Belt Makers- I've Never Done This- Help Please

[pete]

I've never made a belt from a craftaid but I have an order for one. The craftaid is for a 1 1/2" belt and has borders. I can cut a blank or order a blank. Storebought blanks always seem to be about 1/32 narrow so what do I do about the border as it won't fit well with a 1/8th edge?

Should I center it, forget the edge and border on the template and scribe a border after tracing, cut or buy a blank that it ,say, 2" wide so that I can see the edge and border and trim both sides after, ????

Any help would be appreciated. I know that I can pull it off (having made many belts before) but I would really like this to come out well with a well defined 1/8 border.

I just hope that the craftaid lines are straight and true!!

pete

[Storm]

Morning Pete,

Been there done that. I have always thought that Tandy never got around to thinking the whole thing through. Their blanks are not as wide because they want them to fit their buckles and have subsequently not taken this into account when creating craftaids. There are several ways to go on this one. Remember to also ask the question ..."Why is it that hot dogs come in packages of eight and hot dog buns come in packages of six?"

1. Depending on the Craftaid you have bought it might be that you have one which has three different width sizes for the same pattern. See if the next smallest will work for you.

2. You can buy a 2" blank, as you said, and trim it down.  But......First accurately measure the width of the pattern on your craftaid to double check its dimensions. Then subtract that from the 1 1/2" wide belt. Take that and divide by 2. This will give you the available width of your border. If that is good enough for you to work with then trim the 2" down to 1 1/2" and then use the craftaid.

3. This is more adventurous, so to speak, but I have gone to this extent. First I determine the border width I want to have, then I double it and subtract it from the overall belt width. This gives me a workable width in which my pattern will go. I will take the pattern or photocarve(in the case of a craftaid) and scan it into the computer. Once in the computer I will go into Photoshop and create a file which is to be the same dimensions for the carving area. Let's say 1 1/4" and make it 6" long. I will introduce the scanned pattern into the file. I will then use Command-T(I am using a MAC) and grabbing one of the corners and holding down the shift key reduce the pattern down to porportionately fit into the space of 1 1/4". Then crop off the excess and print it. For myself, I will then create a transfer pattern on three mil double matte mylar. This allows me to get a clean transfer and the ability to reuse the patterns many times.

Hope that helped.

Storm

[pete]

Thanks Storm. Helped a great deal. I might even post the results.

By the way- do you have a translator on your mac? I noticed that you reply to every country in their native tongue!

Either that or you speak 26 languages!!

pete

[JLSleather]

I know that feeling, and I LIKE the full border. But Storm is right, the blanks are cut to suit buckles that have a radius on the inside (full width doesn't clear the corners). This MAY be viewed as cheap marketing ... you know, 5 cents for the bottle of soda, $3.50 for the bottle opener.

Lots of my belts, though, the customer has picked out the buckle they want to use, and I make the belt to fit that. Since you're talking about such a small distance (but a big difference) you can center the design within the borders ... you'll just have a litte less background on the outside, or you can swivel cut on the inside of the outside lines (from the craftaid) and save the background.

For those who want a carved belt and didn't select the buckle, and since I really like the full-width border, I generally use a full 1 1/2" belt with a 1 5/8" buckle.

You can cut down a wider strap, but it wastes leather (unless you have need of a 1/2" strap that heavy) and the new strap that measures 1 1/2" STILL has to fit the buckle ...

ONE NOTE: When you go to dye the background, give any 4-year-olds in the house something ELSE to paint ...

[Storm]

Thanks Storm. Helped a great deal. I might even post the results.

By the way- do you have a translator on your mac? I noticed that you reply to every country in their native tongue!

Either that or you speak 26 languages!!

pete

Even though I am not an ambassador I do speak a few languages. That's what comes from being an old man and having traveled and lived extensively overseas. I just think that it might make someone feel more welcome when someone speaks to them in a language that they may best understand. I hate wasting those things that have been given to me. HA!

Storm

[King's X]

He actually speaks 28 languages. If I could suggest something. Center all of your Craftaids with a broken line, on the top with a Sharpie; it would easier when centering them on your leather.

Good luck!

[Storm]

Sam is totally wrong I only speak 27 languages fluently and another 15 half baked!