Official Thread - Making of my 1st belt :)

[PhilusEstilius]

I do hope this does not appear as nit picking but can you explain WHY the stitching of the belt leather for I cannot understand at this thickness of leather, this would only have been the case if one were to use two thin pieces of leather to assist the glue in holding the edges together.

[Crispvs]

Brian,

There is plenty of evidence for the Romans stitching leather where we might not today. Think of the apron strap published by Lindenschmidt, which was only a singe layer of leather but was stitched down both sides.

Sam,

Looking good as always. Regarding the placement of the plates, there is no hard and fast rule. There is evidence for belts completely covered in plates which touched edge to edge; belts which only had plates on the end which crossed the front of the body and belts with a few plates widely spaced along their length, sometimes of differing designs. The only thing you really need to be concerned about is having the correct amount of space between the pugio frogs, which should be positioned so as to touch or almost touch the upper suspension rings of a pugio sheath.

With regards to stitching styles, the best person on RAT to talk to would be Cheyenne/Clare, who knows a great deal about ancient sewing.

Keep up the good work.

Crispvs

[PhilusEstilius]

The metal you have used for your plates looks thin and I would think you should not have annealed it at all, but with any thin metal you will get a wrinkle effect when punching.
What you need is to make your set out of brass or steel not wood as also your punch so that the two mate together to help prevent the wrinkle problem, in fact you should be able to punch up to 0-6 mm brass without any annealling but around that thickness it may need just a little heat but not to red.

[Titus Marius Secundus]

I first started with wood, but on page three you can see that I made a brass/steel male and female punch parts and in my opinion were 98%wrinkle-free. I tapped out any small wrinkles with my tap hammer. I appreciate your input anyways!

I will be making some brass washers for the copper rivets for the belt and then I will post the progress. I also would still like to know any advice on stitching a tunic. Of course I will get another thread going to keep this post relevant. I checked Cheyenne's profile and it hasn't been logged into since...August I think.

So yeah, any active member's advice! Perhaps please look at your own tunic and let me know if the stitching is a certain way? I am unable to see actual items in person as I don't know a reenactor in my area. I live outside of Tampa Florida. I have to be very careful with how I measure things up so that they are correct!

Regards, Sam.

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Tonight's progress! Big step for this project.

Enjoy :lol:

[Sextus Saturninus]

It looks great Sam! Good work.

[SAJID]

Hi,

excellent presentation




with best regards-sajid

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Oh my gosh I must have forgotten one of the photos! Sorry!

Thanks for the comments!

Regards, Sam.

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Very nice work, Sam. Congrats

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Thanks for the support everyone.

For the belt apron, what are your opinions on the following option; due respect to who made them. (M. Demitrius?)

Comments on relevance to my belt and era, and accuracy are all welcome please! Remember, I have no casting talent yet, nor a metal lathe, so for the buttons and terminal ends I would think that punching sheet brass would be my best option. (Perhaps buttons with rivets securing them onto the apron.)

Regards, Sam!

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Nice, but better without the umbo like depresion. I like the lunulae pieces, but tear drop are valid too.

You can add too stiffeners at the top of the straps. Only are square pieces secured with two rivets. You can emulate the decoration with perimetral dots as the picture posted.

Good job!

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Thanks for the tips. I found this great source here, apparently an ancient coin collecting website but it has a page on roman belt artifacts. Here is a link! http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswi...ry%20belts

I also would like to make what I have shown in the picture. I am not able to use niello, nor silver it, but I will make it out of thicker brass plate, and stamp in the design. I have plating supplies, but not silver as it is too expensive. Please let me know if it seems like a good choice. The time era should be correct!

As for the studs, I'm unsure. I have a solid brass rod about 18 mm in diameter and I could slice that into disks, but then I need a rivet or pin on it and the only one shown with a rivet has concentric circles on it which requires a lathe. Otherwise it needs a pin which needs to be cast, tooled on a lathe, or maybe even soldered on which may break.

Regards, Sam.

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

Sam I soldered a rivet to the back of mine, never had a problem with them breaking off.

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Thanks Jay! What diameter are the shafts? Tin solder?

Here is the work so far as I have gone ahead and made up six plates for each of the apron straps.

[Latinitas]

Thanks Jay! What diameter are the shafts? Tin solder?

Here is the work so far as I have gone ahead and made up six plates for each of the apron straps.

Based on the belt plates in "Katalog der militaria aus Vindonissa" ca 2mm or a bit more must be fine for the shafts.

The plates look good; nice like the originals without creases. It must be a lot of work to make the buckle and frogs from one piece of metal!