Want To Make A Basket Stamped Belt

[Dallas Cowboy]

Ok I am about to dive into making my first tooled or basket stamped belt. I have a nice one from Harris Leathers and want to make it just like this one. So what thickness of leather should I use for the tooling or stamping and what thickness should I use to line it with. Thanks for any help DC

[mlapaglia]

Id use an 8-9 to tool and a 2-3 or a 4-5 to line it. All depends on what you want it for. A nice stiff gun belt is made with 2 pieces of 8-9 flesh to flesh. 2-3 or 4-5 makes for a nice everyday belt or a dress belt.

[Dallas Cowboy]

Thank you for the help.

Also for anyone who makes tooled or basket stamped belts, do you glue your blanks to plexiglass before you case them to prevent shrinking? THanks DC

[CowboyDon]

Thank you for the help.

Also for anyone who makes tooled or basket stamped belts, do you glue your blanks to plexiglass before you case them to prevent shrinking? THanks DC

It really depends on your leather weight, as to gluing it down, - Just use some painters tape on the back and you should be fine. Gluing would be more

usable when tooling a wallet or a lighter weight VT - a belt will hold up better to tooling. Good luck and lets see a picture when you are done.

[KAYAK45]

A total of 10/12 makes a nice stiff gun belt. Anything less is good to go for a dress belt. No need to "glue up" most leather on a belt like this.

Use a lighter leather on top for a really complex carved pattern, heavier on the bottom. Use equal weights, if only stitched plain and glued together. Still no need to glue up for belts for tooling, I think. I might be wrong???