All prices in Canadian dollars.

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the ultimate archery ring by studio otesei

“otesei” means handmade + homemode and implies great care going into creations

Archery is a huge passion of ours, and a fun way to shoot is with an archery thumb ring like the ancient warriors of the Ottomans, Mongols, Chinese, South Asians, Koreans and others used! Studio Otesei handmade this archery ring with quality woods of appropriate Janka hardness scores**, oiled with Tung wood oil (historically used on ships), and protected with a food safe, yet durable, topcoat perfect for constant handling and safe even if a child gets a hold of your ring and decides to taste it. Our unique archery ring is a direct descendent of historical research on archery rings from many cultures.

Types of Ultimate Archery Rings

Li’s Fu Hao ring

Inspired by the tomb of Fu Hao, 1250BC

The Rhino

Born out of Entropy’s ring order and specifications, this ring only has one spur to sandwich the arrow to the bow if needed. This ring is designed for thumb draws. It is also stylish enough to wear as functional jewelry any day of the week! It is bigger than the Pirhana but not as big as the ox, which offers Mediterranean drawing as well as thumb draws. This ring has a quick release design. Includes grooves for index and middle finger to support the thumb.

Jacob’s Purple Heart Archery Ring, Rhino

The Pirhana

This ring is designed for thumb draws. It is also stylish enough to wear as functional jewelry any day of the week! It has a smaller form factor and is more discrete, however for very higher poundage bows (60lbs+), archers may feel that more support is needed though other seasoned archers will enjoy the ring either way. The spurs of this ring are in the middle of the circumference, and act to sandwich the arrow against the bow when drawing in the various thumb draws ways this ring offers. The Pirhana has a quick release thumb style due to the angle of the string groove.

The Ox

This ring doesn’t mess around - it’s sturdy like an Ox. It has a unique shelf for the thumb and middle finger draws. The ox will make you feel safe and secure when pulling heavier poundage bows and because this one is in walnut wood with a very strong Janka wood hardness score, it’s hard to imagine a bow strong enough to break The Ox.

Traditional Style (see below)

Whether you prefer Ottoman, Manchu, Mongol, Korean or another type, we can easily make them, along with any minor customizations you like such as string groove or spurs. To be frank, they are easier to make than the Pirhanna or Ox because they are only used one way typically, which means savings for you!

Gino’s Manchu Ring | Sunflower and Crow Motif

The Yin and Yang Archery Ring Set

The Yang archery ring, representing the day, the known, the tried and true, is made of a light maple wood and is a traditional sootgakji or male archery thumb draw ring after the Korean style. The Yin ring is an index finger archery ring representing the night, the unknown and experimental, the mysterious, and is made of a dark exotic wenge wood.
This set was made to inspire you to follow the tried and true but also to never lose the urge to explore or the wonder in that there are other ways to do things that you have no knowledge about yet.

Both rings are fully functional, tested up to 60#.
Maple has a janka hardness score between 950 and 1450 (very hard) while Wenge has a score of 1,930 (VERY hard)*
If you choose to have a special finish, the painting will spread across both rings and only be complete when they are together.

Sherif’s Yin and Yang Archery Ring Set | Zebra stripe motif

Branding iron & Wood Finishing

Your Ultimate Archery Ring will be sanded to a smooth finish, then protected with Tung Wood Oil and a food-safe extremely durable topcoat. We can also add gold foil and a 5th topcoat for a “kintsukuroi” theme that looks good on any wood. Kintukuroi is a Japanese art in which gold is used to repair broken pottery. Because the final repaired piece is better than the unbroken original, it makes one reflect on how our hardships make us stronger and better in the end so long as we keep trying.

We could also make a cherry blossom out of the foil or metallic ink for you, literal or abstract. Thank Nguyen L. for this option!

If you want flowers or animals painted on, please select yes to kintsukuroi theme below. Thank Gino for this one.

Tristan’s Wrist Lanyard

Tristan had the brilliant idea of adding a wrist lanyard to his archery rings, which requires a very carefully placed hole in the ring which doesn’t interfere with any shooting mechanics. It was so cool that now we offer it to everyone!

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Learn More

Contents

Costs

Why use a ring over a tab / glove?

How many ways can the Ultimate Archery Ring shoot?

Ergonomics

Hand-crafted customization made by Studio Otesei in Canada

Is wood safe for archery rings?

Guarantee

In making your Ultimate Archery Ring, we must consider the cost of materials, from wood to finishing coatings, and the man hours required to hand carve your one-of-a-kind ring. Basswood is a light comfortable wood, while Black Walnut is a more exotic and stronger wood with a much higher Janka hardness score! For finishing, while all rings are sanded to a buttery smooth texture before they ship, if you select proper finishing you’re getting 4 coatings added to your ring which provide protection from elements like water and scratching. We use Chinese Wood Oil and a food safe yet durable topcoat. With 24 hours required between each coat, that’s 96 additional hours of drying and monitoring per ring, plus more time to prep and smoothen surfaces for subsequent coatings.

You are going to love shooting with your Ultimate Archery Ring!

• archery rings are the fastest way to shoot a traditional recurve bow with - historically, speed was always extremely important in combat

• archery rings keep the arrow firm to the bow for multidirectional shooting and stability while shooting on horseback, where the bouncing can quickly knock the arrow off of the shelf of the bow when a leather tab is used

• Chinese warriors and wealthy aristocrats used to even wear them as functional jewelry!

