"Web" style buckles....replacement belts?

["Skeet" McD]

Greetings, all: as it says, I'm new around here...and I don't think I can (yet) post the pictures that would make all of this...so much easier. At any rate, I hope my description will be enough to allow you to figure out what my problem is--and perhaps offer some advice.

I have two fairly small belt buckles, probably 1930s, which came without belts--I'd like very much to wear them while shooting period skeet and playing period golf.

One of them is quite the same as the standard buckle used for web belts: a hinged, toothed clamp would hold the buckle onto one end of the belt; the other end is inserted into the buckle, tightened properly, and then held at that length by friction provided by a knurled rod which slides back and forth in slots machined in the sides of the buckle.

The other is much the same in size but operates differently: the "attach to the belt" side is exactly the same, except that the hinge closest to the face of the buckle is rounded and shaped so as to [probably] serve as the friction provider itself.

Now, I've looked into the question of just buying some webbing....lots of 1 1/4 inch, very little to no 1 inch in cotton...and nobody seems to make a 1 inch strap end.

I've thought about using leather, but hesitate to go ahead without knowing if that was done in period. Anyone out there have some of these belts as-sold? Any advice will be much appreciated!

 

[MB5]

Have you looked at a fabric shop for the webbing? I think JoAnn carries 1" cotton webbing. For the end, maybe use fraycheck or some type of washable fabric glue and cover it with a thin leather like pigskin?

 

["Skeet" McD]

Have you looked at a fabric shop for the webbing? I think JoAnn carries 1" cotton webbing. For the end, maybe use fraycheck or some type of washable fabric glue and cover it with a thin leather like pigskin?

Thanks, MB5: I have kept my eyes open, and will continue to do so. There is a JoAnn's fairly close, so I'll pop in there the next time around. In my experience, though....the 1 inch stuff tends to be poly. Your idea about a leather end is a good and practical one. I'm a pretty deep-dyed historicist, however, and would like to document it in period to use it....unless there's no other option. Frankly, making a clip from sheet metal would be not much of a problem...but one would need a model. Which is why I'm hoping someone will post a few photos of period items.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[BruceTracy]

You could just buy a new web belt. The buckles are of course removeable. Just take the new buckle off and put the vintage buckle on. Problem solved and now you have an extra web belt buckle too. You can find Columbia web belts at Kohl's (at least I've seen them at both Koh'ls stores that are local to me). The buckle does of course say Columbia, but since you probably intend to remove it anyway that seems like a non issue. Maybe another route you could go to find a web belt is check any nearby army/navy stores. Yet another (last resort IMO) option could be to check ebay for web belts.

 

[celtic]

You could just buy a new web belt. The buckles are of course removeable. Just take the new buckle off and put the vintage buckle on. Problem solved and now you have an extra web belt buckle too. You can find Columbia web belts at Kohl's (at least I've seen them at both Koh'ls stores that are local to me). The buckle does of course say Columbia, but since you probably intend to remove it anyway that seems like a non issue. Maybe another route you could go to find a web belt is check any nearby army/navy stores. Yet another (last resort IMO) option could be to check ebay for web belts.

that would be my advice:

I've bought them for under $5 at my local army/navy...and they had a rainbow of colors to choose from...

 

[ortega76]

In the mall, the shoe store Journeys sells web belts by themselves with separate buckles. I have purchased several in colors from black hemp to blaze orange.

 

[Inusuit]

Gotta ask...

What's period skeet? Black powder? Muzzle loaders? Live pigeons?

 

[bobalooba]

I buy one inch webbing at an army surplus store. all they have is olive drab and black though so if you wanted another color you would need to go somewhere else.

Best of luck

 

["Skeet" McD]

Vintage Skeet....

What's period skeet? Black powder? Muzzle loaders? Live pigeons?

Being new around here, I'm not sure what the best way to handle this is...it's clearly a topic of interest, but probably not here! Perhaps a friendly staff member can advise.

But in the meantime: Historically, the shotgun target game which came to be known as Skeet developed about 4 miles from where I type this, in Andover MA as an off-season way to practice shooting our notoriously tricky grouse (Pa'tridges, up here). The game was invented and then tweaked between about 1915 and the late 1920s. At that time, one of the 3 fellows who "invented" it was running a national sporting magazine, published an article on it, and the sport took off like wildfire. "Skeet" resulted from a competition run by the magazine to name the new sport. The decade of the 1930s saw the sport become national and very popular. Many older shooters today were first exposed to it because it was used in WWII to train gunners to hit fast-moving targets: lead! lead! lead!

The game was developed, as I mentioned, to be practice for birdhunting, and partly as a reaction to what had happened to the older shotgun sport of Trap shooting...by the turn of the 20C a game which had similarly been a hunting game (this time for pigeons) had turned into a very organized target sport, losing most of the things that made it like bird hunting. Skeet was partly intended to give hunters an off-season sport. But--for better or for worse--by the 1950s, Skeet had turned into a target sport as well, losing almost all the elements of chance and surprise the original game had had.

And that brings us to what is today called "vintage" Skeet: shot both "just for fun" by lunatics with a historical bent like myself--and/or by those same hunters the game was designed for--there is also a national championship shot in Ohio. Essentially, the shooters go back to the some set of 1930s rules (usually the first national set, of 1930). Use of guns of the correct period is encouraged, as is period dress...although this is, sadly, rarely done well.

The main differences to be noted for someone used to modern Skeet are: the gun is not pre-mounted, but held at a ready position; the target does not come when called for, but at a random interval of up to 3 minutes after; and all single targets are shot, then the shooters return to the first station and shoot all the doubles. This was done to minimize confusion for the target boys inside the target houses (targets were expensive, and waste was frowned on); for the same reason a different word was used to call for a bird from the high (Pull!) and the low (Mark!) house.

The invention of Skeet is post-black powder period, although some folks still shot it...within a few years, however, black powder was banned from competition because of the haze of smoke it lay over the field. While guns especially designed for skeet came in very short order, most shooters in our period shot their hunting guns: the trusty model 12 pump action was, and is, very popular; the early repeater Browning humpback was common then, and less so now; side by side double barrel guns very common indeed.

Hope that answers your question, and hope it hasn't bored the rest of you silly. Feel free to contact me directly if you have other questions...or perhaps a bartender will suggest where this thread would be more appropriate, if there's sufficient interest.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Buckle images, at last....

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Greetings, all: as it says, I'm new around here...and I don't think I can (yet) post the pictures that would make all of this...so much easier.[/QUOTE]

Now a fully-fledged member, here are the buckles in question. Enjoy! (assuming they upload properly....)

 

["Skeet" McD]

Pictures....at last (although I'm hoping YOU can see 'em, as well!)

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Now a fully-fledged member, here are the buckles in question. Enjoy! (assuming they upload properly....)[/QUOTE]

Well, they didn't. Obviously. Let's try again: