I have had a devil of a time finding a quiver that really worked for me. Due to an abnormally short upper arm, I cannot reach over my back for a back quiver. I used a side or Lakota quiver for a long time and liked that (see pages on this site on making a Lakota quiver). However, it still had two problems that bugged me. On extreme downhill shots, it tended to interfere with the bow, and, when I bent over to pull arrows, I would sometimes lose some out of the quiver. Eventually, I tried a standard hip quiver and have found this to be the most satisfactory for me yet... but, as always, there seemed to be something bugging me. In the case of my quiver, while I never actually lost an arrow out of it, its shortness bothered me. It just seemed like the arrows should stick into it further than they did. Secondly, my quiver did not have any way to separate arrows into two batches, such as for blunts and field tips, or regular fletch and flu flu.
My wife had some major surgery this summer and I knew I'd have some time at home caring for her. This seemed a good time to accomplish some of those projects I had in mind but never quite seemed to get to. Making a new quiver was one of them. Of course, I didn't have as much time as I thought I would, but this week I finally got things together. I had bought a nice hide from Tandy Leather, plus some assorted tools to help with the job. I don't know the actual ounce weight of the leather, but it's fairly flexible without being soft, maybe 3/16 of an inch thick... seemed perfect for the job.
When I sat down with the material, I decided I'd start slow and make a simple armguard to get the feel of the leather and lacing that I had... kind of a walk before you run approach.
Armguard
Again, because of the disproportionate joint in my arm, I find most armguards too long, and they chafe at the wrist and elbow. This seemed a perfect chance to solve this problem. My usual approach to any project is to assume two things: one, that the first effort will show flaws in my planning and two, that I will almost certainly want to do it again to improve the product. So, I made a paper pattern, cut that out and laid it out on some 1/8" plywood and cut a wooden pattern to work from on the leather. I always try to work from hard patterns so that I can save them for future reuse. I made a very simple but effective armguard, or brace, with little effort. I am going to make a Mark II pattern with a couple of small changes, but I'm pleased overall.
Very simple... cut a shape and lace the edges (see later instructions on the quiver for detail of lacing). Most braces of this type seem to use a button and a piece of elastic on both sides, butI I find that just one is quite adequate and much easier to get on and off.
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The only "trick" I found in making this was establishing the edges. Some leatherworkers might skive (cut a groove) the line to make the fold. I wanted these edges to be stiff so I could get away with the elastic on only one side, so rather than doing that, I simply pounded the fold flat with a hammer. (I'm noted for my subtlety...) The holes were simply marked at 1/2" intervals and punched, then laced. You'll note in the previous pictures that even though I don't have a button on both sides, I made the lacing match. A one foot piece of lacing did each side. The lacing is 5/32", bought on a spool from Tandy. |
Here it is on... I made a slight indented curvature to the wrist end, but it could use more and I'll make that change in Mark II.
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And again. I think Mark II will be maybe 1/2" to 1" wider. Mark II will also see the corners much more rounded for appearance sake. |
Hip Quiver
Moving on from the heady success of my simple brace, I set out to conquer the inticacies of the quiver. I had two quides... first, my old quiver, that I felt was too short, but I knew worked, and second, a picture of a "youth quiver" that is in the Black Widow catalog. This was almost exactly what I wanted but was, of course, "youth" sized. Also, to be honest, I simply had a yen to make something and have some fun.
I used the old quiver to make a paper pattern, drawing around it and flopping it over to get the full thing. Then I sat down and looked at it and decided how much to lengthen it and how much to taper it. (Forgot to mention that I wanted a more tapered look...) After a bit of work, I thought I had about what I wanted and did the transfer to plywood and used the band saw to saw it out. Here we go with the pictures...
The work site... neat I'm not! This is actually one of the cutting tables in Ann's boat upholstery work area. What with age and the hip surgery, she is very close to deciding to give up the business, at which point i shall gleefully go out and replacee this table with a pool table, and lay claim to the foam storage area for a new railroad! Note the holster for an 1861 Navy Colt and the heavy throwing knife sheath. I made these back in 1971!
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Some of you may recall that in my previous quiver project, I somehow ended up making a left handed quiver by mistake! Not this time. Note the writing on the two patterm pieces: "This side up on rough side of leather for right handed quiver: Flip for left handed." Top tab of quiver pattern is too long here. I originally intended a one piece pattern but decided on two piece to reinforce the section from the belt to top of the quiver so that it wouldn't become too flexible and result in a floppy quiver... hence the second piece which becomes the hanger.
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Here is the quiver section cut out, top tab shortened, and holes punched. The holes are punched with a 1/8" punch from Tandy. They are spaced 1/2" apart.
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Tools of the job. A pair of scissors was used for cutting. The hammer for pounding on the punch. The little plastic block is specially made for pounding the punch on. It has the correct amound of give to allow a clean punch but not damage the sharp edges of the tool. Doesn't show up expecially well, but on the end of the lacing (5/32"... got a 50' spool from Tandy) is a small, really neat brass needle for leathr lacing. It has a hollow threaded end. You just cut the lacing on a shallow angle and screw the needle onto the lace. Man, does that make the job easier! |
Here's the lacing needle coming out of the hole.. Note: I folded the leather piece very carefully, checked the alignment and trimmed any uneveness and then marked and punched the holes through both sides at once. I started the lacing at the bottom "point" of the quiver, lacing three loops over the tail before cutting it off. My lacing piece was 6' long.
