Thumb Ring Archery Blog

Several historic archery thumb rings have some leather on the inside, which was glued in covers approximately two thirds of the length of the lip. In Turkish the leather attachment is called the kulak. This is generally thought to be to protect the thumb from the bowstring. For me the riddle was; why this tab is so long? If it's only a thumb protection, it would be, in my opinion, much shorter. Until now I thought that the string was over the tab what I expressed in my book. Currently after repeated analysis of two pictures showing the old ring (see two photographs of the thumb ring from the Grayson Collection. Museum of Anthropology, 100 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-1440, link:  Museum of Anthropology and after having discussion with Adam Karpowicz I lean towards the thesis that the tab overlapped the string and then was pressed against the middle finger (while the string... Continue reading