What are you using as an internal belt stiffener

[wolfe9]

I need to know what kind of material and how thick & how far you are running the material .

Without going into to many details I need to make some gun belts, 11/4 max wide and the are going to see some heavy duty use .

If you don't want to share on the open forum please PM me 

Thanks a million 

[Lobo]

I have made thousands of gun belts. My usual method was two layers of 6/7 oz. cemented together flesh-to-flesh and stitched, and these hold up very well (the one I am wearing now is about 10 years old, used daily to carry a full-size 1911 .45 pistol).

At one time I had a bargain deal on a bunch of horsehide that was "cosmetically challenged", lots of surface imperfections that prohibited its use for most purposes. I used it up doing belt linings, for which horsehide is quite good due to its very dense nature and natural moisture resistance. Nice clean horsehide makes excellent belts (especially in two-layer applications), practically indestructible in use, but it is not always readily available and it does not accept carving or tooling very well.

I have made a few using a strip of rawhide between the inner and outer strap. That makes a very rigid belt.

I made a belt for a competition shooter once that utilized a strip of 29-gauge sheet metal between the two belt layers.

[wolfe9]

I like the rawhide idea , I wanted to avoid metal for environmental reasons , my first thought was some kind of plastic .

Thank you for your input 

I sent you a PM

[akguy59]

I have never made a gun belt myself. But I have been carrying concealed for almost 40 years and I don't think any stiffener is really required. I have a double layered Desantis belt that is probably 25 years old and is still as strong as the day I bought it. It carried a full sized 1911, 2 magazines, and a small flashlight for the first 22 years of it's life.

Unless you have a customer request it I would not bother with stiffeners. Or you could offer it as an option.

[wolfe9]

the belts are being purpose built for a specific mission so I wanted to stiffen them up a bit more 

[Josh Ashman]

I've heard of people using kydex stiffeners sandwiched between 2 layers of leather. However, as Lobo noted I don't personally see any reason for it. I build my gun belts out of 2 layers of 7/8 HO cemented and stitched no additional stiffener is needed. If a person were to use inferior leather or cut their belt blanks from too low on the hide down near the belly maybe they would be helpful. But, if using good leather cut along the back I just don't' see a reason for them. My $0.02 for what it's worth.

All the best, Josh

[particle]

I use 1" nylon webbing. I have a huge roll of it that I bought years ago, and I don't recall where I bought it (I believe it was from a parachute supply company). If you don't already know, nylon webbing comes in different thicknesses. I would get the thinnest you can find. This is probably a good option:

https://www.strapworks.com/Flat_Nylon_Webbing_p/mfnw1.htm

Edited October 14, 2019 by particle

[JLSleather]

3 hours ago, Josh Ashman said:

But, if using good leather cut along the back I just don't' see a reason for them

My vote here, so that's 3 for the right   

But, I guess you could stick in something if they requested it.  I get people who want weight lifting belts HALF AN INCH thick ... which is WAY overboard, but I'll make 'em if that's what you wanna do  

But a weight lifter belt is all about protecting your ABDOMEN WALL.  Tell ya what, if you can put on a 1/8" thick leather belt, then stretch or otherwise alter it with your ab muscles, I'll GIVE you a 1/2" thick belt

Likewise, 2 layers of leather plus a "layer" of glue plus a "layer" of thread will hold up 3 pounds of pistol and ammo.  For a L O N G time, if it was built correctly with quality materials.

[wolfe9]

Normally I totally agree , I don't normally put stiffeners in my belts. I am making them out of 1 layer 8/10 and one layer of 7/8 W&C  VEG and I cut them out of the top 1/3 of a side glued and double stitched with 346 bonded nylon  . Yes I know that is a bit thick but they are happy with it .They are going to be asking a lot of a 11/4 belt for and extended amount of time so I was thinking out of the box a bit . I wish I could say more and it would more clear why I was thinking about a stiffener .

I thought about  Kydex but I have seen belts with the Kydex broken inside , it does not seem to like being flexed a lot . HDPE might be a good option but I was hoping someone had used it and had some feed back . 

I hope it doesn't seem like I am being hard headed and I may just let it ride but I felt like for this situation I needed to look at every option to give them the best gear I could. 

 

[JLSleather]

2 minutes ago, wolfe9 said:

I hope it doesn't seem like I am being hard headed

Not at all.  Fella gonna make sumthin' otta make it HIS way  

I was suggesting that I didn't think it's necessary, but certainly was not attempting to try to talk you in to or outta anything.