is where the rubber meets the road: how effectively can these bows convert that stored energy into kinetic energy? 

We've already given the KTB Kingdom a brief overview/review highlighting it's strong points (short length, modest price, durability), and weak points (severe stacking, too small a grip). How does it perform though? Well, about average. This is, by .35 grains per pound, the lowest GPP bow we've collected data on so far. And it managed a reasonable 70% efficiency. The Kaya, with a 1.5gpp advantage, squeezed out an extra almost 6% efficiency. Look at what that translates to in terms of velocity though, the Kaya is 11 pounds lighter draw and is, on average, 1.6fps slower. Look at the deviation though on the KTB Kingdom. Shooting through a chrono with a fickle Korean bow on a small grip is hard, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I think the quality of shooting suffered with this bow, because of that difficulty, suffered. The result is a larger deviation and what may be an under-representation of performance. And, remember, that poundage really starts to spike up around full draw so plus or minus half an inch will make a big difference. My takeaway? This data shows this bow under-performing slightly, especially watching the two send arrows down range side by side, however I don't feel it is particularly unfair. I would strongly encourage the manufacturer of these bows to use thinner covers over the arrow-pass, and a beefy robust grip more typical of the Korean style.

Up next week, the absolutely stunning AF Turkish is up on the chrono. Will it live up to it's looks and the brand's reputation thus far for fearsome speed and efficiency? 

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Chrono data 

Bow Performance Project 5.8.17

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The latest bow, sold under the brand Gukgungwon, seen at back. A similar Hwarang seen at front. And below them two of our rings in stainless steel, the left in a grey finish the right in a bronze finish. 

Another update in our ongoing series to quantify the performance of bows, and maybe offering a little commentary. While the series initially started on our Facebook Page, the first installment on our blog which covers the introduction and a couple bows can be found HERE. We also added one additional metric this round: bow mass, measured in Kilograms because it is the appropriate unit. Why bow draw forces are typically measured in lb-f rather than Kg-f I don't know, but the convention will be observed. What is the point of this? Well, generally speaking, reducing the moving mass (limb mass) of a bow while maintaining draw force will increase performance. So, while this necessarily also does include the entire bow mass including string, hopefully it'll provide some insight into why certain bows may perform well while others are more marginal for no externally visible reason. 

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Force Draw Curve

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Stored Energy Curve

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Stored Energy/Poundage

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Chrono Data

Our latest stablemate is an absolutely beautiful Korean bow sold under the brand "Gukgungwon." The bow comes with multiple strings, including a knotted and un-served "traditional" style string. The grip is very aggressively textured, bordering on too much, but not quite. It provides excellent traction in controlling what are very demanding bows. This stands in contrast to the Nomad, which has a grip too smooth and too thin, making grip-slip a major problem in controlling the bow. The finish appears very similar to the Hwarang and is stunningly beautiful with real birch bark, thick looking limbs with a curved belly looking very much like horn. What is more notable might be the differences. Wrapping on the Hwarang is brown, and borders the grip and siyahs. On the Gukgungwon, the wrapping is red and only at the tips, while the leather, rather than being a pad, wraps all the way around above and below the grip. Stickers also are just below the tips, not present on the Hwarang. In physical profile, the bows are very similar, more similar than any two other of the Korean bows reviewed here, however they aren't identical. Poundage is written on a small heart shaped sticker below the grip, and is a simple "65." This, and my Hwarang, are easily my favorite two bows. Don't ask me to pick one though. ;) 

In drawing the bow is very smooth, far smoother draw than the data would suggest. The Nomad, when it starts stacking, feels like you've hit a wall and is a distinct struggle to pull to the full 31" as a result. This though, while poundage reads higher, feels significantly lighter. I was shocked when it topped out over 70 pounds, it easily feels like a lot less. Not as smooth as the AF Tatar, but feels just as fast and is a LOT quieter. Again, maybe it is that new bow smell, but when I go to shoot I seem to always be reaching for this. It is worth noting that, for practical shooting purposes, this bow seems to be as fast as the AF Tatar, only slower than Hwarang. Only time will tell if it holds up, although it has gotten a fair bit of shooting in a short period of time, unsurprisingly. 

Chrono data is forthcoming, stay tuned to the blog. Getting good clean chrono numbers is surprisingly difficult, as anyone who has tried it should know well, but we're working on it. 

Kukal - Product Introduction

Our Ottoman ring with a Kulak

Kulak is a Turkish word for the small leather tab often inserted between the pad of the thumb, ring aperture, and bow string. It can be used to adjust fit, and increases comfort. Our Kulak is laser cut for precise consistent sizes on it's complex shape. While it obviously pairs well with our Ottoman ring, it can also be a great addition to any of our other rings, the Manchu excluded. We offer them in three sizes: small, medium, and large. Which size you want depends in part on how large your thumb is, but also how loose your ring is as larger ones take up more space making for a snugger fit. 

