I am trying to find out when arrow rests were first used on longbows. I thought that I had read in "Toxophilus" that archers sometimes used a bit of cork under the wrapping of the grip as a rest for their arrow. However, I can not now find that reference. Does anyone know when and where simple arrow rests were first used?

Thank you for any help you can give.

John Edgerton. Newark, California

Interesting John, As far as the BLBS definition goes, once it has an arrow rest it is no longer a traditional longbow.

I wonder if you are thinking of the fact that some archers built up the handle to give a better (larger) grip ?

As far as I know, the first bows to incorporate an arrow rest of sorts were the early experimental composites. These were rather flatter than the longbow and also began to have curved ends which ultimately became the recurve we know today.

I will ask Hugh to elaborate when he has time.

Administrator

The reference I seem to remember was that the rest was a piece of cork that was added under the handle wrapping, not built as part of the bow.

Thank you

John

I have a longbow by Dowsen. at one time bowmaker to the Royal Company, and this has an arrow-rest within the handle binding, seemingly as part of its construction. This bow dates from the early 20th Century. I have not seen other bows by this chap so can't say whether this was a regular feature of his work. Generally though arrow rests were a feature of the early (flat) composites - the first examples (JAQUES etc) were quite narrow 'platforms' fashioned (in JAQUES case) on both sides as part of the handle riser I don't myself recall reading anything in Toxophilus about arrow rests.

I have seen references to arrow rests on Native American flat bows in the literature, but I do not know how they were dated. This may be one source of the practice that may have leaked back into Europe in the twentieth century. In Asia, they were unknown in composite bows. The closest approach is the siper (bilek siperi). There was a form of it attached to the bow called in Persian a navak-i qabze, but it was definitely and overdraw. Pope (Survey of Persian Art) has a ring apparent worn on the distal section of the index finger that supported the tip of the arrow. There are also pictures of Korean and Mongolian archers using rings on the bow hand thumb to support the arrow, but they were not attached to the bow.