Arrow Holster a Low Profle Side Quiver for Archers

The Arrow Holster was born out of necessity. I commute pretty much everywhere and since I already carry enough stuff with me on a daily basis I didn't want to carry a full on side quiver as well. I did look at pocket quivers briefly but what I found didn't really cover what I wanted, so we started brainstorming and through several iterations the current version of the Arrow Holster was born.

Disclaimer: This project is somewhat involved, while the amount of material needed is not all that much the list of the tools is pretty long and that can be intimidating. However the skills required are very simple and some of the tools I'm listing can be improvised if you don't have it on hand or don't want to spend the money to buy one.

Shout-out to my friend Mate for providing me with an endless stream of ideas!!

You'll need the following things to complete this project, where it's possible I'll try to suggest some ways of an improvised tool. All of the following materials are listed assuming you use the templates and models I've attached. If you're planning on modifying the templates you'll have to adjust the materials to suit your needs.

Materials:

Fabrics:

• Leather: 1-2 mm (3-5 oz) Either veg tan cowhide in case you want to decorate the outside or a chrome or oil tanned if you want a simple cover.
• Canvas: Some sort heavy duty canvas in your choice of color. In this case I used black denim canvas salvaged from an old unused pair of jeans.

Hardware:

• 10mm EVA foam for the inside, I'm using floor mat foam the kind that goes under swimming pools. Or some similarly thick and dense foam.
• Some thin but sturdy plastic about 0,5-1mm thick, the one I used is the front/back cover salvaged from my old college notebooks. You'll need an appr. 70mm by 70mm piece.
• Chicago screw, the length depends on the final thickness of your holster (you can always cut it to length with a hacksaw), the diameter in this case is 5 mm
• Stitching thread, I'm using 1mm wide waxed
• Aftermarket Tek-Lok clip, this is what I used: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003038369269.html
• Additional kydex screws 5mm dia, 10mm length
• Something to use as spacers for the kydex screws. A small piece of pipe or something similar. In this case I used 2 layers of heat shrink tubing cut to size.

If you're planning on making/using the angle adjustment plate.

• 2 washers with inner dia of 5mm
• 2 spring washers with inner dia of 5mm

If you plan on making the plate instead of 3D printing:

• A piece of sturdy plastic 5mm thick, here I'm using a piece of flattened 2 inch sch40 pvc pipe.

Tools:

Basic tools:

• Utility knife
• Cutting mat, optional but highly recommended
• Heavy duty scissors
• Mallet - rubber or double sided is good, poly or rawhide is even better
• Awl - can be substituted with a long and thin nail
• Hole punch - 5mm
• Stitching chisel - I'm using a diamond headed 2,4 and 6 pronged chisel -- If you don't have one you can improvise one from a fork and a nail ( https://youtu.be/h5wroqfIiGQ )
• Stitching needles
• Stitching pony - optional
• Leather stamps - optional - you only need these if you plan on decorating the outside
• Stitch groover - not necessary but really helpful
• Paraffin wax candle
• Heat gun or a hairdryer
• Marker pen
• Burnishing tool - optional

Tapes and adhesives:

• Contact cement
• 5 minute epoxy
• Double sided tape
• Masking tape -- If you're using veg tan leather, be careful, some masking tapes may leave a residue or harm the surface of the leather. Might worth testing the tape first on a piece of scrap leather.

For the angle plate:

• Center punch
• Drill or if you have access to a pillar drill that's even better
• 2 mm drill bit for metal
• 5 mm drill bit for metal
• 10mm Forstner bit or the diameter that fits the head of the screws on the back
• Coping saw or tile saw
• Metal file
• Rat tail file or a dremel with carving bits
• Sandpaper

Last but not least, a printed out version of the template of your choice.

Take your printed template and cut out the sides leaving a good one cm around the outlines. Now, take your piece of leather and with the masking tape apply the template pieces to the leather. With the hole punch, punch out all 6 holes indicated on the templates, then take the stitching chisel and on one of the sides go around along the dotted line and punch through the leather to create your stitching line.

Now comes the cutting out of the sides, if you have a round corner cutter like the one on the 4th picture take it and punch cut the corners, if you don't have one, carefully cut around the corners with a utility knife (fresh blade is recommended). When you cut out all 8 corners you can go ahead and cut out the pieces along the remaining straight lines. If you've done a good job you should end up with cleanly cut leather pieces and the corresponding template pieces. Set the template pieces aside. Then if you think your leather pieces need some cleaning up, now is the time to do so.

When you're finished with cutting out the sides, take the template pieces and with a knife cut out the inner rectangle on the templates. Lay your leather flesh side (the fuzzy side) up, take the now 'hollow' template piece and put it precisely on the leather and weigh it down with something. With your marker pen, trace the inner rectangle on to your leather, this will be the guide where to glue the EVA foam later.