Our three sizes of Kulak. (.45ACP for scale) 

Installation is as simple as aligning the pad inside the ring, gluing it in place, and trimming any excess with a sharp knife. We recommend a quality cyanoacrylate adhesive. The taper around the waist of our Kulak design allows for minor adjustment of fit to be achieved, having more or less leather incorporated into the ring's aperture. They are made from a soft leather approximately 1.5 millimeters thick. 

Bronze Sword Project (part 3)

Bronze sword complete, seen here with one of our Hybrid rings in sterling silver balanced on top. 

It has been quite a process, but we're finally here at a finished sword. Shiny eh? Still needs a scabbard, but that'll be a project unto itself.  As you may recall, we left the action with the handle scales being bonded in place. We pick up with our intrepid heroes >24 hours later, now that the glue has dried. 

Handle scales immediately after gluing

CHECK SCALE AND PIN ADHESION
Before proceeding, if something didn't hold, you want to find out now. So give everything a good double check. Once you have profiled everything, if you lose a scale, it is too late and you'll have to either start over or remove a surprising amount of material from the tang to get them to align again. 

Profiled handle, straight off the belt grinder

PROFILE THE HANDLE
First step of forming any three dimensional shape by hand via a subtractive technology is sizing things up in two dimensions. So we head to the belt grinder to profile things. This is one of those titanic moments when the handle really starts to take shape, and you also get to see how close the handle fitting came out. 

Rounding out the edges with rasp and file 

ROUGH OUT THE SHAPE
From here, with rasp and files, rough out the shape. Power tools generally do this too quickly, and coarse sandpaper or similar tends to remove wood faster than metal leaving the pins and tang proud. The result? This must be done with something rigid like a file to the final shape and fairly high finish. 

Filling a few little gaps between the scales with glue

FIX ANY GAPS
Technically I could/should have done this as part of the profiling process. No big deal doing it now though. A little dab of glue here and there to firm up the softer charred wood at the edges and to fill some small gaps where the burning-in didn't go perfectly. 

Cleaned up the glue seepage

CLEAN UP EXCESS GLUE
Before we get to finish sanding, cleaning up any glue seepage, particularly around the ricasso, is important. I did it with some acetone, q-tips, scrap wood carved into toothpicks, and some 0000 steel wool. 

Interminable sanding

INTERMINABLE SANDING
Sanding is both the most annoying and rewarding part of any project. It takes ages and is incredibly fickle, however it is also the rewarding moment where, if you're skilled and a little lucky, beauty gets to spring free from your work. 

Sanding complete at a 1000 grit. Ready to wipe on some finish. 

CLEAN AND PREP
I finished sanding at 1000 grit. I tried some 0000 steel wool, however the sandpaper must have been wearing/loading as it produced a higher finish than the steel wool so I just left it. A good wipe down and blast with compressed air and we're ready for finish.

First coat of Formby's Tung Oil

FINISHING, ONE COAT AT A TIME
This is immediately after the first coat of Formby's Tung Oil. (technically a tung oil varnish blend) Still works reasonably well at preserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the wood, rather than turning it to plastique. I will say, I am disappointed in how this handle came out. Cocobolo usually is richer and more beautiful than this. It also is typically quite a bit more red in color. What happened? Well the block from which I carved it still appears quite orange/red. Were I to finish that, I expect it would come out more like other cocobolo. My guess is the fire forming of the handle drove some of the beautiful resin and color out of it. Live and learn I suppose? It is still beautiful. shades of orange and purple which will only pop more with additional coats, however it isn't quite as stunning as I had hoped. 

UNMASKING AND FINISHING TOUCHES
The final touches. I removed the masking from the blade, sharpened it, polished it, and with a grimace wiped a coating of wax on it to protect that lustre. It reduces that beautiful mirror shine somewhat, but in the long run it'll keep the blade looking prettier. Perhaps I'll hazard a buffing at some point, but don't want to buff through the protection. 

Bronze Sword Project (part 2)

Showing off the bronze blade's polish

PART 2: THE HANDLE
Shown above is the blade with what I hope will be the final polish. Why we didn't get here in the previous episode will become obvious shortly. 

Laying out the sword tang and desired handle shape

LAY OUT THE HANDLE
First step of pretty much anything worth doing is planning. You saw the above image in part 1. I started by tracing the blade onto a sheet of paper. Because I screw things up, I traced it four times with the expectation it'd take me a couple tries to get it right. The first was just a freehand sketch, how do I want it to look. Next up I grabbed a few light drafting tools and laid everything out with precision. Turns out I didn't need the extra two tracings. Oh well. For the handle I decided to go with my favorite exotic: cocobolo. If you've never worked with cocobolo before, you've been missing out. The wood is beautiful, resin rich, and always a surprise once you start to work it. The colors just pop so beautifully, and you never know what you'll get. To this date the most beautiful piece of wood I've ever seen or worked was cocobolo, all purples, reds, and stirred honey gold. I have never found another piece of similar quality since, despite being on the hunt for the last two decades. But I digress. Copper pins to secure the handle in 3/16". 

