Back in early ’22 I’d been asked to repair a Tod’s belt as the elasticated webbing had failed. It was just a matter of unstitching the leather end, cutting the webbing back to a sound section and re-stitching the end back. What was interesting was that the ’buckle’ was made of leather which I not come across before. This time four Tod’s belts were delivered; one as a guide for the desired length, two which needed shortening and one which was a fake made of faux leather sandwiching stiffening card.

The brief for the latter was to shorten and replace the faux leather with veg tan. It seemed odd that someone would go to the trouble of producing a fake belt which is essentially just a length of elasticated webbing. This warranted a Google search …. I’m still in shock!

How much?!?
Each belt needs to be made the same length as the grey belt and the one on the right is the one made of faux leather. On closer inspection it isn’t great quality
The two halves of the leather buckle
A simple but ingenious locking mechanism
Shortening the belts is straightforward as one end just needs unstitching, the webbign cut to the desired length and then restitched back in place.
The buckles are approx 3.2mm thick so a suitable strip of leather had to be split down to 1.6mm
One end of the webbing is attached to the adjustment fitting by a single piece of leather. The faux leather piece at the top.
A non-stretchable fabric was fixed to the flesh side and double-sides adhesive strips to then stick the leather to the webbing, prior to stitching.
Both buckle halves are constructed of two pieces of 1.6mm leather bonded together. I also planned to add the black non-stretch fabric between them. However decided it wasn’t necessary in the end as the elasticated webbing would stretch before the leather. Only time will tell!!
To make a neat trianglular cutout, hole were punched and a Japanese skiver knife used to cut a straight line between them
The other half of the buckle needs to incorporate a metal loop so the ends needed skiving to avoid a bulky joint
The completed belt in veg tan leather. The leather was treated with Sno-Seal beeswax to make it waterproof but this was applied mainly because it also darkens the leather, to a colour I preferred (compared to the colour in the splitting image above)
The four belts ready to be returned, with two bottles of wine coming my way for my troubles. Perfect!