A thumb ring is a piece of equipment designed to protect the thumb during archery. This is a ring of leather, stone, horn, wood, ivory, metal, ceramics, plastic, or glass or which fits over the end of the thumb, coming to rest at the outer edge of the outer joint. A flat area extends from the ring to protect the pad of the thumb from the bowstring; this may be supplemented by a leather extension.
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When drawing a bow using a thumb draw, the thumb is hooked around the bowstring just beneath the arrow and its grip reinforced with the first (sometimes second) finger. The bowstring rests against the inner pad of the archer's thumb and the thumb ring protects the skin. The bowstring rests against the flat of the ring when the bow is drawn. This technique is referred to as the "Mongolian Release" or the "Mongolian Draw". Today, thumb rings are used by archers practicing styles from most of Asia and some regions of northern Africa. Ishi, the "last wild American Indian", used a thumb draw, but no skin protection.
The author of "Arab Archery" refers to rings as being usually made of leather.[1] Possibly, most ordinary archers historically used tabs of leather, much cheaper and easier to make, for this purpose, but such rings are not likely to survive.
Many surviving historic thumbrings are hardstone carvings in jade and other gemstones, or are made of precious metal. Most are very practical but some have the release surface so ornamented as to be unusable. The rings could be displayed on a cord from the belt, or, in China, in a special box. In the 16th century court of the Ottoman Empire they had the extra function of being "used when executing disgraced officials to tighten a handkerchief wound round the throat".[2]
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