Heat forming (burning) the blade tang into the handle scales

HEAT FORM THE HANDLE
Get that handle SCREAMING hot with a blowtorch and then clamp it between your two bookmatched handle scales. Something to be wary of: maybe it is the resin, more likely it is the wood gasification creating a lubricious boundary layer. Either way, just be aware that curved surface is going to make that glowing hot sword try to squirt out from between the handle scales and come at you. Don't let it. Also cut your scales large. This may take one or two tries and a friend to help is very useful. The point, in case it wasn't obvious, is to burn the sword into the scales so you get a perfect fit.

Formed scales straight out of the vice

Formed scales, fresh pulled off the tang

DRILL FOR PINS
So you now have a perfect form of your sword in wood. I used some squeeze clamps to hold one scale on the tang and drilled from the sword side. Now comes a key point, clamp BOTH scales on, and drill through the existing holes in the far scale to the other side. Why? Because unless everything is perfectly flat and square, which it never is, your pin holes will only line up correctly if through-drilled in one perfect shot. 

Drilled with pins installed

Attaching the form

ATTACH LAID OUT DESIGN
Some people use a transfer process to scribe their form onto the dominant scale. I'm lazy, so I just attach it. I misplaced my contact cement but, figuring I'd finish the handle in tung oil anyway, used a little tung oil to hold it on. 

Roughing out the handle scales on the jigsaw 

ROUGH OUT DESIGN
Tight corners in here means a bandsaw is no es bueno, so scroll saw it is. Lacking that, a coping saw would work just dandy. In case it wasn't obvious, this is why your pin holes not being ovaled out and lining up properly is so critical. You can't cut internal flourishes or do a lot of the sanding with the sword in the middle, so everything needs to fit tight on just the pins with no blade. Be sure to leave plenty of margin in the areas where you're going to want to be flush with the blade. Why? Because, again, nothing is perfect, perfectly square, flat, accidents happen, etc. We'll fit the perimeter perfectly later, we're just removing bulk material. That naughty sensual little teardrop in the middle though, because it will be filled with sword, needs to be finished now as part of the ricasso. 

Prettying up the ricasso area 

Working on the teardrop and ricasso area on the belt grinder 

FINISH THE RICASSO
Went in here with the belt grinder to pretty some of it up. Again, if you didn't have the two scales pinned together, you wouldn't be able to get these blind parts symmetrical. Not shown, I also wrapped some sandpaper on a broken arrow shaft, chucked it in the lathe, and used that to round out and smooth the teardrop. 

Handles ready to attach, sword blade.... not so much

FINISH THE BLADE
The discoloration and residue from the handle attachment process should have made it pretty obvious why I didn't go above 320 grit finishing the blade before. Now though the blade must be finished before the handle goes on, otherwise there will be no way to get into that naughty naughty teardrop and polish things up. Here we can see the scales, ready to attach, and the blade at 320 grit. I went up to 1200 grit and then 00 and 0000 steel wool to achieve the final finish.

Final finish on the blade. 1K grit plus 0000 steel wool 

You simply can never have enough clamps. Also tape up your blade, unless you like scratches, scrapes, and dings

ATTACH THE HANDLE SCALES
There are a couple things going on here. Surface prep, as always, is critical. A quick finish sand to the blade tang and a wipe down of all applicable surfaces with denatured alcohol is critical. You want to remove any oils, dirt, debris, or oxide layers prior to attempting a bond. Second, now that I've beautifully polished the blade, I put it in blue painters tape jail to keep it pretty while I work on the handle and scabbard. As far as actually bonding the scales on, start with your pins in place. Because I like to live on the edge, I used a high viscosity construction grade cyanoacrylate adhesive, as I wanted both chemical and mechanical bonding. A more typical epoxy would have been less risky and stressful while probably providing adequate results as well. Clamp everything thoroughly, and wait twice as long as the manufacturer recommends for full joint strength. With this adhesive I'd discovered a bond can be formed instantly, but the bond continues building in strength for at least a week. Given that atmospheric H20 is the catalyst, and this is a fairly large surface area, I expect this will take quite some time to achieve truly peak strength. Thankfully, 24 hours should be adequate although I expect I won't get back to it for longer than that.

And that is it for now. Next time we'll be shaping and finishing the handles, and thus the sword. A sheath/scabbard will be on the menu as well. 

Chinese Spur Ring - Product Introduction

Our take on the exotic Chinese Spur Ring

Allow us to introduce our latest product: the Chinese Spur Ring. Huge thanks to Mike Loades for his collaboration on this project, which allowed us develop to these unique rings. 

What is it and how does it work? Simply put, the spur on the ring presses against the arrow while it holds the string. While this arrangement sounds awkward and fiddly, it is actually quite natural. Everything simply falls into place. 

The purpose and effects of this spur are debated. Some have suggested that it is to counterbalance the pressure of the index finger against the arrow. Others have suggested it is to grip the arrow more firmly. Our experiments suggest that, while these other mechanisms may be true, it acts indirectly as a string stop. The arrow holds the string, the spur holds the arrow, and the ring is justified relative to the spur. As a result, the string's rearward travel is limited thus protecting the soft of the thumb without any sort of lip or groove. The result is that clean and snappy release familiar to anyone who has shot an Ottoman style ring, but with protection for the thumb.