new pool ball ring

[Bede]

Jason,
When I say lip, I mean the projecting tab that covers the pad of the thumb. If you look at my article http://www.atarn.org/chinese/thumbrings ... _rings.htm
You can see a diagram of a thumb ring with a standard way of referring to the shape.

There are some difficulties with the names of the parts of thumb rings in Arabic and Turkish. It looks like we are doing no better in English.

Adam,
I would really like to continue this discussion in person where we can demonstrate what we mean rather than approximate with words. I have misunderstood what you meant before when we were talking about bows stacking. You had a much higher standard than me. When I shoot your bows they are as smooth as silk to draw yet you can see some unevenness in the build up of draw weight. That is the feel of the bowyer for his craft.

In my case with thumb rings, I have been making them for thirty years. Through luck, many that I have collected fit me so that I have been able to shoot with original rings as well. I can bend my thumb so that the angle between the proximal and distal phalanges is approaching 90 degrees. My thumbs are short too, but I spent months exercising them to stretch the tendons. However, they are very personal things. One person's way of using them might not suit another.

[Adam Karpowicz]

Bede, I find the only reliable way to tell if a bow stacks is by looking at the force-draw curve. Stacking begins at the onset of the upturn in the curve. A strong bowyer who can, say, draw an 80lb bow will not feel any stacking drawing a 50-60lb bow, even if the bow is drawn beyond that point on the curve. An archer who draws only 45-50lb bow would feel it. According to Turkish sources, and I found it to be true, the best performing bows should be drawn about 1-2in beyound the stacking point.

I include a picture of rings I now use to illustrate the "step" formed by the ledge and the lip's slope. Note how extreme it can be in the white ring (roughly cut from a piece of LDPE). The silver ring (beautiful work by Murat) is very similar mechanically with a big ledge and the short lip. The decorative stone is probably never touched by the string on release. These type rings were used in Turkey and the Middle East with some variations.

Adam

[Bede]

Adam,
Your description is very clear and obviously correct. As an archer, there is a point which the experience of the increase in draw weight becomes obvious. This subjective experience was what I was thinking of and that is what caused my confusion. When I shoot either of your bows that I have, I feel almost a stop occurring when the ears approach 90 degrees to the string. For something like the snatched release, this is a great advantage. With a siper, drawing until the point of the arrows is opposite the bow and then snatching it back to the centre of siper's trough is effective. However, getting the position of the point of the arrow in the right place just before release needs all the help the archer can get.

[Jason DuLac]

Adam,

If that silver one that Murat made is anything like the Saluki Bow Co. ring I shot recently, the string fits between the decorative stone and the 'step', completely isolateing it from the thumb. It completely protectted my thumb, but I definitely lost some 'feel' for the string tension on the draw and release. I could probably get used to it though if my old thumb tendon injury ever comes back. Tougher to handle on a bouncing horse though...

Thanks for your pics!

J.

[Adam Karpowicz]

Jason, the string sits on the edge of ring, or on the "step" itself, in contact with the flesh. It is the case with all these rings.

Adam

[ginni]

Today I have made another two rings, one from a pool ball and other from cow horn.


When I have tested the rings, the horn one have broken.