Many of the few surviving archery artifacts we have from the Middle Ages come from the arsenals aboard the English warship the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was not exactly a Medieval warship either, but rather early Renaissance. Due to the good condition of the finds however, these are often the artifacts used as a base. Also we know that these would have likely been used far earlier because of artwork which shows the use of such bags in a earlier period.
The first part to be produced in the arrow bag is the arrow spacer. This needs to be made from a rather thick piece of leather in order to have the stiffness required. Another method of production is to take two pieces of medium weight leather and glue them together. The triangular slits you see in the image above are for broadheads, but since I am only using field points, I left them round. This PDF contains a pattern for a spacer with and without the triangle cuts.
The bags themselves unfortunately have not survived, so we are left with art to determine their shape. The bag is made out of canvas, with a fold on each end for a drawstring. The top third of the bag is not sewn together so the cover can be folded back and the arrows drawn.
The leather spacer was sewn sturdily onto the bag with the small holes.
The drawstring was made with 1/4 in cotton rope, though slightly thinner would work also. Aglets were made from 20 gauge brass sheet, and had holes drilled towards the bottom and sewn on.
The belt loops were made from a simple 2x4 rectangle of canvas with the edges folded in.
Unfortunately, I made a small mistake in measuring. When closed for storage, the top of the bag is about 3 inches too short, leaving the tops of the arrows exposed. When the bag is opened, however, the arrow bag functions wonderfully as a combat archery quiver. The arrow can be worn on a belt, allowing for easy reach and draw capability. The spacer and drawstring keep the arrows from flopping around when walking and make it easy to control where your arrows are.