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Here you can see the potential for adding a sheath to the basic quiver. A small string pouch or such could also be added. I had to buy a whole hide for the project, so I have plenty of leather left! I plan to build a belt, sheath and a possibles pouch from this same leather, so that I have a complete matching set up, all on the belt. |
This was at the point where I had the basic quiver laced up. I wanted to see a dozen arrows in it. Belt hanger still not attached. note the tail of the lacing, standing by to be extended up the side of the belt hanger...
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OK, when you're working with heavier leather, precision is not always easy. The leather of the hide itself varies in thickness, the accuracy of your patterning, tracing and cutting becomes a factor, the tension of the lacing enters into things, etc. The end result is that you have to a little flexible... willing to go with the flow and adjust, as it were. Here I'm finding that while initially measured the same, the belt hanger piece doesn't want to exactly match up with the top piece of the quiver, due to the fold in the quiver. I ended up with a little angled "ear" sticking out. Snip, went the scissors... Note that the reason I'm using the two piece approach is that I wanted the section of the quiver between the belt and the opening of the arrow pocket to have some rigidity, so that after some use it wouldn't become floppy. I used this same technique on the Navy holster way back when... |
I have brought the lacing of the quiver side up to include all three layers: the quiver top and both the front and back of the folded over belt hanger piece. I have left the last few lacings loose and fed the tail back through them, then I'll draw each one tight, pull the tail up snug and cut it off.
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Here I have started a second lacing on the folded and laced side, four laces down from the quiver opening. I fed the new lace under the old lace with the needle, punched the holes across the top by sticking the plastic block in corner-wise, then laced across the top and up the other side of the belt hanger, finishing as before in previous picture. Nest time, I'll punch the holes across the top before starting the lacing... just hadn't realized I wanted to treat the top edge that way until I reached this point and it looked like a good idea.
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One of my objections to my existing quiver was that there was no way to segregate arrows. As I'm sure any shooter knows, if you are out in the woods or on a course and a nock breaks, you will pull that arrow out 9 times out of ten if you don't look. Same holds if you pick up someone else's arrow to take back to the arrow bucket. Of course, this is also useful for keeping a couple of blunts or flu flu's handy. Here you can see how I've attached a simple loop to serve this purpose. The antler button ;has two holes. I marked where I wanted it, punched the two holes through all three layers of leather and tied it on with a short piece of lacing.
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Separation loop in use... You'll note here the old belt that goes with the holster and sheath... also made in 1971. I'm going to cut a new belt from this same hide and use my nice brass Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation buckle on it. |
Here is my old quiver (buffalo hide) and the new one, with arm brace to the side.
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This space reserved for a picture of me wearing
the complete set as soon as I can finish a possibles bad, a knife sheath
and a belt... |
This project was loads of fun, and, as you can see, I'm not done yet. I'm even thinking of a second quiver, with the outside surfaced with a hair on brindle longhorn hid I have.
Dick
Knife Sheath
Well, the evening turned out slow so I went down and worked on another item of the set... a knife sheath. I think it came out fairly well. It was the first time I made a sheath with an inner spacing layer to protect the lacing. I overdid it at first, putting two extra layers in. I had to unlace it and take one out. Here is the result. The knife is a muzzle loading patch knife I made back in the 1960's. If you look closely, you can see the round "nib" on the guard, used to seat the round ball in the muzzle before trimming the patch.
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Possibles Pouch
I like to have a small possibles pouch on my belt, to carry a bow stringer, my glove when it's not on, and, lately, a rangefinder with which I am trying to train myself to judge distances. Sometimes a small multi-tool, a candy bar, pills, etc. find their way in there, too. Here I was, with all that leather and on a roll, so the next item was a possibles pouch...
This pouch is 6 1/2" wide and 1 1/2" deep.
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I could have laced this belt loop on, but I didn't want the thickness or roughness of the lacing inside, so I did it on the machine. |
Making this pouch design work is tricky. You don't want to try to bend leather this stiff into a seam for a piece this narrow. I used a softer latigo leather for the sides.
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Belt
So, OK, I have a new quiver, a new knife sheath and a new possibles bag. Obviously, I need a new belt to hold them all...
Brass snaps permit the changing of buckles...
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I'm a bit of a brass buckle freak, and this one has been crying to be put on an archery belt, so now both it and I are happy...
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The Completed Project
What does it all look like finished? Here you go... This is what I'll be wearing when shooting, and to put it mildly, I'm pumped! There's really no fancy leatherwork here, just some planning, some care, and a bit of "git 'er done..."
All items bunched up here, so they fit in the picture. Quiver goes on right hip for me, pouch at small of back, knife on left hip. |
The belt is long enough to work with coats and sweaters in the winter. I'm good to go! |
August 12
After a couple of times around the range I came up with some improvements... minor, but worth doing. Mounting the arrow separater in the middle as I did (see photo immediately above) put it directly in the way of putting arrows into the front half of the quiver. The brace proved to be kind of hot on the arm on a warm summer day (yes, we do get those in Seattle...).
I little punched in decoration will help the problem of the brace being uncomfortably warm on a hot day. |
I took the separater off of the button and laced it into the side lacing, which should solve that problem.
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