Help With Belt Buckle

[ToddjColey]

Hello, I am making a collar and am having issues with the buckle. I am using a centre bar buckle and the leather is bulging out of the buckle. The centre bar is in line with the rest of the buckle, I have seen other buckles are offset which i think would help, I also think a longer buckle would help as it would relax the angle of the leather entering and exiting the buckle.

I have attached two photos one of my collar, I have not fastened the loop yet and also one of a tanner goods collar, which I believe looks really good and want to achieve myself.

Any help or info would be great.

Thanks

[DoubleC]

Perhaps if you skived a length of the part folding over and attached to the back? Also wetting it and molding it over might help. I think (I swear I don't remember now) I skived mine. Cheryl

[ToddjColey]

I dont really want to skive but i will if i dont find the right buckle. I didnt think about molding, thanks!

[billymac814]

Dog collar buckles do usually have a recessed center bar. I think you can get them from weavers. I know a lot of people have went to using a regular heel bar buckle and keeper for the collars made of thicker leather because the narrower center bar buckles don't work well with thick leather.

[ToddjColey]

Dog collar buckles do usually have a recessed center bar. I think you can get them from weavers. I know a lot of people have went to using a regular heel bar buckle and keeper for the collars made of thicker leather because the narrower center bar buckles don't work well with thick leather.

If I got a recessed centre bar would that fix my issue, or do you think heel bar would be better. I would rather a centre bar buckle as it acts as a keeper too before the d ring.

[billymac814]

Its hard to say really, It would depend on the buckle and how its made. Usually the narrower the buckle the thinner the leather its made for which makes it hard to get a thick piece to feed through it, especially when there's already another thick piece wrapped around the center part. I would personally probably go with the heel bar with a separate keeper if I was making a pretty heavy collar, that way the leather doesn't have to get over stressed feeding it through and you wouldn't have to worry about skiving it which seems to me would weaken the collar some. I'm not a collar expert though but I did research them a bit as I was going to start making them at some point. Maybe someone else will chime in and give some insight to where to get buckles.

I also think strap works.com has dog collar buckles but I would assume they are best used with webbing or thinner leather. I have some of them so ill check it.