I want to revisit this topic briefly to discuss design a little. I spoke with Dave Viegut (Precurve) for a bit and he brought up an interesting question.
His question is "why is the high point of the rest where it is and not on the front edge where it would be closer too or above the deep part of the grip?"
Here's a pic of the rests I have for comparison;
From Left to Right- original Bear Feather Rest, Jack Howard Rest, My Feather Rest, and one that I just played with a little that moves the high point to the opposite end.
Several questions have come up during this thread that I find interesting. Unfortunetly, I honestly don't have the experience or historical knowledge to answer them fully and welcome any input those of you with more experience could offer.
Here's the questions I think could use a little discussion. I'll start by responding briefly to each.
1. Is the feather rest an elevated rest? I suppose it could be considered that since it elevates the arrow above the shelf and is added onto the bow. I'm not sure how it would classify at an IBO shoot.
2. Why cut the shelf down and then elevate the arrow with a feather rest? When I started shooting traditional in the late 80s, everything written seemed to advocate getting the arrow as close to the hand as possible. The feather rest is fairly low profile and for me at least the feathers are a pretty forgiving platform to shoot off of.
3. Why is the high point where it is on the traditional feather rest? As you can see the Bear rest was short and symetrical in design so it could be moved backward or forward to position it above the deep part of the grip. The Jack Howard rest, on the other hand, was longer and the high point was fairly pronounced which would cause the arrow/shelf contact point to get farther from the throat of the grip. When you look at Bear Kodiak shelf and rest combinations through the years you can see a progression from a piece of thin leather on a shelf that was just above the hand (55,56,57,58) to a more pronounced shelf frther above the hand with a feather rest stuck on top (59,60) to a rug rest----------->. Their tenure was fairly short at least at Bear Archery but those folks that like them really like them and use them still today.
I dont have the answers. Like I said earlier, I was just trying for a "look" when I first started making them and once I did they seemed to work just fine. Using the feather rest seems to go against conventional thoughts that the closer to your hand the arrow is the more accurate you'll be. And also the thought that the place where the arrow contacts the shelf should be directly above the throat of the grip. Maybe they should be made like the white one in the picture with the hump towards the front.
This is why I love traditional archery. There's no right answer I'm sure. The rests were probably originally stuck on a production bow by someone and next thing you know they are everywhere and then they almost disapear from existence.
Was the feather rest a precursor to other rests such as Flipper's, etc. Did Herters start it all with their raised shelf? C'mon history buffs, enlighten us.
Trap
Topic: Sweeeeeeet feather rest (Read 3712 times)
