Lots of tooled Belts

[bikermutt07]

Very very good job. One way to hide those tiny mistakes is to present them in a whole slew of beautiful work. Kudos on that.

The shear scale of quantity here makes my head spin. Way to go!

I'm curious to see the keepers added......

Are those snaps holding the buckles? They look like rivets in the photos. If they are snaps, I haven't seen that style before.

Edited May 19, 2019 by bikermutt07

[garypl]

26 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

 

Are those snaps holding the buckles? They look like rivets in the photos. If they are snaps, I haven't seen that style before.

Mutt - looks like Chicago screws - 4th picture down has a pretty clear view of reverse side and you can see slots in the heads.

Gary

[bikermutt07]

5 minutes ago, garypl said:

Mutt - looks like Chicago screws - 4th picture down has a pretty clear view of reverse side and you can see slots in the heads.

Gary

I didn't catch that. I thought those were some plain belts. 

[wizard of tragacanth]

Alex, that is mind blowing production!  I especially like the Celtic design.  HAND STITCHED?!  Wow!

[AlexOstacchini]

Thanks again all for the kind words. 

On 5/19/2019 at 6:05 AM, utah leather said:

how much time does it take you to do a stamped belt like that ? and cost ? how thick is the leather you're using ?

I foolishly never timed one from start to finish and always had a few on the go at the same time, but i would estimate somewhere around the 12-15 hour mark, with most of that being tooling and 4 hours for stitching. Not the quickest production line in the world but getting steadily faster i think. These are all cut from the same 3.5mm hide, with 1.5ish mm lining, so a total thickness of 5mm or just under.  I think that is 12oz but don't understand the US gauge so well. Quite chunky really but at least they shouldn't break... Cost is difficult to quantify exactly and will have to be UK currency i'm afraid,  but assuming you mean build cost then as a rough figure £100ish for veg tan and £100 for lining for the whole lot, £5 per buckle, £1 per set of screws, estimate of £5 per belt to cover glue, thread, gum, dye, oil, antique, edge dye, finish etc and we have a total of £19 material cost per belt. Add in a realistic hourly rate on top of that and you have probably more than most people would be willing to pay for one. So no going full time just yet I don't think... :/ 

 

On 5/19/2019 at 2:29 PM, garypl said:

On 5/19/2019 at 2:01 PM, bikermutt07 said:

Are those snaps holding the buckles? They look like rivets in the photos. If they are snaps, I haven't seen that style before.

Mutt - looks like Chicago screws - 4th picture down has a pretty clear view of reverse side and you can see slots in the heads

Yup, Gary is bang on. The stitching on the reverse side of the buckle plate (or whatever the foldy over bit is called) is purely cosmetic, so although it looks like it's sewn shut, different buckles can still come in and out easily enough.
 

On 5/19/2019 at 6:24 PM, wizard of tragacanth said:

  I especially like the Celtic design.

Thanks, although cannot take full credit as this was pinched from an illuminated border pattern in the Book of Kells, in an attempt at something a bit different to a standard knot. But whichever 9th century monk came up with it did a good job I think. 

I realised there are no images of the tail end or close enough to see any real detail, so for completion's sake here are a couple more.