[Chas]

Originally Posted by NewEnglander

Do you have a picture of the back of the buckle? Now I'm wondering if I'm doing this wrong entirely. The belt I received with my new kilt is a large and I assume I was given this one based on my waist measurement. There's quite a bit of belt that is doubled back. How would one cut it off?

Sorry, if I have confused you. I will see if I can put things right.

The belt I would like to photograph is being used by my brother-in-law at the moment. That is the one with most of the velcro removed. We will make do with my No2 belt.

Here is the belt as it doubles back behind the buckle. That is about the maximum thickness of belt that you would want, but it can be thinner.



The reason it is as thick as it is, at that point, is because of the loop velcro. As you can see here.



This picture shows how much velcro is extra. From the yellow line backwards to a pont where it engages with the hook velcro is all spare.



If you want the folded part to sit flatter, you can remove a foot or so of the loop velcro OR you can remove just a couple of inches where it doubles back, behind the buckle. Using the wetting and pressing method is particularly effective once the velcro is removed.

Things to remember -

If you remove the velcro, you will also be removing the stitching (see first picture). You can either ignore it or use the opportunity to enhance the stitching. On my other belt, I restitched with a 'silver' thread, to make a feature of it.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

Regards

Chas

[ForresterModern]

One other thing folks have not mentioned here is the problem that the metal loop on the buckle itself, through which the belt passes and is then turned back on itself, has a certain "height" that unfortunately adds to the appearence of that side sticking out more than side of the buckle with the metal hook on the back that goes into the belt holes. It is nigh on impossible, between the thickness of the belt leather and the height of that metal loop, to get your buckle to lie truly flat across your belly, even if you do get the bend in the belt to behave. Unfotunately just the way it works with that kind of belt and buckle system.

I have heard a few folks with some novel ideas about how to "raise" the other side of the buckle to square it off level across your belly but cannot remember any of the specifics to suggest to you right now. Perhaps others will chime in with solutions on that part of the problem as well.

Jeff

[Tobus]

You could wet it but I really would not recommend doing that with a belt like this. These belts have a factory finish on them that will prevent water from easily soaking into them as well as if you do soak it, you would need to soak the entire belt (IMHO) to prevent there being a change of appearance in one spot, especially with the embossing.

Now that I've seen a picture of the belt, I'd probably agree with what you said.

Normally tooled leather shouldn't suffer from wet-molding (which is essentially what you'd be doing). It was wetted - they call it "casing" - for the tooling to begin with. Embossing is a tad different because it's just a machine-pressed pattern that usually doesn't go as deep. I don't know what complete submersion would do to the embossed pattern. And like cavscout said, if there's a fancy finish on the leather, it might absorb the water unevenly.

So if you do need to wet the leather, I'd just do it from the back side at the point where you want the fold to lay flat. I'd probably just remove the velcro at the fold point, flatten out the belt, then lay a wet sponge on there for a while to let the leather dampen from the back (unexposed) side. Then fold it over and weight it down. Let it dry in that position and you should be good to go.

Of course, doing that would preclude later adjustments on length. You'd likely be putting a permanent kink in the belt where you form the fold.

I'm not used to seeing belts that are adjusted from the buckle side instead of the billet side. It seems like an odd way to fasten a belt, and the fold problem is going to always be there unless you use the exact length every time.

[Strings]

Perhaps others will chime in with solutions on that part of the problem as well

I usually slip the off-side "keeper) under the hook side of the buckle: brings that side up just a touch, making it look better. I'll see about getting a pic when Spoon gets home...

[svc40bt]

Here was my solution (got the idea from a thread here a while back).



Solved both issues for the price of cutting up an old pants hanger from the dry cleaners.

[NewEnglander]

Originally Posted by svc40bt

Here was my solution (got the idea from a thread here a while back).



Solved both issues for the price of cutting up an old pants hanger from the dry cleaners.

That looks brilliant but I have NO idea how you did it. Can you provide the old thread or some DIY directions for me?
I'm bringing the new kilt home for Thanksgiving and plan on wearing it in front of my folks for the first time. I'd love to have the belt sorted out so I can feel more confident with the whole kit.
Slainte!
-Eric-

[svc40bt]

Open the velcro, put through the loop on the buckle. Close the velcro, pull both sides back through the loop on the buckle. Slide a section of coat hanger through the belt inside the buckle loop, and pull tight to the loop. Open the velcro and fold the wire around the buckle loop. Close the velcro and slide the keeper up to the buckle.

Here are a couple more pictures which should hopefully explain what I did.

[bigdad1]

I suggest making note of where the buckle should be and then with it removed from the belt folded back as though the buckle was there and then putting a heavy weight on the bend for a couple of days to let the fold become more flattened.

[ForresterModern]

There is the ideas I was talking about. Brilliant! Gotta figure out how to do that for myself. Looks grand.

[thescot]

One thing I have found is that you can bend the belt the way it would be around your waist before sticking the velcro down. That seems to make it easier to get the thing to flatten so it will lay down when you slide the leather keeper up to the metal.

If you bend it back to stick the thing together without making the bend first, you try to force two curves of the same size together, and it won't work. Think of it as a geometry problem. What you really need is two curves with two different radii. That, I have found, makes the resulting bend much easier to get flat.