Shah Majra or king's guide
Taybugha wrote about an enclosed guide that the string passed through which was called in his time (the mid to late 1300s) a king's guide or in his mixed Arabic a shah majra.
I attempted a reconstruction of one this year and here is the prototype. It is made of pine. I took two pieces and cut a semi-circular groove on each for almost the full length. Afterwards I glued the two pieces together to make a tube. Next I cut a slot from top to bottom from almost one end to the other. The slot was wide enought to allow free movement of the bow string. Finally I widened the slot on the top surface of the guide so that I could drop a dart into the hollow interior.
In the photograph, I have an ordinary guide at the top, a king guide and then three darts with differing fletching. The top dart has 4 fletch in a + configuration. The middle dart has normal western fletching and the bottom dart is unfletched.
I attempted a reconstruction of one this year and here is the prototype. It is made of pine. I took two pieces and cut a semi-circular groove on each for almost the full length. Afterwards I glued the two pieces together to make a tube. Next I cut a slot from top to bottom from almost one end to the other. The slot was wide enought to allow free movement of the bow string. Finally I widened the slot on the top surface of the guide so that I could drop a dart into the hollow interior.
In the photograph, I have an ordinary guide at the top, a king guide and then three darts with differing fletching. The top dart has 4 fletch in a + configuration. The middle dart has normal western fletching and the bottom dart is unfletched.
Great photo. I recall you said you had some performance problems earlier. Did you get it rectified?
My problems were in two areas.
- The first was the size of the guide. When I first made it, I could not balance it on my bow-hand thumb. I kept shaving down the sides until I was comfortable with it. I was afraid it would become too weak, but so far it has survived.
The second was the fit of the fletching in the channel. I tried regular darts with standard fletching, but they were too difficult to place in the slot and keep aligned. The feathers acted as pressure points and caused the arrow to lay at an angle in the channel. I tried 4 fletch in a + configuration. However, the side fletching caused problems in putting the arrow in the slot. I cut down the height of the feathers, but they caught on the inside of the tube when the arrow was slid back to the string. Unfletched darts worked perfectly. Two-fletched arrows fitted in, but long distance flight was erratic.