Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => HowTo's and Build-a-longs => Topic started by: oneeye on May 31, 2010, 08:02:54 pm

Title: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on May 31, 2010, 08:02:54 pm
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0127.jpg)]

Start with a piece of paper to get your pattern for your leather. I use leather approx. 3/32" thick.
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0175.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0176.jpg)]
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0177.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0179.jpg)]
for a pistol grip your pattern will look close to this 4 1/4" tall by 4 3/4" wide at top  5 1/2" wide at bottom.  add about an 1/8" all around pattern and cut leather to shape, then soak in warm water.
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0182.jpg)][(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0183.jpg)][(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0184.jpg)][(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0186.jpg)]
apply leather to bow handle and wrap tightly with cord.  (you will need at least 16 feet of cord.I use lawn mower pull start cord because it has a nice braided pattern.) let dry approx. 48 hrs
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0187.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0188.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0189.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0190.jpg)]
take your chord off and you will be left with an embossed piece of leather. mark leather in center of limb and trim one side then do the other. I like to soak it then wrap it again to get a perfect fit it should be just a bit small  by about 1/8" to give a nice tight fit.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on May 31, 2010, 09:13:27 pm
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0205.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0207.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0208.jpg)]
trim leather 1/16" below shelf and bottom of grip. the braid will cover this space. Mark 1/8" inside all edges and punch 1/8" slits all around (punch slits at 45 angle at corners) leaving 1/8" between slits.
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0209.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0211.jpg)]
should look like this when done. use a punch and widen all slits a bit, makes lacing easier. 
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0219.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0216.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0218.jpg)]
place around handle and tie in with artificial sinew. There will be 3 different braided sections each one will use approx 9x the length to be braided of 1/8" leather lace.  rub the lace down with leather conditioner and put in bag (overnight), it will make it nice and soft and you shouldn't have to worry about breakage.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on May 31, 2010, 09:56:53 pm
You may want to look up double loop lacing for the next step. here's how it goes for a right handed bow as we want the lacing to lay towards the back of the bow on the arrow rest side. Reverse everything if your a lefty. Start on the opposite side of arrow rest mid way.
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0221.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0222.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0223.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0224.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0225.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0226.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0227.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0229.jpg)]
continue this pattern all the way around until you get to this point.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: Pat B on June 01, 2010, 12:41:48 am
This is very interesting Rich. I love the pressed pattern in the leather.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on June 02, 2010, 03:12:21 am
 Once again you may want to look up double loop lacing. 
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0230.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0234.jpg)]
pull the end of the lace out until it looks like this, being careful to maintain the loop and leaving one empty slit.

[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0236.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0238.jpg)]
Continue lacing as normal then feed lace through loop as shown

[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0239.jpg)][(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0273.jpg)]
Lace back under the bight not pulling to tight and cross over your lace pushing needle down through both the loop and going through the slit with 2 laces in it. Tighten and even things up making everything appear equally spaced. You will need to run the needle under a few stiches of lace with both ends. Disregard the lace in the background, thats the next step.  ???
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: medicinewheel on June 02, 2010, 07:53:13 am
WOW, this is fantastic!
Thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: HoBow on June 02, 2010, 08:00:47 am
Nice!  I know they style of my next bow grip  ;)
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: Josh on June 02, 2010, 11:22:49 am
Awesome been looking forward to this...  :)  Thanks for the detailed explanation! 
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: HatchA on June 02, 2010, 04:12:41 pm
Thanks for this Oneeye...  Much appreciated!

Steve.

Maybe this should be stickied or whatever you do to give it a place of importance..?  Would save me copying and pasting all the pic's to my hard drive ;D  hehe
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: bowkee on June 03, 2010, 01:18:08 am
Thanks ,Been Waiting for this 8)
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on June 03, 2010, 01:46:59 am
Your all very welcome but .....We still have another step to go  ???  Hope it doesn't look to complicated its rather easy once you get going.  It's much easier to learn using illustrations than pictures but everything I have is copyriight protected. :P    I'll get the rest posted soon.   Scott

ps .  next step applique lacing for the front.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on June 03, 2010, 03:02:38 am
This time you may want to look up applique lacing. First we need to fill up some space between braids with lace and if anyone has a better idea than this please let me know. I normally just lace where I think it looks the best.
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0274.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0275.jpg)]
lace through the upper 2 corner slits then come back around and go through them again.

