Advice: Centre Piece Of A Hero Belt

[Mr Yarrow]

Hi All,

First post after joining quite recently whilst researching paulders and stumbling on this awesome fora.

I'm after a little advice before i bugger up a hero belt idea.

I have a nice broad leather belt already, my guess is about 5 inches wide that i made by simply adding buckles to a wide strip of leather and then rivetting belt loops on it...very crude but serves a purpose for UK based LARP kit requirements.

I want to beef it up and add a central disc to the front in a more traditional hero belt style.

My first thinking was to cut a disc of leather and rivet it to the front once died and decorated etc. but was then wondering about cutting the front of the existing belt and rivetting the new piece into the front to make it lie flatter on my stomach.

For both these ideas though im concerned the central leather piece will start to fold over on itself especially on the edges when i bend forward etc.

My questions are then;

is this a genuine concern or am i just being paranoid and inexperienced?

what thickness in mm/inches do people use for such a project

do you stiffen the centre piece at all, or does the leathers thickness see it right?

Hope someone can offer some sage advice as looking forward to pimping up what is currently a very plain piece of kit.

Ta

[gary]

You could try laminating pieces of leather together to get the stiffness/thickness you want or sandwich a piece of thicker material (metal or kydex or orthoplast or whatever) between two layers of leather. To help reduce the bulk you may want to use something like rein hook studs on the back of the disc of leather which engage in holes in the belt billet rather than a standard half or whole buckle with tongue(s). It may be worth checking out somewhere like Le Prevo leathers as they sometimes have large plate buckles for sale and they are happy to deal in small quantities. Hope that helps.

Gary

[LaughingWolf]

Are you thinking of making the round disk bigger than the belt or similar size? If its much larger it will either be stiff enough that it will hold its shape, but will jab into your abdomen when you bend down to touch your toes/finish your enemy/take their stuff, or it wont and the bottom edge will likely bend when you do.

A 6-7" diameter (di) circle of 7+oz leather should work, provided the bottom of the belt sits at the top of the hips, similar to my own, where a 9-12" di circle would require something heavy 10+ oz I'd imagine.

As for the "bulk" of the belt, i cant imagine there being a problem with your base layer riveted or sewn directly onto the disk. Though you could always attach the disk to the belt at both sides and then try removing the centerpiece if it doesn't fit well. I use the slight bit of gap I have to carry spell packets/throwing knives with me, so its a plus in my books.

If you want a solution that you cant mess up, experiment with Cuirboile/boiled leather/however you want to say it. It will likely take you a few tries to figure out how to cut, stamp, tool or otherwise decorate your piece, but if done right it wont flex, bend or mess up other than the short time while its still plastic-y, and as an added bonus can afford to be much thinner. That's something I have no experience with however, so you'll have to talk to someone who knows what the heck they're doing.

[Mr Yarrow]

Thanks peeps, much appreciated ideas.The belt itself is 5 1/4 inches wide so the disk will likely be in the 8 inch diameter realm.I have two options for leather, first is 3-3.5mm and the other 5-5.5mm.

The centre piece will have metal plates riveted on it providing rigidity themsleves so i think the thinner leather will be ok.

Dont want to try cuir broilli for this one, had thought of it so a good suggestion, thanks.

I may also take this opportunity to change the base belt as well. This one is made from an off cut of horribly shiney leather that i wear back to front so the plasticy top coat finish is against me and the matt inside finish is what shows. I think the leather is chrome tanned and lacquered which makes it offensively shiny.

If i manage to sort the options out will be sure to share with you, plus the planned project to mod a broilli chest and back to be a gorget almost which pairs with the belt.

Rgds

Edited October 28, 2012 by Mr Yarrow