This Newbie Got a Fooling

[Gosut]

"It's only a belt," I said to myself. "You have a blank and made a template and aren't trying any tooling. Won't take long at all. Get that done, cut the other project, and dye together."

That was earlier this morning. At the moment the belt is cut and punched, the back and ends sanded, but that's all. Still need to slick the flesh side, groove or crease the front side, burnish the edges, and make the keeper. Didn't have any real problems, just it's taking longer than I thought. Making the slot and oblong belt holes wasn't the trouble I anticipated. Just just a punch on the ends of the holes and trimmed. Skiving the buckle end, well, I should have sharpened the skiver first, but I also took it slow because you can always cut off, but can't put it back on. Sort of scraped it down to the required thickness rather than cut because I felt like I don't have that level of control yet. That's something I'll have to practice.

The belt keeper is the only part that's giving me pause. Have watched how-tos online and I ordered the blank long enough to make it, but the issue I ran into skiving makes me more doubtful. But a keeper isn't near as wide as the belt (this is a 1 1/2" wide work belt), so I might try a different knife.

Maybe, when I gain experience, I can do this faster, but this is taking longer than I thought.

[chuck123wapati]

you mean its not just a strap with a buckle on it? lol next one you can tool and line?

[Bert03241]

A belt is on my list to make ,has been since I statred leather working LOL I hand sew so its a lot of sewing and thats the main reason I put it off. Also I want to laser engrave it  and haven't quit figured out how to do that yet  argg

[Gosut]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

you mean its not just a strap with a buckle on it? lol next one you can tool and line?

Yep, just a strap, buckle, and keeper. I did crease a border. The keeper was a learning experience, but came up with a way that worked for me. Skiving turned out to be not so hard after all, Used the skiver. Glued and saddle-stitched the keeper. Burnished the edges with water. Finished late enough that I don't think I can dye it, as I'd have to leave it in the bed of my truck overnight and there's the problem of dew. And yes, it took this newbie all day.