After the tracing is done, the next step is to transfer the stitching line from one piece to the other. To do this, pick one of the pieces and on the flesh side apply 5mm double sided tape around the edges (pic 10), now, tape the two sides together carefully, taking care that the flesh sides are facing inward and that the edges align properly. With the stitching chisel go ahead and punch through the 2nd layer following the already punched out holes on the 1st layer.

When you're done peel your pieces apart, and on the flesh side mark the orientation of your pieces. This will help you later when you're doing the assembly, and result in much cleaner alignment and stitching.

This step is entirely optional and mostly applicable if you have chosen veg tan leather for the outer layers.

On this model I'm doing several types of decorating. Two logo stamps, a name stamping and detailing the background as well as adding a border inside the stitch line. As a first step you have to case your leather, there are several very informative videos on youtube about the process. But to save a bit of time, I'll write down my simple method here.

You'll need a bowl of lukewarm water and a ziploc bag. Take your piece of leather and lightly submerge it into the water. As soon as you see the entire piece darken in color and air bubbles starting to rise to the surface take your leather out of the water. Put the hydrated water into the plastic bag, don't close the bag leave it slightly open and set it aside for a good 15 minutes. This will allow the water to permeate the leather. Once the 15 minutes is up take out your leather and place it on a dry flat surface. Now you have to leave it to dry out a little, depending on the size and thickness of the leather this could take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour. The best indicator of whether you can start working on it or not is to touch the leather, if the surface is close to dry but still cool to the touch then you're ready to start detailing the leather.

The first detail I'm adding to this piece is a border inside the stitch line (see video above). I'm using the blunt head of a stitch groover and carefully going around each piece, taking extra care around the corners so I'm not messing up the continuity of the line.

The second detail I'm adding is the future owners logo on the front piece and my maker's mark on the back piece. Here you have to be careful that you placed the stamps properly, if you stamp it in the wrong place you can't undo it and have to start over. Also try to apply even pressure on the stamps otherwise you'll have fiddle around with them to get it back to it's proper place.

The third detail is a name stamp, for this I took out each letter of the name and arranged it on the leather where I wanted it. Then carefully removed all but one letter and with a few strikes of the hammer set the letter in the leather. Leaving the previous letter where it is I placed the next one in place then have at it with the hammer. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the letters.

The fourth and final detail is the backgrounding, I've put a two videos in the media section to show you how I did it but also here's a really good instructional video about leather carving and detailing: Leather carving ; Backgrounding also you can find plenty of other instructional vids on the subject.

If you want to further decorate your pieces after detailing / carving you can still do that at this point. I'm not going to go into detail about the different processes you could do because that would make this instructable insanely long. In just a few keywords I share with you what I did with the pieces. Pattern you see on the pictures was achieved by airbrushing the pieces, first with black leather dye then with grey acrylic paint. Finally the pieces were finished with a few coats of Resolene.

From the thin plastic cut out a piece that fits inside the rectangle of the back sides (the piece with 5 holes). Take the cut out piece of plastic and transfer the punched out holes from the leather to the plastic. Punch out the holes, the steel hole punch made short work of this but depending what kind of plastic you chose you might have to drill it out.

Once you're done making the holes decide how the screws will sit in this plastic. The side on which the screws will be flat you should sand the four holes on the corners.

Mix a small amount of 5 minute epoxy and glue the screws to the piece of plastic. WARNING: My epoxy sets after 5 minutes but cures fully after 24 hours. It is suggested to wait the full curing time in order to proceed with it.

Take the EVA foam and cut out two pieces that are the size of the inner rectangle of your front and back sides.

On one sides of the foam mark it 10 cm from both edge on the shorter side. Flip to the other side and mark 15cm from both edge on the longer side.

After marking you'll have to cut each marked parts in a diagonal way. For this you should use a fresh blade in your utility knife to make a clean cut, or if you have some other more precise way of cutting like a scroll saw use that.

Once you're done with cutting the foam it's time to glue it in place. Apply contact cement to the leather pieces inside the rectangle, on both sides of the screw plate (made in the previous step) and on the EVA foam pieces where the short side is cut. After the contact cement has dried, glue the screw plate in place, then carefully glue the foam pieces in place to get an end result similar to the last picture.

This step is fairly simple, take your canvas and cut two pieces that cover each side with a fair bit of overhang.

After the pieces are cut, apply contact cement to the inside of the holster piece and the inside of the canvas piece. Once the contact cement has dried, very carefully glue the canvas to the side piece. After you have applied the canvas, with a pen or pencil go over the canvas side firmly press it, crease it into the leather / foam in order to ensure proper adhesion.

When you're done lining the insides, just go around with your shears / scissors and trim off any excess canvas, taking care not to cut into the leather.

In this step you'll have to do a bit of leather stitching. I used two blunt tip stitching needles and saddle stitch to seal the upper and lower sides of both the front and the back part. Here's a great tutorial about saddle stitching. If you have a stitching pony it makes your job that much easier, but in a pinch a vice or holding the piece with your knees could also do it. One thing to look out for in this step is to try to make the starting point of your stitching line symmetrical with the ending point.

