# How to make your own Protx Style Archery Glove



## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

Save yourself $35 or in my case including postage and customs fees about £50. on one of these..








http://www.shootingedgetech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=5&Itemid=57

By Making one of these..
Just Made this this morning..









All it is is a cycling mitt, some Leather, Glue and some strong stitching material...I'm A Guitar picker and the thought of driving a broken splintered Arrow through my fretting hand gives me nightmares. Hence i have always wore a glove on my Bow hand...But after looking at some pics of some nasty injuries i decided i either part with fifty notes for a more robust/reinforced Glove, Give up Archery, Give up the Guitar or make my own hand guard Glove...I chose to make my own. 

Cycling Mitt before..









Piece of old Leather..you can see where i cut out the rough shape...Twice









Continued below..


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

The Process..

1..Put on your glove and place piece of Leather where you want the protective pad you are about to make over the the bit you will be covering and mark out a rough shape concentrating on the part of your hand that needs the protection. Get someone to help you to hold the Leather in place until you draw it out.

2..Cut out shape with box cutter or something real sharp. again, once you have the shape cut out lay the cut out piece on top of the leather and mark and cut a mirror image...I chose to have the shiney pieces of leather on the inside..ie, face to face when i got round to gluing them together.

3..check and check again to make sure the leather is the shape you need...feel free to get creative in shaping the leather, just as long as if covers the important part of your hand. trim everything up check against glove hand...if it looks good to go it's glue time.

4..and i found this out by accident this morning whilst making the glove...this is the glue i used and would recommend it as it has a duel purpose. Mitre Fast 2 pack glue..one part is a liquid epoxy and the other is a Spray on activator..









5..here's the neat part, when you are gluing the two pieces of leather together, really lay a lot of the epoxy on the main protective area of the leather as well as running it all the way around the edges...why? because as i found out, the Mitre Fast goes really hard and if you lay a lot..even amount though, dont want it all bumpy..you will create a really hard layer in between the leather pad you are making..

6..once everything is dry take a metal sharp thingy..I sharpened up a small flat head screwdriver and use that to punch holes all the way around the leather, ready for stitching..

Got it so far..??


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

Evil me with finished glove after i had stitched the parts that needed stitching and glue the parts that needed gluing to the glove itself..









I got a bit creative with a Black Marker pen/Sharpy??..Helped cover up my sloppy stitching around the edges and kinda made it into a one of. 









I'm pleasantly surprised how it turned out..No chance a broken arrow will penetrate this glove. and it cost me nothing as i had all the materials at Hand..Leather came from a Sofa a Neighbour had thrown out a few year back and i stripped it down. stitching material i used was Spider line but you could use just normal heavy fishing line.

Any Questions feel free... Cheers Stevie.


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## bbjavelina (Jan 30, 2005)

I applaud your efforts. 

Now, can we see some impact test (similar to what was on YouTube with the protx) to see how the leather compares to the Kevlar? 

Best of luck to you.


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

bbjavelina said:


> I applaud your efforts.
> 
> Now, can we see some impact test (similar to what was on YouTube with the protx) to see how the leather compares to the Kevlar?
> 
> Best of luck to you.


What,?? you want me to break a Arrow to see if the glove works..i only have 11. :lol:... Trust me, with the two layers of thick leather and the glue hardened in between i doubt very much if a broken Arrow will penetrate this glove...It's tough. hey if you wanted you could go buy some Kevlar Material and layer it in between the leather...I dont believe it's needed.
Thanks for the Applause though.. :wink:


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

aaaayeeeeeee...there..Happy now.. :lol:


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## bbjavelina (Jan 30, 2005)

Stevie777 said:


> What,?? you want me to break a Arrow to see if the glove works..i only have 11. :lol:... Trust me, with the two layers of thick leather and the glue hardened in between i doubt very much if a broken Arrow will penetrate this glove...It's tough. hey if you wanted you could go buy some Kevlar Material and layer it in between the leather...I dont believe it's needed.
> Thanks for the Applause though.. :wink:


So, if you only have 11, where's the other one. Dig it up and do a test.

As far as the "trust me" thing -- that's what people say when they have no evidence.


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

bbjavelina said:


> So, if you only have 11, where's the other one. Dig it up and do a test.
> 
> As far as the "trust me" thing -- that's what people say when they have no evidence.


I used it up a while back making a Arrow Square...I waste nothing. Here>>>> http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2117113


Hey it's my hand. you make one of your own and Do the test. I have faith in my effort. :wink:


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

More Artwork..


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

Just realised i had nearly drawn a Woman so i went back and gave her Boobies.. :mg:


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## Twitko (Nov 29, 2012)

I'm not sure, but ... do you really believe that simple leather could stop arrow ? Even broken one ? That's what I'm not sure about ...
Lether could be stiff, or seems so, but bows and arrows are basically made to penetrate it ... 
Protex glove provide Kevlar protection ... not "only" leather ... and that's why todays's motorbike's suits are reinforced by Kevlar, not by a plain leather .. as plain leather is not enough

Maybe You are right and I'm wrong, but I'm not going to change my opinion without some serious tests/proof 
and last but not least - I like DIY tinkering .. but to save just 35 bucks doesn't look too enough for me ... in this case ...


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

I'm not trying to sell the glove, i'm not trying to compete with Protx..

I cant source the glove here in the UK, i would need to find a supplier in the US who would ship to Scotland and then i would have delivery across the pond and customs duty to contend with. Your $35 would be $70 for me. I just cant justify that expense on something i can produce myself for £0 that will do a similar job.

