Leather thickness question

Uncle Timbo

Uncle Timbo

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Nov 23, 2005
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I have a few questions to you old leather experts. Dad always said to give the dough to the Baker and in this case, that isn't me....yet.
I'm pondering the idea of making a fairly primitive arrow quiver and a possibles bag. My question is what ounce leather would I be wanting for each. The possibles bag would be a shoulder bag with a strap. The quiver would also be on the shoulder.
Also, Tandy is the only source I know of.
Can any of you knowledgeable dawgs help me out?
 
The possibles bags that I have made, and those I've seen have been either Deer, Elk, or a Deer tanned cowhide. Seems soft leather is the best for those, and each type has few thickness choices. All of the above leathers you can find at Tandy, the deer tanned cowhide being the most economical of the three, Elk being the most expensive but its very nice to work with.

I've made a few arrow quivers as well and have found that anything lighter than 7 ounce becomes floppy with time. My go to 8/9 ounce leather is pretty good but might be almost too thick for some people. All in all you want a relatively stiff leather to work with.
 
Thank you Leatherman. I guess I'm looking for opposite ends of the spectrum. Heavier for the quiver (I would hate a wimpy quiver) and softer/lighter for the bag.
Deer tanned was new to me and I had to research that a tad. Heck, all leather working is new to me, but I think it might make a good winter project.
I've seen where some people use a stick of sorts as a stiffener or backer on their quivers. Do you recommend that or would the 8/9 ounce be stiff enough alone?
One more question please, does artificial sinew hold up to time?
Thank you.
UT
 
Your right about the sticks being used on quivers, native quivers used a frame of willow or birch and quite a few are birch bark wrapped around that frame. That, and rawhide or brain tanned deer hide seems to be a popular choice. Those do need a framework to keep them in shape. would be a fun project to see which performs better of the three styles.
As for stiff enough, I bet the 8\9would be plenty good, you could even run a strip around the top to keep that area from wanting to close up.
Artificial sinew for me has been a love\hate relationship. It does fray a bit with heavy use, but is very strong. I did find a braided sinew a while back that apparently does not fray as badly. I cant vouch for that as I haven't used it enough. I found that the fraying was worse when I did the braid over the spine of a sheath, fixed that with a coating of bag coat but to me it looked odd because of that.
 
Horsewright Horsewright , have you made any of these things? I'd love to hear your take. :)
 
Nope out of my area. No expertise. The only archery thing I've ever done was an arm guard for one of those mounted archers in Hungary. We have done some saddle horn possible bags recently, to hang from the saddle horn. Used a very soft chap leather.

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leatherman said:
Your right about the sticks being used on quivers, native quivers used a frame of willow or birch and quite a few are birch bark wrapped around that frame. That, and rawhide or brain tanned deer hide seems to be a popular choice. Those do need a framework to keep them in shape. would be a fun project to see which performs better of the three styles.
As for stiff enough, I bet the 8\9would be plenty good, you could even run a strip around the top to keep that area from wanting to close up.
Artificial sinew for me has been a love\hate relationship. It does fray a bit with heavy use, but is very strong. I did find a braided sinew a while back that apparently does not fray as badly. I cant vouch for that as I haven't used it enough. I found that the fraying was worse when I did the braid over the spine of a sheath, fixed that with a coating of bag coat but to me it looked odd because of that.
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Thank you kindly for that wisdom. I'm thinking of using the 8-9 and not going with a backer. Who knows, maybe after the first one, I'll make another with a backer.
Also, thanks for the insight on artificial sinew, I had no idea. If you were making one of these and not using that or real sinew, what would you use?
Horsewright Horsewright , while not my cup of tea, those are some beautiful bags.
 
Uncle Timbo Uncle Timbo Thanks they were prizes for some young gals in a junior rodeo deal. Really just a modification of a purse that my wife makes. BTW was looking through the Springfield catalog yesterday for a rope bag pattern and saw an archery set of patterns that had five different quivers. Might check em out. They are online too.
 
Horsewright said:
Uncle Timbo Uncle Timbo Thanks they were prizes for some young gals in a junior rodeo deal. Really just a modification of a purse that my wife makes. BTW was looking through the Springfield catalog yesterday for a rope bag pattern and saw an archery set of patterns that had five different quivers. Might check em out. They are online too.
Click to expand...
Thanks Horsewright. Since my last post here, I been to your Springfield catalog and prolly watched 20 or so videos of guys making quivers.
I liked what a lot of people did and just used rawhide type shoelaces for thread. I like that rustic look.
BTW, some of you guys on here are amazing.
 
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