Belts, Guitar Straps

[Hammered Leather]

Their are lots of free resizing programs for your pictures if you your camera didn't come with software for that. Crop the picture first and resize.

Thanks. We,ll try

[Chief31794]

Back sides of straps/belts can be finished many ways. Repeat what Ferg said, look at Bobby Parks belts, he does intricate Swivel Knife work on the backs of his belts, you can burnish them, etc. It appeared you dyed the backs and that the dye was uneven, the back will accept dye much more irratically than the front. I personally never liked dyed backs, I like to leave them natural but burnish them till they are smooth unless I make both sides finished to do that I use 3-4 ounce (belt 2-3 oz for an instrument strap) leather and bond it together "back-to-back" with contact cement to provide a smoth surface for the front and back, or I line a normal 4-5 oz (belt 3-4 oz for instrument straps) piece with a 2-3 ounce liner just depending on the desired effect. Normally if I line a belt or strap (I make mostly instrument straps) I also sew the strap around the edges for a more finished look. Just depends. The only exception is Mandolin Straps and Cradle straps for Banjos, I normally keep those pretty thin (2-3 oz with a natural burnished back), the reason is that Mandolins are not very heavy and the attachment at the scroll has to be pretty thin and while the Banjo's are much heavier (some around 13 lbs or more), the strap is semi-permanently installed and has to wrap around the head an store in the case with the Banjo. If the banjo strap is not a cradle strap design (hangs from the J-hooks) then I use normal thickness leather.

Back to your question about how to finish backs, like I said there are several ways to do it, folks much better at this than I maybe will jump in and post some tips and techniques for finishing belt/strap backs, I've seen quite a bit on edges but not much on backs.

Ken