Butch Report post Posted June 7, 2008 (edited) My sister wanted me to make her a hair on hide belt with both ends being tooled and the part of the belt that goes around the backside being the hair on hide and containing any bling/conchos. Has anyone ever made one of these that may give me suggestions? I think my main concern is: Is it a three part belt? Both tooled end which are sewn to the part of the belt that has the hair on hide? I've seen different pictures of the type of belt I'm trying to explain, but the pictures don't show the entire belt, so it's hard to see exactly how it's done. Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated. Butch Edited June 7, 2008 by Butch Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hilly Report post Posted June 7, 2008 My sister wanted me to make her a hair on hide belt with both ends being tooled and the part of the belt that goes around the backside being the hair on hide and containing any bling/conchos. Has anyone ever made one of these that may give me suggestions? I think my main concern is: Is it a three part belt? Both tooled end which are sewn to the part of the belt that has the hair on hide? I've seen different pictures of the type of belt I'm trying to explain, but the pictures don't show the entire belt, so it's hard to see exactly how it's done.Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated. Butch I've never made a belt, and maybe I'm way off base but, what about a lined veg tanned belt with a hair on inlay? You could tool both ends, have it nicely lined, and still have the hair. Might be kinda thick, though? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bruce johnson Report post Posted June 7, 2008 Butch, I have done a couple hundred with the hide inlaid into a one piece belt. Basically cut a wide slot and left a sewing edge to sew through the top, inlay, and liner. Some we left this edge wider and put spots on it. Some we plugged to raise the hair-on flush with the surface. We found that plugging them raised the hair-on up enough to wear from calf ropes and seat belts faster. Eventually she just ordered them unplugged. She added whatever conchos or bling the customer wanted. I probably did 50-75 like you are describing too. We glued the hair-on to a stiffer liner (5 oz or so commercial oak from Siegels) and edge sewed it. The billet ends were sandwiched over the ends of the center and sewn through. If you didn't get the bottom of the billet lined up close enough, there was a chance you could miss it and say bad words. We added conchos at the overlap to take some of the stress off just the stitchline holding things together. This is the way the sample she sent me was made, and eventually the imports could be bought for half the price I made them for. After that deal went extinct I have made some in a design that is more forgiving. I glue the hide to the liner cut to width and long enough to line the billets too. Then I just have to sew the billet tops on. I think the one piece liner makes them stronger, smoother lined, and dang sure easier to sew. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robert Report post Posted June 7, 2008 bruce, did you have a problem with the hair coming up through your stitch holes with the thread? i tried a notebook once with a hair on inlay, but never got it to look nice because of that issue. I was hand sewing - I wouldnt think that would make a difference, but perhaps... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bruce johnson Report post Posted June 8, 2008 I didn't have any problems with hair coming up through the stitch holes. I machine stitched all of them, and I have always used the short slick haired Brazilian hides. I get them from Saddleman's of Santa Fe, but the wholesale ones, those hides came from Texas Wholesale Leather as I recall and they were short haired too. For the stray hairs that stick out the sides, I singe them with a candle or lighter, then slick the edges. I just did a bunch of binders (winelists for a restaurant) and they all had inlay covers with no stray hairs. I think that handsewing with sticky waxed thread might pull hairs up through the holes though. You might need to slick your thread like for handsewing sheepskins. Pull it through a folded newspaper or brown bag to slick and burnish the wax to keep it from grabbing hair. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Butch Report post Posted June 11, 2008 Sorry for not commenting earlier; but thanks for everyone's input. I asked my sister about the inlay type and she told me that's not quite what she wanted. Picky woman! Thanks for all of the info Bruce. I was way off base and now you have me going in the right direction. Thanks again to all. Butch Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