[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0277.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0278.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0279.jpg)]
slide your needle through a lower lace and upper lace as shown and pull snug but not tight.

[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0280.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0282.jpg)]
place the needle back under the lace and back through the right corner slit and tighten everything up. (use an awl, you will break less lace) our starting point for the applique lacing needs to be in the upper right slit and this is the only way I could figure out how to fill the space up with lacing. The rest is cake !!
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on June 03, 2010, 12:15:27 pm
[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0283.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0284.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0285.jpg)]


[(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0286.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0287.jpg)] [(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y115/oneye/SANY0288.jpg)]
continue these last three steps to the bottom of the grip.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: JW_Halverson on June 03, 2010, 12:38:48 pm
Amazing!  That is beautiful work, thank you for sharing it with us.  You did a great job in photographing the details so that dummies like me can "read the pictures". 

Just one question.  Could you wait until the lacing was done, then wet the leather thoroughly and wrap tightly with the cord to achieve the embossing?

Man, I got this one bookmarked for future reference!
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: Barrage on June 03, 2010, 01:23:04 pm
Thanks for posting, that's a great idea how you embossed it.

One question - what kind of a needle is that?  The lacing just fits right in the end?  Never seen that before.  Looks convenient.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: oneeye on June 03, 2010, 02:24:32 pm
JW,  I don't think it would work if you waited. When you get the leather wet and wrap, it actually stretches or smashes it making the leather thinner, i think it would loosen everything up.

Barrage, that is a perma-lok threading needle the lacing threads into the end. very handy little tool.

We're not quite done yet. I'll get the rest up soon.   Scott
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: Lombard on June 05, 2010, 10:43:40 pm
Wicked nice indeed. Thanks for taking the time.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: NTD on June 06, 2010, 02:30:18 am
Scott,

Definitely have to say thank you for being so willing to share this.  It sure is a sharp looking grip style!!
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: Jesse on June 13, 2010, 03:32:56 am
excellent! Thanks so much for taking the time :)
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: stickbender on June 13, 2010, 09:59:10 pm

     Thanks, that is cool! 8)  Where did you get the perma lock threading needle?  I have a couple very old lacing needles, but not like that.  I can't find any Tandy stores around here, or south of me.  Thanks for showing this I really like it. ;)

                                                                        Wayne
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: JW_Halverson on June 16, 2010, 09:03:41 pm
JW,  I don't think it would work if you waited. When you get the leather wet and wrap, it actually stretches or smashes it making the leather thinner, i think it would loosen everything up.

Well, I just had to go and try it.  I was going to sew on a leather grip yesterday, so I found some two ply cordage and commenced to stitching the grip.  I then wrapped the handle with a damp cloth and let it set 15 minutes.  I removed the cloth and proceeded to wrap tightly with the twisted cordage.  I left it overnite and removed the cord this morning.  Yup, worked like a charm, I now have an embossed bowgrip. 

I think the reason it worked is that I prestretch the handle wraps before sewing.  I generally dampen the leather after stitching it on and it always shrinks up nice and tight.  I did find that I may have wrapped the damp leather too tightly with the cordage because the leather is now kinda hard.  I'll add some neetsfoot or other leather dressing to inmprove that situation. Next, I'm going to have to try the leather lacing trick.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: Arrowind on February 20, 2011, 12:59:36 pm
I love it.  Thanks for sharing this!
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: HickoryBill on February 20, 2011, 01:54:00 pm
WOW!!!! That's all I can say!!!! Grips have always been my downfall,hopefully I can manage to do this?
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: nyarrow on March 12, 2011, 09:06:16 am
Thanks for sharing! Best handle wrap I have seen yet. I'll definitely have to research the stitching a bit more as it's a little hard to decipher from the pics.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: Cameroo on March 12, 2011, 11:03:25 am
Thanks for sharing! Best handle wrap I have seen yet.

Agreed! That's a real eye catcher, my favorite type too.  Your work is flawless Oneeye, thanks for sharing this.  I attempted this wrap on my last bow, but the lacing didn't turn out nearly as perfect as yours.
Title: Re: braided leather bowgrip
Post by: dbb on May 29, 2011, 02:26:55 pm
Very good pics,easy to see what to do.
I was looking for those needles and found this.An easy way to make one.
http://pineapple.myfunforum.org/sutra1367.php

/Mikael