arrow shelf design ? tips?

[kurtbel5]

I was reading a thread about fletch wear, there were suggestions to shoot cock feather in. O l Adcock made the point that cock feather in, is a band aid to a poorly designed arrow shelf.I shoot off the shelf on my Bears, 4 have flat shelfs 3 have  a radius,One of the old timers here suggested a small strip of leather behind the rest another on the plate about the thickness of a match,I centered them so they met at the high spot on the radius shelves and centered on the flat ones,it made a big difference, you can see you will wear out the material on both because the arrow's only riding on that small strip.My ? is there any thing else or other tips for improving the arrow shelfs on old bows.What makes a poor shelf design?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I had a recurve that had a feather rest on it, and worked really good.