Tooling a Belt for a Fat Guy

[Brokenolmarine]

1 hour ago, dikman said:

If you wear suspenders why not make a pair of tooled leather suspenders? A little more complex than making a belt, maybe, but should look pretty cool.

I'm going to make suspenders to match / mate with the belt.  

I need the belt to hang "Stuff" on.

 

[Brokenolmarine]

I was anxious when I got out to the shop today to see how the loops turned out.  My wet forming worked perfectly, nice and squared corners and they fit perfectly on the actual application.  I was pleased.

So, in preparation for assembly, I antiqued all the pieces.  While the antiquing set up, I consolidated the two tubs of Dark Brown into one.  Glad I wore gloves, messy job.  I antiqued the pieces in Medium Brown.  I need to order more medium.  Once the antique paste had a chance to set, I wiped away the excess with a dry cloth, then did some detail wiping with a dampened cloth until I was happy with the result.

Once that was done, I laid out the stitch lines for the buckle billet and drilled those holes on the bench top drill press.  I set that aside.

 

[Brokenolmarine]

Before sewing on the buckle billet, I needed to sew on the belt loop for the belt itself.  I drilled the holes in the loop, then matching holes in the belt.

I sewed the loop on with a couple heavy stitches in each end, and tied them off.  It's going nowhere.

[Brokenolmarine]

A couple tricks I used for hand sewing the buckle assembly on.  First, after the holes were drilled, I know the holes are hard to see on the back side of the leather.  I take a sharpened pencil and use the point to twist in each hole on front and back.  It dimples the hole IN so they aren't pushing out, and on the back side the pencil leaves a graphite outline on the edge of the holes making them easier to see.  Way back when I had a very hard time finding them sometimes.  NO longer.

Another trick is Positioning pins.

These can be used to hold the various pieces tight together until you can get the sewing done.  As you sew, and you approach a pin, you just remove it.

[Brokenolmarine]

I got the buckle sewn on and it looks pretty good.

I repeated the process for the opposite end, though I was able to cheat a bit and use contact cement to attach the short end of the billet where I would be sewing.  I didn't have to worry that I might need to remove this portion, no buckles to change out.  Once it was sewn on, the belt was basically completed, and it fit.

A long view showing the detail the antiquing brought out.

The belt is basically done, I just need to add a coat of finish and a couple coats of wax.  Then done.

 

[DieselTech]

59 minutes ago, Brokenolmarine said:

I got the buckle sewn on and it looks pretty good.

I repeated the process for the opposite end, though I was able to cheat a bit and use contact cement to attach the short end of the billet where I would be sewing.  I didn't have to worry that I might need to remove this portion, no buckles to change out.  Once it was sewn on, the belt was basically completed, and it fit.

A long view showing the detail the antiquing brought out.

The belt is basically done, I just need to add a coat of finish and a couple coats of wax.  Then done.

 

Nice work. Looks awesome. Can't wait to see the matching suspenders.

[Brokenolmarine]

Placed the order for the finish I need from Tandy, as well as two new bevels for the edges of the next belt... and the new tub of Antiquing.  Almost out of medium brown.  Once the Resolene comes in I can put the finish on and the the coats of wax.