Belts
Holes in belts and straps
Mark out with Calipers then punch with revolving punch, test punch an offcut if you aren’t certain of the size. Normal hole gap 25mm.
Making Belts and Straps
New Belt
Holes are usually 25mm apart and 5 or 7 of them, less apart on a thinner ladies belt
You will need:
Belt blank Buckle Keeper Rivets or stitch
Tools
Hole Punch
Sharp knife
Ruler
Decide on length, allow enough to fold over at the buckle end (approx. 6 cm).
Punch holes and join with knife, maybe skive the back where it folds back towards the short end, fold and rivet/stitch.
* Remember the Keeper
Making a Belt from 2 pieces of thinner leather
Cut out the front piece of leather using the strap cutter, or straight edge and knife, make the tip all nice, then cut out a second strap 15mm wider, glue the front to the back but leave the glue off the 150mm at the buckle end, for now!
Sorting out the buckle end
With both bits of leather folded around the buckle, it may be a bit too bulky, so just fold the front piece of leather around and then tuck it under the back piece. You can leave the back piece a bit longer and trim it off once you have stitched it all together. If the front piece feels a bit too weak by itself you could line it with a thin piece of strong leather or fabric/nylon/webbing
Now you can stitch around the entire thing and you are almost done.
Trim the back piece off once it has been stitched, and punch the holes.
Patching Belts and Straps
Good belts don’t usually need patching, however a lot of belts are now made from reconstituted leather which can’t handle the constant bending where the belt goes through the buckle.
The trick is to skive the edge of your patches and to put a longer patch on the back of the belt than on the front so that the joins are staggered which reduces the likely hood of it breaking at the edge of your nice new patch.
Some belts end up with holes that are too large, often it is possible to patch just the back and then repunch the holes smaller once the patch is in.
When patching belts that aren’t stitched sand the surface and try to get a really good bond
Shortening Belts and Straps
Important to get a clear idea of how much shortening is needed.
The proper way is to shorten from the buckle end.
1. Unpick or remove Rivets either way, cut between the layers so you don’t damage the visible part.
2. Next mark out where you want the fold to now be and punch two holes. One for each end of the new slot, then use the straight edge and a sharp knife to join the two holes up. If the belt is thick and doesn’t want to bend easily you may want to skive a bit off the back.
3. Fold the leather and rivet or re-stitch and you are done.
* Remember the Keeper
Once shortened and done up on the person you would expect the buckle prong to go through the middle hole (most belts have 5 holes).