My first belt

[Brian.Evans]

New to leather work; I usually hang out in Shoptalk. I'm getting divorced, and as such am losing my shop and moving to an apartment. Knives are out for a while. I figure I'll move into leather work for a while, just for myself and just to keep sane.

I seemed to have misplaced my belts during the move, and honestly they were not that nice of belts in the first place and were on their last legs. What better way to begin than with a belt?

I stopped at a local Amish harness shop and picked up a piece of 14ish oz. bridle leather, four Chicago screws, and a buckle. All in, $14.26.

It took about an hour to gather everything and get it all put together. I couldn't find my punches, so I drilled the holes. They look like crap. The gent behind the counter gave me one floral screw instead of all plain. I don't have an edge beveler, so the edges aren't quite right. I skivved the buckle end down to about half before folding it over, so that turned out ok. The keeper was a scrap piece I skivved down to about 6 oz. and seed together with copper wire because I could find the rivet gun, but no rivets!

All in all, it's functional, but it definitely doesn't represent even close to my best work and I'm definitely going to make another one in black and one in brown. I think I'm hooked. I know what I need tool wise I think, and I know what the men in my family are getting for Christmas!

 

[harronek]

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


Ken

 

[leatherman]

Nice clean work, looks good to me.

 

[rustyrazor]

Glad you found a new hobby to keep occupied... stupid divorces ruined my knife making more than once too so i feel your pain. ever think that maybe you could work on sheaths and whatnot to fill the knife void and keep your hands occupied in the interim? just a thought. I have only recently got into leather sheaths really and it's pretty satisfying to get one done well also.

cheers

P.S. solid looking belt.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

I noticed in a thread in ST that you planned on stopping making knives for a while. I thought better than to ask about it, but I'm glad to hear that you have leather work still. I'm a fan of your work so I will look forward to your future endeavors.

In the meantime, the belt looks great. Keep at it!

 

[Brian.Evans]

I noticed in a thread in ST that you planned on stopping making knives for a while. I thought better than to ask about it, but I'm glad to hear that you have leather work still. I'm a fan of your work so I will look forward to your future endeavors.

In the meantime, the belt looks great. Keep at it!

If you want the details, I'm an open book. It's all in my subforum in the DART thread and the Accounting thread.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

If you want the details, I'm an open book. It's all in my subforum in the DART thread and the Accounting thread.

I read some of the thread just now. It feels like it's not my business at all, but I can understand why you explained things given the circumstances.

I have a lot going on personally at the moment. In fact, I may need to take a couple of steps back myself, unfortunately.

In any case, I think people get tired of the whole "life gets in the way" thing, but it can be brutally true. Being totally open is a good way to convey the seriousness of your situation. I admire that you are so open and honest with your customers.