The unique grooves, arrow shelves, and spurs of our ring allow you to comfortably shoot in many historical styles. It was designed with ergonomics in mind to utilize more of the hand’s strength so you can shoot higher poundage bows with your ring that would normally be tough on your thumb.

#1 Manchu Style, Chinese variation 1

 Manchu archers developed a very unique archery ring that over time even became ordained and used as functional jewelry. They were beautiful but if an ambush occurred, they could grab their bow and shoot much faster than if they had to scramble to get a tab on.

The Manchu ring is basically a thick cylinder worn on the thumb with pronounced lips. This particular example is made from Jade and the site selling it is asking for $15,000+ Canadian dollars (see below for why we use wood as a perfect material that’s affordable and appropriate when made correctly).

The way you shoot Manchu style is very interesting. You wear the ring on your thumb’s furthest knuckle, then you rest your thumb against the middle finger, enclosing the bow’s string in-between. The string rests on the lip of the ring close to the thumb, and the index finger is relaxed, pointing slightly downwards.

An Ultimate Archery Ring can be fashioned in the Manchu style to allow for this draw.

#2 Manchu Style, Chinese variation 2

This style is so unique and uses the same style ring. For this draw, just like variation 1, You wear the ring on your thumb’s furthest knuckle, then you rest your thumb against the middle finger, enclosing the bow’s string in-between. Uniquely, your index and even your middle finger are used to push against the lip of the ring opposite to the string. This technique is not common but it exists.

An Ultimate Archery Ring can be fashioned in the Manchu style to allow for this draw.

#3 Ottoman style

The Ottoman rings are beautiful thumb rings that have a unique tongue for the string to roll off, and often a small shelf where the bow’s string rests while drawing the bow.

To shoot with an Ottoman archery ring, you wear the ring on your thumb’s furthest knuckle, then you rest your thumb against the middle finger, enclosing the bow’s string in between. The string rests on the lip of the ring close to the thumb, and unlike Manchu style, the index finger firmly supports the thumb (“got your nose!”) as in the picture above.

An Ultimate Archery Ring can be fashioned in the Ottoman quick-release style to allow for this draw.

#4 Mongol Style

The most unique part about the Mongol style is the grip of the drawing hand. The Mongol archery thumb ring today is very similar to the Ottoman style, sometimes with and without a shelf, and this makes sense if you look into the cultural clashes that occurred along history which could’ve led to mixing of ideas regarding war.

For the Mongol draw, the hand nearly makes a fist with 2 fingers supporting the thumb instead of 1 finger as in the Ottoman style.

An Ultimate Archery Ring can be fashioned to allow a Mongol quick-release style draw.

#5 Korean Style

The Korean archery rings are named as “male” or Sugaklji” or female “Amgakji.” As you might’ve guessed the below is a male style ring and this protrusion is used much like the tongue of the Ottoman and Mongol style archery thumb rings. The modern Korean draw is most similar to the Ottoman draw.

An Ultimate Archery Ring can be fashioned to allow a Korean style draw.

#6 Mediterranean Style

This is the draw that makes the Ultimate Archery Ring really special. One of the problems with thumb rings is that for higher poundage bows, all that force on your thumb can actually be very uncomfortable, if not painful. Versatility is extremely important when understanding arts of war like archery. To use the Mediterranean draw with this ring, place on the middle finger as in traditional Mediterranean style with a tab. A shelf on the ring will support the arrow and allow for a smooth release in the case that you’re finding thumb draw painful when using a higher poundage bow. This style can only be used with our Ox model.

A huge factor in the design of the Ultimate Archery Ring is ergonomics and maximizing the strength of your hand. A common misconception is that the thumb is the strongest digit of the hand, but it truly isn’t. Through studying other martial arts like Kali, Judo and Brazilian Jiujitsu, it is clear that the thumb is simply not as strong as the middle finger and we know this because if you want to disarm someone holding a blade, you would push the knife against the thumb side of the grip for the easiest disarm. Pushing the blade against the finger side of the hand makes it nearly impossible to disarm someone (the fingers are too strong). In Judo, traditional Japanese gripping technique of the gi doesn’t involve the thumb or index finger, relying on the last 3 fingers of the hand to grip the opponent’s gi; the reason is that the index and thumb are considered weak and easiest to injure in a battle for grips to initiate a throw.

You get to pick:

1. Type: Pirhana, Ox or any other traditional archery ring style you’re interested in

2. Thumb Ring Size***

3. The wood type - Basswood for lightweight comfort, or Walnut for strength

This really depends on the janka hardness score of the wood used and the poundage of the bow. If finished correctly, wood can really be not only safe but an ideal material for archery rings. It is also super cost effective compared to jade and other expensive materials, while it is certainly better than plastic.

All rings are hand carved in Canada

1. All rings are thoroughly tested to be able to safely perform draws up to 60#

2. Walnut rings are tested to safely perform all draws up to 80#

3. Please allow up to 15 business days for the fabrication of your custom ring plus shipping time

4. Your ring is 100% handmade and one of a kind and there will never be another one exactly like it ever again

Appendix

**The Janka Hardness Scale is determined by a controlled test, performed to measure the force necessary to embed a .444 inch (11.28mm) steel ball to half it’s diameter in wood.  The resulting data is expressed in pounds-force, or lbf.  This industry standard assessment is designed to gauge the various wood species hardness, determine its suitability as flooring, and illustrate its tolerance to normal wear, tear and dents.

***Thumb ring size

It’s best to measure using a ring that comfortably fits your thumb.

****For silver and brass ring options, there is a $10 initial fee for us to research and determine the ballpark cost based on silver and brass pricing at the time of order.