Search the Community

This is the process where I make our 19mm (3/4") crocodile skin belts. I must first say that this is more of a manufacturing style of post and I will try to give small scale alternative methods where and if I can. The first step in making these belts is the cutting up into strips the crocodile as this sometimes affects the numbers of backing and fillers that need to be made to go with them. As a general rule I keep back the tails of the skins after other products are made for the purpose of making the belts. My strap cutter is not wide enough for the full width of a tail normally and this must be done in one or sometimes 2 runs through. Note that there is now a wide sweep after the cutting and this makes it difficult to manage running the next part through the belt cutter. To overcome this we take a bit out to straighten up a little better This time we can use the fence guide on the strap cutter As you can see it still has a fair amount of curve but this is overcome latter on in the processing. After this we need to join them up into lengths long enough for the belts. We now end for end the pieces to find comparable size scale size and angle to hide the joins as much as possible. He3re a very sharp knife and and experience is a must. There should be at least a 1/2" of overlap at the join. Contact glue is then applied and given some time to tack off. Normally several are done at a time. This is then carefully lined up and pressed and tapped into place making sure that no excess glue is left behind. This process is repeated until all the sizes are made up for the order. That is the upload limit for now so I will be back with more later. There will be a link to a little video on the belt sanding as well.