Topic: Biting pain on thumb when using thumb ring.

Hi all.

I've been trying to make my own thumb rings out of wood for some time now, but it seems like whenever I go to use one of my homemade thumb rings, I get a sharp pain in 1 of 2 places. The first one (which I have figured out and solved as of writing this), was due to the skin on the pad of my thumb getting squished and pinched by the ring when I went to draw. I filed out a larger groove around the top of the thumb ring, and that fixed the problem.

The second pain, and the one that I have yet to solve, is a pinch on the flanges of my thumb. The opening in my homemade thumb ring is slightly elliptical, so that I can insert my thumb, then twist it into place, seating the ring against the flanges of either side of the knuckle on my thumb. I was under the impression that this was the right way to do it, but whenever I draw I get quite a bit of pain on my thumb. I've tried tinkering with my thumb rings in all sorts of different ways to try and solve this, but none of them have worked so far. Is a bit of pain natural for a fairly new shooter such as myself?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, as I really don't want to have to bite the bullet and buy a thumb ring, and risk having it not fit.

Cheers!

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Re: Biting pain on thumb when using thumb ring.

Hi.  Could you post pics of it?

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3 (edited by crazeek 2017-12-09 14:29:51)

Re: Biting pain on thumb when using thumb ring.

Not sure if you can see this photo, I seem to be having trouble uploading images to this forum.

*Edit*

try these links instead:
https://imgur.com/fhC2Fk9
https://imgur.com/DCvCbGg

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Re: Biting pain on thumb when using thumb ring.

It looks very similar to a Korean "sugakji" thumb ring, which would be drawn differently from the typical teardrop-shaped "amgakji" thumb ring.  It is possible to make a good amgakji out of wood (my favorite one is made from date tree wood), but the shape/dimensions will need to be a lot more like amgakji made from other materials (like horn or phenolic).  I recommend looking around in our messages for the correct style and work on getting the shape/thickness changed on yours.

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Re: Biting pain on thumb when using thumb ring.

Thanks for you response! Yes, I did try and base it off a sugakji style of thumb ring. I've never tried making an amgakji before, but I think I'll give it a go. If its possible to explain, why would materials like horn work better for a sugakji than wood?

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Re: Biting pain on thumb when using thumb ring.

It is quite difficult to get a textured material like wood really smooth, at least such small and curved parts.
You could make the inner diameter a bit bigger, and glue leather on the inside.
Or some similar material which could distribute the pressure more easily.

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Re: Biting pain on thumb when using thumb ring.

Just made an "amgakji" style thumb ring out of horn after reading a tutorial posted on these forums. Pleased to say that it works great without any pain at all. My shooting is already more accurate now that I can focus on the target and not the pain in my thumb!  smile

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