The Making of a Belt, pg.1

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Making a Belt, pg. 2 | Making a Belt, pg. 3

This beautiful "Night Blooming Cereus" bloomed a few months ago in Neil's shop. Between the view of the lake and the occasionally blooming exotic flowers and the geraniums we winter in his shop, it's not a bad place to work. The smell of leather and boot-polish lingers in the air and mixes with other smells from metal-soldering and polishing.

"Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality."
John Ruskinn (1819 – 1900)

Bench-Made Belts

In this shop Neil creates beautiful belts and buckles of rare quality; belts of distinction, that look good both on jeans and with a suit. It's a traditional craft, based in Western Americana and the old European arts from Ancient Greek to Art Nouveau. We know of no other beltsmiths that take their craft to this level of perfection. Neil says the process of building belts, is very similar to wood-working. Many of the special "tricks of his trade" that Neil has worked out over the years, are done with tools that he made to serve their particular function. In true American style, Neil has innovated and pioneered while respecting the long traditions of leather work and silver-smithing. The satisfaction lies in making a belt even better today than yesterday. This is only possible when making one belt at a time. There is no production line here. As a result, there is also limited production. It is the only way to make Custom Belt Straps .

The tools within reach of the leather-bench are much the same as you would see in a leather shop a hundred years ago; a variety of very sharp knives, edgers, skivers, groovers, punches, awls, hole-punchers, mallets, jars of leather-stain and polish, sponges, polishing rags, stitching pony, and many more. Many of them are hand-made, and several are modified from old wood-working tools.

Why Harness leather ?

Neil uses a dress-weight, 8½ oz, English bridle harness leather. Cowboys of old didn't wear ostrich. Harness leather lasts forever, and adopts the contour of the wearer; it has memory. The leather is hot-stuffed with oleo-stearin, and Neil adds a top quality leather conditioner. Since the conditioner is sealed into the leather, it should never need re-conditioning. An occasional surface polish may be applied to maintain shine.

The straps are hand-cut, one-at-a-time from double shoulder cuts of leather. Each strap is carefully measured for the best fit on the specific buckle set it is for. After the strap is cut, Neil determines where the center back of the belt will be. There is a "wrinkle" in the leather running between the shoulders, and Neil always tries to work the belt around that. This maximizes the inclusion of character from wrinkles and range-scars in the strap. There is usually a handful of straps in varying widths on the bench for the next step.

Conditioning

Conditioning the leather is a very important part of the process, as it ensures that the leather will never become brittle and hard. The conditioner is allowed to soak in for a couple of hours. As one of the later steps, the conditioner is actually sealed into the leather. It is also a way to soften the leather and allow it to be worked more easily. Some leather workers use water to achieve this, but Neil prefers conditioner. An added bonus, is that it is a good conditioner for his hands, as well. They can get pretty rough sometimes.

Cutting the tip

The tip is shaped by placing it on a heavy butcher block, and cutting it using a tip-punch and a mallet. A variety of tip-punches are on hand for varying strap-widths. The head-end of the strap is shaped to fit the buckle, by hand using a sharp knife.

Edging

While the leather is still slightly wet, all four edges; both sides, front and back, are edged (rounded) with a tool called a bisonnette edger. It is a small, curved steel bar with a groove running along the underside of it, with a small hole through it, right at the curve. Both ends of this hole are sharpened. There is a real trick to keeping these edges sharpened, but it is very important. When the edger is pulled or pushed along the edge of the leather, it cuts off a thin strip of this same edge, rounding it. Surfaces that will be attached flat against another leather surface, are not edged. This step looks so simple, yet requires great strength, and control. If the edger is not held firmly enough against the edge of the leather, it will ruin the edge instead. Neil always works from head to tip when he edges or burnishes. This way the leather fibres are consistently flattened in only one direction.

Making a Belt, pg. 2 | Making a Belt, pg. 3

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