After some searching, guessing, and having too much time on my hands, I offer these photos for comparison. Challenge if you wish. I've got nothing to loose. I feel after studying many pictures posted here and elsewhere that the bag strap for the last 3 movies is 7/8" wide, and not 1" wide. Please offer up all of your screen caps if you need to. Does 1/8" really make a difference? I'll let you be the judge. These photos were taken outdoors in shade on a sunny day with no flash. The background is an Adventurebuilt shirt. I photographed it right up against the shirt placket so you could see exactly what size the buckles are. The middle one in each photo is the 7/8 buckle. These samples were made with scrap, so there is not the doubled up bulge in the center of the buckle. Also the roller buckles have not been bent like the movie versions. The bottom Raiders buckle is a Wade Egan buckle. IMHO it is the most accurate buckle for Raiders out there.
So does anyone want one of these 7/8 straps if I should make some? If so I will post an ad in the Cairo Bazaar. Right now I'm just testing the waters to see what people believe and want.
I think I remember seeing somewhere that our buddy Wade Eagan said that once the straps get wet, the edges change. Perhaps the strap started out as 1 inch and then shrunk a bit in the distressing process. Maybe Wade can join in on this. If I remember correctly, he had some contacts from Lucas' prop dpartment that actually remembered some of the distressing they did to the strap! Pretty severe!
The straps in TOD and LC look (to me) like highly beveled and distressed 1" straps. Which technically makes them in the neighborhood of 7/8" total. I have taken 1" straps and given them a good soak and distress and then measured them and they measure 7/8" in width after the damage. That being said, the CS strap looks, to me, like it was turned upside down with the 'fury' side of the leather facing up and highly gummed with treatment.
So, in my opinion, you can either start with a 1" strap and stretch it down to the 7/8" mark, or do what Jake has done here and start with a 7/8" strap and buckle. As for the measurement of the buckle, I'm not sure whether the buckles are a 7/8" or 1" buckle because even with the blue ray and a big screen it's still just too hard to tell on screen. To me, both of the roller buckle straps Jake has made here look great and the true width of the roller straps is probably closer to 7/8" width.
The behind the scenes book has some pretty good photos of the TOD gear. I'll have to look for some more comprehensive views and see what I can find for evidence on the buckle measurements in comparison with the strap width. Let's face it though, we're taking about 1/8 of an inch here as well as the eyes of the beholden.
At the risk of sounding really A$%& retentive, another fellow gearhead and I took a good look at Indy in a Crystal Skull photo yesterday. We measured the buckle with a micrometer, and then placed that measurement against his shirt placket to get an eyeballed view against a perceived or known measurement of the placket. We then placed the full size buckles against the placket of an AB shirt like the photos above, but rotated the buckles vertically to compare width of strap buckle to width of placket. After comparison, the 7/8 buckle really seemed to look better IMHO. Since I'm so taken by this minor detail (at COW aren't we all?) I will soon make a strap for my bag. After that I will take a photo for comparison, with my shirt and jacket on. The curiosity is killing me!
This reminds me of the time that two of us went to see Indy's CS costume at FIDM earlier this year. While we could not get photos or measurements, we just kept staring at that bag strap. We kept saying "Gee it sure looks smaller than 1 inch!" Finding these 7/8 buckles has not been easy.
So, here is a pic of me wearing an Azuma LC shirt with the 7/8 bag strap that I had a chance to finish in time for the QM summit. Let me know what you think.
Indiana Jake
Last edited by Indiana Jake on Sun Jun 27, 2010 12:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I can clearly see from the photos in the other post you included. I remember when you brought this up some time ago, and I couldn't agree more on the fact that the strap is narrower. Thanks for bringing this to my attention in the first place!
The bag straps in ToD, LC and KotCS are NOT a full inch wide.
The Raiders one is, we can all agree to that. For the rest of the films it is NOTICABLY narrower. I estimate about 20mm.
Observe Exhibit A - nice, chunky 'clearly-an-inch-wide' mid-brown Raiders strap.
Now, witness Exhibit B, C and D. Notice a difference in width?
No grooves either.
I put it before COW that the straps for ToD/LC/CS are identical, just not necessarily the buckle. I believe ToD has a slightly different roller buckle that slightly curves outwards, whereas the LC/CS buckle arches inwards.
I agreed it should be smaller, certainly based on appearance. So over a year ago I went out and found this narrower buckle. The only problem was that the buckle I found was too narrow. Only recently have I been able to find the 7/8 buckle which is about 22mm wide. I think it is dead on for the non-Raiders strap. I have made two of them so far, and I plan to make more available if you believe!
One more thing I noticed that Charlie posted earlier. All of the same buckles for Indy 2-4 movies, yet each has a different bend to it. Do they vary from movie to movie or from one strap to the next? Maybe a stuntman's buckle is flat, another one is curved. Who really knows?
I just order an authentic W&G Mark VII bag to go with this strap so I'm jazzed being this is my first Indy bag.
I own a Nowak CS and have an AB on order. It's all coming together!
I received the raiders deluxe from Indiana Jake. I have finally found the strap and buckle to satisfy me. I like it a lot. The other straps in my collection are both different versions of Todd's. They are fine, however, the older one has a brandy color to it and the newer one seems like a cheaper, stretchy, leather both of with have the same squared corner buckles.
I was surprised however to see how light the leather is in person. Its the right shade of brown in my opinion but a tad to light for my personal taste. I did what I do with other light colored leathers and darkened it a bit with a lighter.
Its a sturdy and accurate strap. The buckle is a break through I believe. Although not having an AB to compare it too, I like like the price far more and enjoyed the availability of the piece.
Very funny
I think I saw that one coming once my post was submitted, but never thought 
That said, let's keep it clean, please. 
