Korean bow grip material

Mine just looks like high density foam.

Thanks, Orda! I figured they didn't use something too unusual, but was wondering if it was something specific, like neoprene. For now I've just wrapped the grip with really thick buffalo hide. Ugly, but it helps some. Still would like something with a little better shock absorption though.

Old bows sometimes had folded up paper wrapped in string. I have one like that. Others used similar packing but wrapped more elegantly in velvet. New bows usually have close celled hard foam, but strangely they very much like the old bows in the hand.

Bede,

Interesting about the newspaper. I guess that kind of practicality shouldn't surprise me. The bottom line, I suppose, boils down to "whatever works".

Cheers,
Jack

Maybe you should consider wrapping the grip in tennis grip tape. Some of them are designed to specifically absorb hand shock

Mule,

That's a good idea. Hadn't considered that.

The paper was quite thick traditional paper, a bit tougher than newspaper. I have used tennis racket handle material in the past and it works well. Many modern Korean bows have a rubber covering with semi hard little points all over it. I was told it was to massage the hand. If you don't like the rough feel, deerskin suede is a good cover.

My first idea was cork. You can find it in about 1 mm thickness. Easy to glue in layers on the inner part of the grip to get the desired shape and the final layer around the entire grip to fix it finally in position. A very natural material

Both natural and traditional. Cork oaks grow in Korea and the Manchus probably imported it for the cork handles on Manchu bows.