You can skip this step if you want but I highly recommend doing it. Waxing your canvas part, helps with performance and makes the insides more resistant to dirt and splashing.

Take a paraffin candle and rub it onto the canvas sides of the front and back pieces. Once the surface is thoroughly covered in wax, take a heat gun on low setting -- or a hair dryer -- and from a distance heat the wax until it melts completely into the canvas. Repeat this process at least 4-5 times or until you're satisfied with the saturation.

In this step, you will attach the two sides together. In order to do this, first you'll have to punch through the EVA foam and the canvas on both sides. With your 5mm hole punch slowly hand drill down through the already existing holes until you make a hole through the foam and the canvas as well.

When both sides have been bored through you will be able to connect your two sides in the middle with the Chicago screw.

Once you aligned your pieces all you have to do is use the saddle stitching technique from Step 6. to lock the front and back sides together. You'll probably have to go over previously stitched areas, but don't let that discourage you, if you're using proper stitching thread that shouldn't pose any long term problems.

At this point your arrow holster is functional, if you don't need angle adjustment function you can add some rubber spacers to the screws hanging out the back, slap on your Tek-Lok clip, fasten it and you're done, go out and enjoy your new quiver.

However, if you're like me and like to experiment with different ways of use, I recommend adding an angle adjustment plate to your holster.

Now, I'm not saying that you should just download the stl file from the 'supplies' and order it from you local 3D printing shop but it does make things considerably simple. And to be honest nowadays 3D printing is becoming dirt cheap. On the first two pictures you can see the one I was able to order, it cost me like ~10 eur. It was printed in ABS plastic (recommended for increased strength), with 100% infill. Or if you don't have a 3D printing shop in your town you can order it from an online service, such as CraftCloud .

However if you like to DIY and would like to make the plate yourself I got you covered. The plate has to be sturdy in order to stand up to long term use that's why I made my initial version from flattened 2" SCH40 pvc pipe. Take a ~4-5 inch segment of the pipe and cut it lengthwise (you can use a saw [metal saw works best] or pipe cutting shears etc.).

Once cut lengthwise, prepare a flat surface where you'll be doing the flattening and a large flat sturdy item (e.g. cutting board) that can stand up to heat. Preheat an oven to about 100-120°C (212-250°F). Place your piece of pipe onto a parchment lined baking sheet and put it into the lower racks of the oven. I can't give you an exact time for how long you should leave it in the oven because it depends both on you oven the type of pipe you used. Mine took about 15-20 minutes to become pliable enough to flatten. I suggest that you check the pipe piece every 5 minutes to see how soft it is. The goal is to make it feel like it has a structure like a rubber mat, it folds easily when bent but it slowly returns to its original shape. Make sure that the pipe doesn't burn, the moment it's burned the structural integrity of it is out the window, so be careful about that. When the pipe is pliable enough take it out of the oven and with oven gloves on open it and place it inside down on the flattening surface, then put your flattener on top and flatten it with your body weight at first then weigh it down with some heavy stuff like books etc.. PVC cools very quickly but you'll still need to leave it for at least 10 minutes. After 10 min, check if it's still softer then it is original state and if so leave it under the weights for longer. After it cooled completely you're ready to start working with it.

Glue the template to the flat piece of plastic. With a center punch, mark all the drill holes indicated on the template. Drill all the holes first with the 2 mm metal bit. Take your Forstner bit and deepen the 4 corner holes until the head of the post screw disappear in them, then drill through the rest with the 5 mm metal bit. Drill through the rest of the 2mm holes in the groove sections with the 5 mm drill bit.

With the rat tail file and sandpaper (or with a dremel if you have it), clean out the grooves until the Tek-Lok screws can slide from end to end with ease.

Roughly cut out the angle plate either with a coping or a tile saw, or if you have access to a scroll saw that could make short work of it. Clean up the edges with a metal file and some sandpaper.

All that's left is to paint the plate if you want. In my case I didn't do anything fancy. After a light sanding with 240 grit sandpaper I've applied a few coats of black lacquer and that's about it.

You're in the final stages of the project, all that's left is assembling the parts into the final product.

On the first few pictures you can see black washer like pieces, those are made out of leather, that's what I used originally when I first made the holster. Since then I changed it to 2 layers of heat shrink tubing cause it allows for the full range of angle adjustment and does the same spacing job as the washers, so I recommend using that.

Fasten the two clip screws with the 5mm washer and spring washer to the angle plate inside the grooves. Screw the plate to the back posts. Then undo the two clip screws fasten your belt clip to the holster.

You're done, go ahead and test your arrow holster in the different positions and ways to use.

PS.: One minor problem that came up for me is that the clip was loose on my belt. I use a canvas belt and the thickness of it didn't fill out the gap of the clip. I managed to correct this issue by cutting scrap pieces of leather and stacking them to the thickness that fills the gap, affixed this stack with some blu tack to the inside of the clip and the now the holster is nice and snug when I put it on.