First Belt

[Nat]

Finally finished my first belt.
To be honest sorting it out was a pain in the bum, but an enjoyable experience.
It's plain, unadorned mahogany dyed veg(?)tan, 2 inch thick and fit a 38-40" waist. Adjustable belt loop and solid brass buckle.

 

[Bravo4]

Looks great Nat. I was thinking a belt would be a good, practical first leather project. When you say, "sorting it out was a pain in the bum", I start to think otherwise. Now that you have your first one under your....uh, sorry....do you think the second would be much more straight-forward?

 

[Nat]

There's a couple of things wrong with it, which, after working 3 years in a factory where belts were made, you'd of thought i'd remembered
Buckle end - there isn't enough leather left over for the flap to fit the belt loop, hence it being "adjustable"
Keeping the same width using a metre and 12 inch ruler is an exercise in patience (i know i could of used a strap cutter, but where's the fun in that! )
Apart from that, not enough thread to stitch the buckle in, my fault, skiving the end of the leather for stitching.
So a few things i forgot to do.
Overall i'm happy with it, there's not much slack for a 40" waist and it was designed to go over a coat/jacket and hang possibles pouch off etc.

 

[Black Sheep]

Looks OK to me

Rich

 

[Toadflax]

That looks good - it looks nice and neat and tidy from the piccies and I like the deep mahogany colour. I can say from personal experience that you learn an awful lot on your first couple of belts, and make mistakes that you won't make again.

Al Stohlman's 'Belts Galore' has a lot of technical detail on how to make a belt, though the majority of the book is dedicated to tooled belt patterns. His The Art of Hand Sewing Leather also has some useful tips on sewing in the belt loops.

I dyed the inside of my first belt, but don't do so any more (though I give it some treatment), because of the dye rub-off. Also, an undyed inside makes it very obvious that it is hand made (and it isn't visible in any case).

The worst bit I find about doing belts is hand burnishing the edges, as there's so much edge to do. I must see about getting by wooden burnishing wheel mounted on an electric drill.

Keep up the good work.


Geoff