I have Scope to add a layer or two of Kevlar material or another couple of layers of leather into/onto the pad if that's the route i want to go down...easy fix. I can buy A4 size piece of Kevlar material from Ebay for $15...or save $15 and just add more Leather...I dont believe the glove needs it. you would be surprised how tough this feels.

It was a Project, a trial run and i'm happy with my first effort, If i could improve on the design it would be to extend the leather further up my wrist. I'll do this on the next one.


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## Chopayne (Mar 2, 2013)

There is a pretty big difference in the properties of leather and kevlar...it's nice what you did but I think you're just giving yourself a false sense of security. Your glove is untested, and really makes you feel safe more than anything. If that's what you need it's fine, I'm sure that your arrow will never break on your hand anyways.

Adding multiple layers of leather might help, or you might just be wasting money. But we'll never know until you test it out ; ) either way I'm sure something is better than nothing


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## beaverman (Jun 21, 2008)

If you want to test it, just take a couple pieces of the left over leather glue them together and shoot it with your bow to see how well the arrow penetrates. It should give you an idea of what to expect if an arrow were to impact your glove.


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

beaverman said:


> If you want to test it, just take a couple pieces of the left over leather glue them together and shoot it with your bow to see how well the arrow penetrates. It should give you an idea of what to expect if an arrow were to impact your glove.


It's designed for protection against a Broken Arrow not a field point of broad Head. I dont have a broken arrow and i'm not about to break one just to do quality control..:lol:

I feel safer already anyway. as i said, I play guitar, i cant take the risk of a Arrow breaking on release and going into that part of my hand. Even if a arrow does break and penetrates the glove at least i will have some form of protection.


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## Chopayne (Mar 2, 2013)

Yeah its a common misconception on here. It's to stop the broken shaft of the arrow not the arrow with broad head or field point


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

Chopayne said:


> Yeah its a common misconception on here. It's to stop the broken shaft of the arrow not the arrow with broad head or field point


Finally... :lol:


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## beaverman (Jun 21, 2008)

I understand what it is for I just figured you could see how hard or easy the leather is penetrated by a normal arrow to give you an idea of how it would hold up to a broken arrow.


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## Chopayne (Mar 2, 2013)

beaverman said:


> I understand what it is for I just figured you could see how hard or easy the leather is penetrated by a normal arrow to give you an idea of how it would hold up to a broken arrow.


I don't know Beaverman. The differences are huge. A metal tip right at release driving into the bow vs shards of weak carbon driving in should in without the full speed in my opinion theoretically should have far less pentetration.

Though if the arrow can't penetrate that leather, then I'm sure you'd be safe with half shaft.

And yea I bought the protx glove. Then I switched to fmjs, kind of negates the need for it.


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## Chiro_Archer (Jun 6, 2011)

Heres a thought, shoot it with an arrow that doesn't have a tip on it, this way you will have a proper test demo. No point, just the arrow itself hitting the glove. Thought you will lose the test arrow more than likely. But it will give you a much better idea if it will ACTUALLY work to deflect an arrow/ broken arrow


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## Chopayne (Mar 2, 2013)

He stated he doesn't want to lose an arrow. So he's really just stuck with what he thinks will work and hopefully never find out if it will work : )


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## caspian (Jan 13, 2009)

Chopayne said:


> It's to stop the broken shaft of the arrow not the arrow with broad head or field point


the only problem being that it won't do that either.


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## GrayTech (Jan 29, 2013)

With enough speed you can shoot a paper straw through steel. The experiment has been successfully done. 
The leather used in medieval armour was boiled and shaped while wet, then allowed to dry. This makes it much harder to penetrate. 
The fibres in Kevlar are stronger than steel, weight for weight, can't say the same for leather, except maybe rhinoceros hide. 
Personally my nightmares would be worse wearing a leather glove, it would make removing the arrow that much harder. In fact the extra resistance in the leather would likely cause the shaft to splinter even more.


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

So much for making a glove to protect my fretting hand from damage from a broken arrow...10 stitches and shaved off some bone with a axe. Finger now stiff as a board.


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## Beat~ (Jun 24, 2014)

wow that's really unfortunate.
how did the arrow penetrate your finger? it look as it didnt not hit the leather part but the cycling mitt?


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## DnH_Scents (Sep 3, 2014)

Having worked with and sewn leather for years (including making mittens and gloves and bracers, quivers, finger tabs, etc) his glove will be suitable for the task it will be used for. Should an arrow break (odds of thet are very low) his dual leather glove will protect him nicely. Kudos to the OP for being a DIY type.


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

Beat~ said:


> wow that's really unfortunate.
> how did the arrow penetrate your finger? it look as it didnt not hit the leather part but the cycling mitt?


As i explained in my previous post I did the damage with a Axe...Wood/Axe/miss/finger/hospital. :lol:


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

DnH_Scents said:


> Having worked with and sewn leather for years (including making mittens and gloves and bracers, quivers, finger tabs, etc) his glove will be suitable for the task it will be used for. Should an arrow break (odds of thet are very low) his dual leather glove will protect him nicely. Kudos to the OP for being a DIY type.


Cheers Man, I have every faith it will do the job.


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## Beat~ (Jun 24, 2014)

Stevie777 said:


> 10 stitches and shaved off some bone with a *axe*


All i did was just saw the picture and assume, my bad didnt notice that


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## Stevie777 (May 2, 2013)

Beat~ said:


> All i did was just saw the picture and assume, my bad didnt notice that


No worries Man.. Making mistakes only proves you are human unless of course you're a Bot then there is no excuse.. :lol:


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