There are main types of jesses, Alymeri and regular.
The regular: Two strips of leather with 3 slits cut in strategic locations and wrapped in a certain way around the tarsi of the bird.
Alymeri: Named after the late Guy Alymeri. Comes in two pieces, the anklet (attached to the tarsi) which are flared at the top and bottom and an eyelet connecting both ends of the leather. The jess goes through the anklet's hole. There are two styles of Alymeri jesses, jesses for the field and jesses for the mews.
Mews jesses have slits in the bottom and are attached to a swivel most of the time.
Hunting jesses have no slits and no swivel attached to them. This is to keep them from catching up in trees and branches.
Correct me if I'm wrong fellas, but I think I'm fairly right.
They're pretty much the same as Alymeri (btw, I'm all for honoring contributors to an art, but some things just need descriptive names ), except instead of just having a knot on the end of them so they don't fall through the eyelet on the anklet, they have... well they're really just buttons actually. Like off your shirt or jacket. They're just slightly adapted to a metal eyelet in leather.
Oh, and I don't think anyone uses bullet/button jesses for anything but tethering a bird. I imagine they stand a much better chance of getting tangled/caught on stuff when the bird is going after prey. Their main benefit is being able to leave the jesses themselves tethered to a perch because you don't have to pull the entire jess through the eyelet to attach them to the anklet on the bird.
I am new to this sight. But you really need to read the books that have been suggested to you. It will help you understand falconry along with learning the terminalogy. Falconry must be a passion,that comes before anything else. Reading this sight (all of it) will answer most of your questions.
There are a bunch of other types of jesses. Don't forget the slip jess, corded jesses, double thumb, over the forefinger jess..... oh man anything that holds a bird down and keeps it from flying away. Until you want it to! If you can think of it..(Insert name here) jess. There ya go, come up with a new jess and why it would work?
"Mews jesses have slits in the bottom and are attached to a swivel most of the time." Please tell me you guys aren't free lofting your birds in the mews with slitted jesses. I know, I know-"there's NOTHING in my mews that would hang my bird up...etc, etc..." That just seemed like a bad idea to me. I use parachute cord with a big knot in the end for mew jesses, easy in and out and nothing to catch anywhere when the bird's hopping around in the mew. Even when she picks them out, they slip back in so easily the bird never seems to notice. Just my two cents.
Not for freelofting sorry. You're right chickenhunter. I meant they were attached to a swivel and then the leash was tied to the perch. Thanks for that!
You can make your own very easily. Just take a strip of leather, bend it, punch it, thread the other end through it and bam. You have bullet jesses. I know there are some plans out there on the net but I don't know where they're at. You could do a search for them or you could hope someone on here knows where they're at off hand.