# Blade Rest



## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

There seem to be two reasons for blade rests: 

One is that there are no moving parts, so it's not subject to the wear that a drop away will get. Basically it's a simple, solid piece of equipment with little chance of failure at an inconvenient time. But, it's not bullet proof. One year at states, I couldn't keep my arrows out of the left side of the target. I later discovered that the blade had a tiny twist in it that had been caused by it catching on something. Also, blade rests get very sharp. Just about everyone who has used them reports a nick or two. In summary, blade rests are very good target rests with a couple of things that are not perfect. It's not likely that you will go wrong with one.

The second reason they are used is simply because we have always used them. Over the last couple of decades, most of the big shoots have been won by archers shooting blade rests. Of course, it's not 100%, but the vast majority of wins have been with a blade rest.

The contact between the blade and arrow typically ends a couple of inches in front of the arrow. You will want to tune your bow for this. During the first part of the power stroke, the arrow pushes down on the rest, then as the arrow moves forward, it should get up, off of the rest. This is part of why you find the right spine for your arrows. 

I shoot blade rests and don't plan to change in the near future. I tried a drop away a few years ago and was not satisfied. It simply couldn't hold up to the huge number of arrows that a target archer shoots. However, I think that there is the potential for drop away rests to be more accurate than in blade rests. The only one that I currently think is solid and durable enough for target shooting is the Hamskea. Unfortunately, this one is too expensive for me. I'll stick with my blades, bloody and all. 

The thickness of the blade will depend on your arrow weight. Heavier arrows do better with thicker blades. The best thing is to have a couple of each thickness to test. Nuts&Bolts has a pretty good tutorial on setting up a blade rest. I'll try to find it.

Allen


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

OOPs

"The contact between the blade and arrow typically ends a couple of inches in front of the arrow."

That should be "a couple of inches in front of the *fletching*."

Sorry about that. I hope it didn't confuse anyone too much.


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## Daave (Jul 22, 2005)

Thank you!


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