A Wild Bunch Belt

[Marshal Will]

Many years ago I made a belt for a friend of mine. It was a copy of a +-1920 work belt that was my father's. It's a great design I've worn myself and I made one to use as a Wild Bunch belt to hold a 1911 holster and mag holders. My friend has worn his for over 30 years and won't wear any other belt. Period. He goes on about how he likes everything about it: the roller buckle, the double tangs and the backing piece behind the buckle. He mentioned the other day that his belt needed to be re-dyed. I told him to bring it over and I'd dye it for him. It needs a lot more than dye but I dyed it the other day. It's totally worn out so as a surprise I made a new one for him over the last few days. I'm giving it to him this weekend.

This one is made out of 8-9 oz bridle leather. I put copper rivets in it instead of the split end rivets the original had. Also, the original only had three rivets but I put four in it. He should be able to pick up a horse with this thing. I worked the whole belt both ways to soften it for comfort and to give it a little surface texture. I may have to make another one for myself.

[Hawg]

I like it.

[Zulch]

So do I Marshal 👍👍

[Marshal Will]

Thanks, pards. The original belt had a different buckle, like this one. In fact, this may be the original one. You won't find one of those anymore but a roller buckle is easy to come by. I took the tine off a second roller buckle for this belt.

[Miguel Loco]

Unique design! I like it too....... another job well done!

[Zulch]

Marshal, that will a nice surprise for him, I’m sure he will be very happy with it. Very nice gesture.

[Captainkirk]

I like it.

Not me. I love it!

[Marshal Will]

Thank you, Mick, Capt.

Z, it'll be fun to give it to him. He's a generous person and it's nice to do something for him.

I forgot to mention that this belt is 1-1/2" wide where the original one was 2". That's a bit much but in the early part of the 20th century, they seemed to like wider belts. I find that with this design, 1-3/4" is maximum for every day wear. That fits through modern belt loops, too.

[Zulch]

That is interesting Marshal. So I can only suppose that back in the early 20th century belt loops could accommodate the 2" belt. Switching gears, speaking of holsters,  I do not own a holster/rig myself. So bear with my ignorance here folks. So did folks wear a belt for the trousers and also a holster/belt combination on top of their trouser belt? I realize how stupid that must sound but I've never really considered that until now. I would love to have a couple of different holsters for the varying sized guns that I have. Having said that, you very rarely see someone wearing one where I reside. I suppose that most of the time, unless you are in Tucson or like place, you would not see them often, if at all. I even have a hard time at the thought of wearing a western hat. I would love to wear one but alas those are few and far between here. So it's the story of the proverbial sore thumb? Guess I should move to Tucson. Sorry, I did not mean to veer from topic. I really like your leather craft Marshal!!

[Hawg]

Belt loops weren't put on pants until around 1922 and only on dress pants. Baseball players had belt loops well before then and some coats. Before then everybody wore suspenders.

[ShotgunDave]

That is an awesome design Marshal!! I really like that.

[Marshal Will]

Thanks, Dave. It's particularly comfortable, especially after it gets broken in.

[Marshal Will]

Hawg seems to have it right on the belt timeline. I have a family photo from the 1920's and two men in casual clothing have belts and one no belt or suspenders but he's working on a car or something.

[Hawg]

I used to wear cheap belts when I was trucking but when I went to work in a factory I broke one every two to three months. I finally bought a Bullhide gun belt. It's 1 3/4 wide and 1/4 inch thick. It was tough getting it through a belt loop twice. I bought it in 08 and quit wearing it last year because I've lost so much weight it was wrapping around almost to my back lol. Now I'm back to cheap belts but I don't do anything that will break one.

[Marshal Will]

That sounds like quite a belt, Hawg. Why don't you shorten it so you can keep wearing it?