How I make crocodile skin leather belts

[blue duck]

Don't reckon I will ever get to use croc, but it is still a good read. Your endless contraptions are just awesome.

[RockyAussie]

13 hours ago, Handstitched said:

Well, thats quite  interesting, thanks for sharing  

 I got some Croc back straps from Cairns QLD some years ago , however,  the straps were a tad short,so,  I put my thinking cap on , voila,    <Uncle Fester 2.0 . I made them into Ranger belts with veg tan ' embellishments'  .

HS 

 

They look good and sturdy. I bet you had some fun adding the leather over the first 2 crown bones and then stitching through them as well. Did they not have a couple of inches past the crown bones? normally there should be 2 to 3 inches past them bones. Let me know if you want some more.

13 hours ago, chrisash said:

Great work Brian, one question , do you do your own dyeing or is it done at the tanners, I guess you must run quite a large number of workers based on the large number of things you produce

No the skins come already coloured the only colouring I have to worry about is mixing the edge coat colours. I will touch on some of that later. As for workers and numbers that is mostly my wife and I and a couple of part time assistants. I could use a lot more, but the training times and labour costs make that difficult. I sort of hope that by sharing the knowledge here that some others will pick it up before my time is gone. Some more competition here would be nice as well.

12 hours ago, garypl said:

Brian, you never cease to amaze me with the fixtures and equipment you design to use in your shop.  Really interesting!

Gary

Thanks Gary. To be honest I like designing  and making the equipment more than making the products most times.

 

4 hours ago, blue duck said:

Don't reckon I will ever get to use croc, but it is still a good read. Your endless contraptions are just awesome.

Although I do croc mostly, many of the steps and the equipment used are usefully applied in other applications. I hope that some parts at least can be of help to you and other lookers as well.

I will be back......

[RockyAussie]

After the edges are all sanded the tips and ends must also have a little bevel sand and to do this I have a finishing machine that can sand and polish and a few other things.

This can be tricky to not sand too much and does need to be done carefully as to not over sand. An angle as shown is generally best.

This is about what it should look like when done sanding

Note that close up it is now looking all a bit furry/rough

before any edging is applied I carefully singe the fibres in with the aid of a heat gun. This must be kept moving fairly quickly and not allowed to get overly too hot or the glue will also soften and start to release. Quick and close is best. NOTE: I do not go for getting extra smooth before the edge coats are applied as I want the paint to grip as well as possible and I have found that if it is overly smooth the paint can be peeled off in long strips.

After that I apply some edging through my belt edging machine (another purpose made machine of mine for the job) Normally I apply 2 or 3 coats at this stage. Here is a link that shows this machine in action -

As can be seen below it is necessary to lay the belts with the profile facing down in order to stop any edging from touching the tray on which they lay. This does not mean on these skinny buggers that I won't wipe edging on with my huge fat fingers.  I will show you this later.

 

After this step the ends need to be done and that I do on another single edge machine as shown below. This is also done with 2 or 3 coats.

At this stage once the edging has dried well, normally overnight I go onto the ironing in stage which is done with a temperature controlled soldering iron with a purpose shaped tip.

With this thickness belt I just use a long piece of hardwood with a saw cut about 1/4" deep used to hold the belt steady. I press the iron to the back side and wipe it down the length first and then the front side and finish with one wipe down the middle normally.

A grey Scotchbrite pad is then used to give a extra smooth finish and a little grip for the finish edge coating. On some jobs this could go to the polishing stage and still look better than most other makers edging. In this case it goes on to have the extra finish coats.

Be back with more later.

 

 

[Handstitched]

@RockyAussie Theres about 40mm in the  the veg tan, with backing, ( out of view)  you can only  just see it in the first pic, after a bit of  ' jiggery pokery ' , sanding etc.  I would love a few more of those, , but,  croc is so ex$Y ( ' one powerball  ' ) . Even those cost me a bit , so I didn't waste too much. The supplier gave me the off cuts as well  , so I turned them into key rings etc. 

HS 

[RockyAussie]

7 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

so I turned them into key rings etc. 

Yea I know ...quite often the left overs make the profits worth it... wrist bands and such.

[RockyAussie]

After the Scotchbrite sanding it should now look pretty clean like this -

They then go through the edging process as before shown and then the detailing is done prior to the polishing.  you can see here where having some smaller fingers would come in real handy. Note the edging on top...

and again

this comes off with a lot of wetting back and spit and hard rubbing and oh did I forget BAD LANGUAGE?

 Somewhere in there I forgot to take some pics of the hole burning in but this pic should give you the idea. The crew punch holes and tongue holes are all smoothed in and shaped a bit with this purpose shaped soldering iron tip. Mostly the back lining is concentrated on as I like the buckle tongues to slide into them nicely.

Following that is the polishing so back at the finishing machine and with some clear Hooco wax polishing stick

With the polishing I like to get all of the edges done first as I can generally get 4 or 5 belt edges done together as shown

then the tops and backs get done

and then a cotton glove really brings them up nice

I have found it best to use towels when doing a lot of polishing and handling from this stage onward.

Some like these get snaps put in and they often need to be 2 pack painted in an earlier operation. PITA. take note that I like the smaller snap fitting to the front of the belt.

That is about it all so other than getting a few more shots of some buckled up belts later on... please feel free to comment. I must add that the methods here are only what I have worked out to do myself and any improvements and criticisms are equally welcomed and sort after.

Regards Brian

[blue duck]

Brian and Mrs. Brian ~ Thank you for taking the time to share all of this. Your insight and willingness to share is truly appreciated.

[Scoutmom103]

Agree with Blue Duck.  Really appreciate your willingness to share and help others.

[RockyAussie]

11 hours ago, blue duck said:

Brian and Mrs. Brian ~ Thank you for taking the time to share all of this. Your insight and willingness to share is truly appreciated.

 

8 hours ago, Scoutmom103 said:

Agree with Blue Duck.  Really appreciate your willingness to share and help others.

Thanks to you both and I hope that it may help and have some useful answers sometime... if not now

[noobleather]

Another great "How do I do that?" Rocky. I read,looked at the pictures and can learnt some things that I will use in my rudimentary leather work.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

What temp is your soldering iron edger set to?