Leather Baldrics

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Finished with a couple of leather baldrics. I'm posting them here mostly for comment or creative criticism, but if somebody needs one, I'm sure I could be persuaded to part with one or both -- and at special Pub pricing, to boot.

These are both somewhat more roughly constructed than most I've seen. Rather than machine-stitched, these are completely hand constructed, sewn with leather lacings. Everything made by me, except of course for the buckles.

It may be a bit hard to see great detail in some of the pics, black leather lacing on a black leather baldric... well... it blends a bit, but does show up more in person.

An overall view:

A closer shot of the frog arrangement:

A view with sword in place:

And a shot with it worn:

I'm pretty proud of both (all shots are of one, but they are as identical as anything handmade will ever be), and would greatly appreciate any comments on 'em. Criticism of the constructive variety particularly -- I ain't gonna get no better without somebody tells me what I done wrong.

And if somebody just has to have one or both, I'll let 'em go for $50 here (I'm estimating $35 in materials alone), plus s&h, whatever that would turn out to be. I'm thinking $75 anywhere else...

[CaptainJackRussell]

Do you accept paypal?

Yours,

Jack

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Don't do PayPal right now, I don't do enough online business for it at this point. If I manage to sell a few, though, I probably will. Plus, some other items. I've got a couple of other projects, just not happy enough with 'em yet to even consider selling.

I did forget to put in the original post, though, that I'm willing to barter. Ideally, maybe trade for one, sell the other (use that cash to buy more materials -- buckles ain't cheap).

Always looking to expand the wardrobe -- particularly a good hat.

And always happy to get a new piece of sharp steel or piece of steel and wood that goes "boom." I realize any of the latter would be worth more than the baldric probably would, but happy to have something that needs some work -- I can do some myself or pay someone to do it here, end up better off than I was before.

[shadoes]

how much play in the length is there in those? Or are they custom fit to the person? that is one problem I have had with baldrics is I am short :) normally the ones I find premade are for taller type folks :) What size leather did you use? Belt grade or cut the peices yourself? and do you hate as much as I do cutting straps for them tiny buckles?

oh and paypal is pretty easy to set up to take. They will even transfer the funds to your bank account for you. I finally got around to setting my account up to accept as well as send a few months ago.

[Zephaniah W Nash]

They are mostly fit to me (about 6'1") with only a few inches of play. I think you've hit on one of the flaws in my cunning plan, shadoes.

I can easily adjust them for more play in the future, and probably need to.

Cut everything out myself from a half-hide I picked up (apart from the lacing). Don't know the weight or any of that sort of stuff that I should know, but the leather is appx. 1/8" thick and pretty pliable -- which is why the particular weight-bearing parts are doubled, not that you can tell it in the pics. Cutting the small straps is, indeed, a pain. I did notice, however, that you can buy pre-cut latigo in the correct width. If I were to make these in any bulk, I might have to buy some...

I have to admit, part of my thing about PayPal is that my brother-in-law managed to get into some sort of trouble with them. Never got the full story, apart from him saying he lost a good deal of money. Likely, it was his own doing, but it does make me leery... Guess I've just gotta come to the 21st century, at least for some things.

[shadoes]

They are mostly fit to me (about 6'1") with only a few inches of play. I think you've hit on one of the flaws in my cunning plan, shadoes.

I can easily adjust them for more play in the future, and probably need to.

Cut everything out myself from a half-hide I picked up (apart from the lacing). Don't know the weight or any of that sort of stuff that I should know, but the leather is appx. 1/8" thick and pretty pliable -- which is why the particular weight-bearing parts are doubled, not that you can tell it in the pics. Cutting the small straps is, indeed, a pain. I did notice, however, that you can buy pre-cut latigo in the correct width. If I were to make these in any bulk, I might have to buy some...

I have to admit, part of my thing about PayPal is that my brother-in-law managed to get into some sort of trouble with them. Never got the full story, apart from him saying he lost a good deal of money. Likely, it was his own doing, but it does make me leery... Guess I've just gotta come to the 21st century, at least for some things.

oo precut tiny straps...now we are talking hehe. I do like that basic design though. Did you make it from a pattern or just freehand it?

oh and that would be around 8 oz leather. a quick conversion is 1/32 of an inch equals 2 ozs.

[Zephaniah W Nash]

About equal parts freehand, using three other baldrics made by others (the professional kind), and trial-and-error. Basically followed the build of the others in the parts of them I liked, changed what I didn't to something I did like, and wasted quite a bit of leather along the way. Gotta love the scrap-bin.

This pattern took... I think... four complete builds and re-starts, with a couple of other completed pieces that weren't bad, just not what I wanted for myself. Those I gave away to friends as gifts.

