I have a belt question

[WaG35]

I've decided that I want to make a belt. Nothing fancy, just a plain black double thickness belt(maybe a brown one also to match my brown holsters). I plan on buying 2 blanks and stitching them together. The question is, when it's stitched together will I be able to bend it around the buckle or is there something special I have to do to it to make it bend that tight? Thanks in advance.

Edited December 31, 2008 by WaG35

[MikePatterson]

skive the bottom blank just short of the bend and let the top blank bend over it. there is no reason to have the bend double ply.

I've decided that I want to make a belt. Nothing fancy, just a plain black double thickness belt(maybe a brown one also to match my brown holsters). I plan on buying 2 blanks and stitching them together. The question is, when it's stitched together will I be able to bend it around the buckle or is there something special I have to do to it to make it bend that tight? Thanks in advance.

[jbird]

On all my double ply belts I skive short of buckle end one ply is more than enough, but make sure you blend it in well.

Josh

[Dynamik1]

Newb question - Skive means remove material right?

How do you "skive"? What tool(s) are used?

How do you control how much material you remove?

Should this be done just at the bend joint in this example?

Would this effectively create a "U" channel at the bend joint?

[Scott1952]

[Rawhide]

There are several skiving tools. One is the safety beveler, this is a pretty inexpensive skiving tool that uses injector blades to skive, material. Then there is the super skiver, a little bit better handling, but still uses the injector blades. Then there's the french edger, a hand tool that looks almost like an edge beveler, but has a flat bottom and a wider footprint. A head or round knife can be used, and then there's a lap skiver, and finally a bell knife skiver. I'm sure there are more tools for this but this is what I can come up with and they are in general order of least to most expensive with the bell knife being about a 1000 bucks used, and the saftey beveler, maybe 8 to 10 bucks.

What is meant by skiving is reducing the thickness of the leather evenly, so as to reduce the bulk of the belt at the bend.

The U channel you speak of is called a gouge, there are U gouges and V gouges.

Edited December 31, 2008 by Rawhide

[Dynamik1]

Thanks Rawhide. I really appreciate all the silly newb questions youve answered for me the past couple weeks.

Good news is I am on my way out the door right now to go to the Tandy store about an hour away and pick up the Stohlman book and some beginner supplies. Hopefully the book will help with the lexicon questions and simple "How To's" but actually putting tool to leather will most likely result in more distress calls! HA!

[Rawhide]

Thanks Rawhide. I really appreciate all the silly newb questions youve answered for me the past couple weeks.

Good news is I am on my way out the door right now to go to the Tandy store about an hour away and pick up the Stohlman book and some beginner supplies. Hopefully the book will help with the lexicon questions and simple "How To's" but actually putting tool to leather will most likely result in more distress calls! HA!

I know what you mean. Have a good trip. Which book are you after?

[Dynamik1]

I know what you mean. Have a good trip. Which book are you after?

The Art of Hand Sewing seems to be the best place to start.

[fishguy]

You should also pick up Stolman's book on leather tools too (which I believe is on sale at Leather factory right now)

I have been working at using a round knife to skive, wrecked a few things but am getting it down. Don't try to do it all at once, thin slices just like planing wood. My method is to do one side with the knife blade resting on my granite block at an angle, then the other, then shave down the hump in the middle. I think you could use a similar method with a safety skiver (I would not recommend a round knife for a first try). In fact with something like the end of a belt you could probably do it on a belt sander which would have the added advantage of keeping things even. Additionally, if you are using veg-tan leather, you can dampen the billet to help bend it around the buckle.

[WaG35]

Thanks guys. This is what I was thinking, I just wasn't sure if it would weaken the belt.

[Ian]

I've decided that I want to make a belt. Nothing fancy, just a plain black double thickness belt(maybe a brown one also to match my brown holsters). I plan on buying 2 blanks and stitching them together. The question is, when it's stitched together will I be able to bend it around the buckle or is there something special I have to do to it to make it bend that tight? Thanks in advance.

I had this idea (I'm sure I'm not the first to do it) about your question and did a little test piece. Here's some pictures. If you ignore that my bottom tension is not proper, it seems to work pretty good.

I cut the bottom layer with the same punch I used on the end of top layer so they match up when it's folded over.

BTW, that cool buckle is one of a bunch I found on Ebay.

[jbird]

Very good idea I think but on my belts I use snaps and it almost seems like if you don't sew it toghether this would be a bad transition point does this have any stock behind it.

Josh

[Shorts]

I did the same idea as Ian on the gun belts so that the bend is single layer. I've got a thread in here somewhere about Belt ends with pics. Instead of snaps, I use Chicago screws

Err. nevermind. Seems I've cleared all my attachments so no pics!

Edited January 8, 2009 by Shorts