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Handmade Leather Belts

14 Mar

468x60banner3 Handmade Leather Belts

Welcome to our leather belt homepage. Here you will find information and links to our store where you can purchase a variety of leather belt designs. The American Made handmade leather belt is truly a dying tradition. Many large companies have taken the easy way out by employing the use of machines processes to ramp up production capabilities.  Not us!

Full grain leather belts are our passion.  Our handmade leather belts are created the old-fashioned way, one at a time, from one piece of full grain domestic cowhide.  Because each belt is finished by human touch, they are all to be considered works of art.

Don’t be confused though, all of our products have a strict attention to detail, and we don’t use individuality as an excuse for flawed results.  Our handmade belts are all built to edure the toughest tests and still look great.

 
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A Handmade Leather Belt Video

19 Mar

 
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Leather for Handmade Craftsmanship

19 Mar

468x60banner3 Leather for Handmade Craftsmanship
Leather is the ideal medium for handmade old world belt craftsmanship. An animal hide can be handmade into leather belts by several varied methods, each of these lend different properties to the end product. Leather tanned with vegetable-based products is soft and pliable but can be damaged by exposure to water. Alum-tanned leather, created with aluminum salts, is less supple and can rot in water, although it can be made in much lighter hues than vegetable-tanned leather.

A newer method of tanning leather belt material, using chromium salts, results in a very supple leather that holds up relatively well in water. Brain-tanned leather or buckskin, made with animal brains or other emulsified oils, is washable and significantly softer than any of the above varieties, but it is also the rarest, as it is costly and time-consuming to produce.

Stiffer, more durable types of leather, suitable for use in drums, handmade leather belts, book binding, and, historically, armor, are created with different methods. Rawhide is made by scraping animal hide, treating it with lime, and stretching it throughout the drying process. Boiling in water or wax is another method used to make extremely tough types of leather belts.

Other types of leather include patent leather, which has a very shiny, smooth finish, often coated with plastic; and shagreen, a rough leather usually colored green. Many special types of leather are used in luxury products from gloves to pocketbooks. Belting leather is heavy and durable and can retain its shape exceptionally well. Napa leather is known for its softness, as is slunk, made from the hide of a calf fetus. Vachetta leather is typically used as a trim on handbags.

The softer types of leather can be prepared in a few different ways. Full-grain leather, used in the finest leather products, is not altered past removing the hair and tanning the hide. Therefore, it requires raw materials of excellent quality. Top-grain leather is sanded on one side and given an artificial grain in order to hide imperfections in the raw material.

 
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Making a Handmade Leather Belt

14 Mar

468x60banner3 Making a Handmade Leather Belt

Here are some tips on how to tool, dye, and finish your own handmade leather belts. These are the same methods used to make the handmade leather belts you can find for sale at our web site. These techniques are basically the same as those used by our craftsmen (and women) who manufacture for us. The lesson begins after the belt strip has been cut and the edges have been finished.  
             
Our finished belts are generally 1.5″ wide with a handmade pattern embossed into the cowhide. After the belt strip is cut and sized, we begin by wetting the leather with a sponge.  The water softens the leather, and makes the leather belt tooling process easier. Because the design runs down the center of the belt, we draw a faint guideline down the belt center. Next the tooling begins…

Once the belt is tooled, we condition the leather to prepare it for the dye. We “block dye” the leather using penetrating oil based dyes. To block dye, wrap a few layers of soft cloth around a block of wood. This method works the dye into the leather grain, but prevents the dye from seeping into the handmade impression… 
                
The dye high quality oil based leather dye. However, the color transition is not yet complete. Next, we must apply a thin coat of leather balm with wax. The leather balm helps to seal the leather grain, but leaves the handmade belt impression vulnerable to the antique leather stain that will be applied in the next step…

Next we apply antique leather belt stain. The stain is available in many colors. We use a wool dauber to apply the stain. After the stain is set, we use a damp sponge to wipe the excess off the surface of the leather belt. Finally, a dry, soft cloth is used to buff the belt and to ensure that the finish is spread evenly and lends to the handmade effect. For those of you who do not already know, the antique stain is messy. If you want to keep the back of the belt “clean”, keep a clean rag on hand an wipe up any excess stain immediately.

After applying the antique leather stain, we apply a second coat of leather balm and buff the finish to a brilliant shine. Next, the belt ends are burnished and dyed to match the edges. Then, the belt is punched so that the buckle can be attached and secured. Our handmade leather belts fold and snap where the buckle attaches. Next, we must skive (thin) the belt where the buckle attaches so that it is not bulky at the point where the leather is doubled over. We use a bench top skiver, but an inexpensive handtool is available to do the job.

 

 
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