Did Ancient bowyers use an arrow shelf or an arrow rest?

[Sam McMichael]

Well, did they? The reason I'm asking is that shooting off my hand often results in cuts on my bow hand. I don't recall seeing them, but I haven't done a tremendous amount of research. This little problem has somewhat limited my use of primitive archery. I am not a highly skilled primitive arrow smith, so, in the short run, it is not quite as simple as making greatly improved arrows. Thanks for any knowledge you have to share.

[McDave]

In Traditional Archery from Six Continents by Grayson, French, and O'Brien, this ancient Iranian bow has what may be an arrow rest (you can decide for yourself):

I couldn't find any examples of arrow rests among ancient bows in The Grey Goose Feather by Heath.

Other than that, John Strunk, who is becoming more ancient by the moment, usually incorporates half a golf tee in his primitive bows to use as an arrow rest.  The origins of golf are lost in the mists of time, but it is not generally thought that ancient golfers teed up their balls, preferring to play them where they lay.

[Deno]

On the tee, ancient golfers used wet sand from a box and filled a small whiskey glass sized cup turned over to "tee up".  mini sand castle....lol

Deno

[McDave]

I'm sure that the ancient Scottish golfers made good use of the cup in between “tee times.”

[Deno]

Probably didn't need a cup....straight from the bottle.   

Deno

[Deno]

Pretty good video tips Sam

[Pat B]

None of the early bows I've seen in museums had arrow shelfs or rests. Cutting in a shelf or adding one to the handle is a modern invention. One of our "primitive" archery gurus, Mickie Lotz came up with an alternative he called the "Floppy Rest", which is a narrow piece of leather, folded in half with a portion under the handle, a portion as the strike plate and a small portion that the arrow rests on. I've been using a floppy rest on my bows to protect my hand. Here is the directions that Mickie sent me...

[rainman]

I believe I read in Jim Hamms book that a bow was found in a cave in the southwest that had a shelf cut in and was thought to be quite old.

[degabe]

My Native American horse bow does not have a  rest. Shoot off the knuckle and hope you don't get bit.  You learn to check those feathers before you shoot.

[Ron LaClair]

I hunted for years with a John Strunk bow with no arrow rest and never had a proplem shooting off my knuckle

[Baylee]

The English War bows had no shelf the Native American bows I’ve seen had no rest some had nothing on the handle area no leather nothing.

You definitely want your arrows tuned right so they don’t drag the fletching across your hand and a loose feather quill can be rough in the hand. Maybe try a leather work glove on the bow hand until you get the feather orientation and tune just right.

I shoot my longbow right handed but also shoot left handed with the arrow off my right hand just to keep my left side as strong as the right. With just a thin shooting glove feathers are not an issue hitting my hand.

[Ron LaClair]

It's not the feather but it's the leading edge of the quill on the shaft that has not been trimmed smooth that will cut your finger/knuckel. All you need to do is trim the quill smooth at an angle with a sharp knife. Run your fingers up the shaft over the quill to be sure it's smooth and not rough
Don't put too much glue on the quill, a bumpy glob of glue can also be a problem, smooth it out with your finger. 

[Pat B]

Years ago I started wrapping the forward end of the fletching with thin silk thread then set it in glue so it's smooth. These days I also add the Floppy Rest to my bows. It gives very good protection for my hand and it still feels like I'm are shooting off my hand.