Compound, Longbow or Recurve, all 3 use them. Are they mandatory? NO! Should you have them? YES! But Why?
The reason you’ll want these is noise. Bows can have a horrible noise depending on string vibration when you let loose. These things are cheap, easy to make, practical & best of all, “They look cool too!”
Here’s a photo gallery that shows how to make them below.
A couple handfuls of cheap yarn, snip into pieces, divide into smaller groups.
You can use anything as a string separator, tweezers or pencil both work.
Start sliding the groups of yarn in between the strings, move the string separator to a new spot and repeat.
Once you’re done, trim with scissors, pluck the string, a few times and you’re done. If the noise level is worse or no change just move the whole string silencer up or down the string. You can move one or both, just experiment and you’ll figure it out.
Yarn is only one item you can use, I prefer “Beaver Fur” string noise suppressors but I’ve seen them made out of Otter, Fox, Rubber, it’s whatever you like and works that matters.
A nice “Quiet” bow is for some reason just that much nicer to shoot.