One of the biggest changes I made from all three of the pre-made ones I have is a more vertical hang for the sword. It seems that quite a few baldrics are made for a rapier, which needs a fairly horizontal hang (relatively speaking, of course) to keep from dragging the ground. I wanted something more along the lines of an approximate 45 degree -- partially 'cuz I'm taller, and can manage a rapier that way when I need to wear one, and since I tend to wear the shorter blade, as in the pics.

I've got to go leather shopping again soon -- the better half has declared that I am to build her one, but she would prefer a somewhat stiffer leather and a narrower strap across the chest. I'm also considering building one for a basic left-hand hang -- one to wear across with one of these with pistol holster(s) in-built (may have to go without a buckle, just joining the belt solidly to wear double), and because a lefty friend has decided she wants her very own, as well...

[shadoes]

what pattern are you using for the holsters? I found a nice one I am going to modify in an old issue of Leathercrafters and Saddle journal. I am wanting to build my own baldric in such a way as to be able to attach the holsters or not and still look good.

The baldric I have right now for my costume cutlass hangs the sword at a pretty good down angle as opposed to the more straight back rapier style. The problem is it is built only for that sword and is pretty poor quality leather. But it has a wonderful buckle heh which I plan to plunder for when I get around to building mine. Not sure how you would make a more generic adjustable baldric though. Probably can with in rason but the way you have built your to much play and the frog would not stay in the right spot I think. Which brings you back to custom building for each customer. hehe maybe you just put your on and take some measurements so you can ask folks who buy one from you to send those measurements to build to spec.

Oh and I have a back sheath that has a narrower strap. To narrow really at an inch and a quarter. I think from now on I won't go any smaller than 2 inches. food for thought. What happens with the smaller strap is it won't stay where you put it even custom measured.

[Zephaniah W Nash]

I don't have a holster pattern as of yet. I was trying to make one, but the leather I have now is just too pliable -- makes a nice baldric, but needs to be stiffer to hold a pistol firmly, in my opinion. And I'm still kicking around ideas myself, regarding whether to attach the holsters to the baldric permanently, or put together an arrangement where they can be moved easily to where the wearer wants them.

And you are exactly right concerning the sizing of the baldric. I could easily add probably another three to five inches of play in this design without the hang of the sword being thrown off too drastically -- more than that, I would have to take out a bit of length, but that is one advantage to the pieced-together build rather than one solid length of leather, there's lots of places you can play with length without any problem. The other advantage I found being that, with nice pliable leather, you get stretching issues if you try to make the entire construction from one long, continuous strip of leather.

Build comes into play quite a bit beyond height, this one fits my wife nicely and she is significantly shorter than me, but she has other... accountrements... that pick up the slack, if you take my meaning.

[shadoes]

I don't have a holster pattern as of yet. I was trying to make one, but the leather I have now is just too pliable -- makes a nice baldric, but needs to be stiffer to hold a pistol firmly, in my opinion. And I'm still kicking around ideas myself, regarding whether to attach the holsters to the baldric permanently, or put together an arrangement where they can be moved easily to where the wearer wants them.

And you are exactly right concerning the sizing of the baldric. I could easily add probably another three to five inches of play in this design without the hang of the sword being thrown off too drastically -- more than that, I would have to take out a bit of length, but that is one advantage to the pieced-together build rather than one solid length of leather, there's lots of places you can play with length without any problem. The other advantage I found being that, with nice pliable leather, you get stretching issues if you try to make the entire construction from one long, continuous strip of leather.

Build comes into play quite a bit beyond height, this one fits my wife nicely and she is significantly shorter than me, but she has other... accountrements... that pick up the slack, if you take my meaning.

I have that same characteristic.. just not in near as pleasing to the eye way I am sure hehe. Meaning I have a largish upper torso so the baldric has to pass farther.

Have you considered wet modling your holsters? I am consider building a generic gun form out of wood to use as a mold.

I have been using 8-10oz tooling bellies for a lot of things. fairly stiff but you can still tool designs into it. If you look in my wrist cuff thread the black one was cut from this stuff.

[Rusty Barrels]

Sure looks comfortable, nice job.

[Zephaniah W Nash]

Thanks for the comment, Rusty.

I wore one for about 6 hours this past Tuesday, very comfortable and my cutlass rode very nicely, but the next time I buy supplies, I'm going to look for a somewhat siffer grade of leather -- a heavier sword would tend to make it slide around a bit, I believe.

[Rumba Rue]

You've done a very good job and the price is much better than most of the vendors at faires.

[Quartermaster James]

Let me add my praises to a job well done.

I've already added this my wish list!