I looked in to the Bear quivers very deeply I looked them over inside out and top to bottom. Very well made to say the least and very high quality leather and thats why you still see them around. I reasearched tremendously in to the subject. I found Fred Bear actually got his start in archery building leather goods! I found he was a leather guy manufactoring seats for Chrysler and building golf bags. The man did impeckable work and let me tell you there is no one building quivers of this caliber any more.
Fred had a couple things going for him when he startded building these quivers. First he had specialized equipment due to making golf bags that worked well for sewing up the simalar tubes for quivers. He also had an asembly line with skilled labor that I am sure worked for reasonable wages. I seen in the old pictures they had a very nice setup. I can tell he had a bell skiver also that allowed him to skive the edges of the leather quickle eliminating any hand work. This skiving allowed him to layer leather with out getting to heavey on the over laps. this made sewing easier and it made a more comfortable less bulky prodsuct.
The biggest thing he had that was specialized was his sewing machine. The machine he used had to be modified. It had to be cut in half and stretched out to sew long tubes. It also had to sew up the throat. I brought these quivers to industrial sewing machine guys and stumped everyone of them. There is a lot of lost knowledge and it has disapered in the last 40 years. I think by looking at the stitches that they modified what is called a patch machine. I looked into getting one modified guess how much? $8,000.00 got sell alot of quivers to pay that baby off.
Back in the the day of Fred Bear labor was cheaper and I know leather was way cheap. They just did not have all the EPA stuff then and we had more than 2 tanneries making vegtanned leather. The amount of leather and work that it would take to build a nimrod quiver would put cost around $400.00 to $500.00. Even if building them in volume I dont see much of a savings.If anyone takes on the job the tube will either have to be laced or hand stitched both are time consuming.
This is a picture of the Bear Westerner.
This quiver also very well made great leather. I bought this one to get a pattern and see how they made it. I figured time and material this quiver would be around $250.00 $300.00. This quiver is in exellent condition and I paid a good buck to get it. I cleaned and reconditioned it and even if used hard I am sure will behanded down to the next generation. I also have it for sale in the classifieds.
Bottom line is I was very excited to start building QUALITY QUIVERS! But given the research I have done I dont think the market will Bear (no pun intended) the cost. I dont think there is enough back quiver shooters also but I could be wrong. To invest in an $8,0000.00 sewing machine I would have to know I was going to build a ton of quivers. I just think there is to much risk and uncertanty. I would be curious on oppinions after you guys read this. Thanks Scott
Topic: '59 Bear Nimrod Quiver (Read 172 times)
