My Amazing Experience Aging a Brass Web Belt Buckle

[JockThePilot]

So like many of you, I get a fever to upgrade a certain part of my gear from time to time. Recently my web belt has been in need of replacement/upgrading.

Believe it or not, I've been doing this long enough that:

• A) I've now worn my way almost all the way through a web belt, and;
  B) I got my belt back when we used to think Indy's Raiders buckle was silver. (Look, I'm as surprised as you are that VHS screen caps weren't totally accurate.)

So, although I had a beautiful old silver coloured belt buckle (with a lovely patina), I decided it was time to get a brass one and a fresh web belt that won't come apart if I gain a few pounds (of muscle, naturally). I found a brand new one for about $5 at a military surplus store, but it was in desperate need of distressing.

So here is the story of how I went from this:



To this:



I did a search of CoW for tips on how to distress brass from those who have come before. Based on that research, these are the steps I took.

• Step 1) First I identified whether I had a solid brass buckle, or merely a brass plated buckle. Unfortunately it was the latter, inferior style I had.
  Step 2) Using a Dremel with a fine grit attachment, I did some work on carefully removing the shiniest layer of plating, as well as adding some scratches to the edges of the thing.
  Step 3) I wasn't quite happy with just the Dremeling, so I got a coarse nail file and got rough with it. I put a couple of good scrapes on there to simulate truck dragging damage.
  Step 4) From there I tried solutions of salt water, and of vinegar (separately) to see if that would speed up the patina process. Limited success.
  Step 5) Going back to the research, I found that ammonia was apparently the key. So I put the buckle in some Windex for a couple of hours.
  Step 6) THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP! While waiting for the ammonia to do its business, I decided to tidy up an old wardrobe full of costume pieces in the attic. While doing that, I found a perfect, solid brass buckle attached to a decaying tan coloured web belt. This is the buckle in the "after" picture up above. I had probably hidden it away back when I thought this was only accurate to Temple/Last Crusade.

So there you have it. Six easy steps to getting a perfectly aged solid brass buckle with a wonderful patina. Hopefully it helps some of you, although I admit the part where you need to already own one and have forgotten about it will be a challenge to some.

Joking aside, I was pretty happy with the results on my plated buckle, although the old solid brass one is definitely what I'll be wearing going forward.

Here's a couple of pictures of the two side by side for comparison.


The old on is on top there, with my distressing work on the bottom.


Again, old one on top. Reading "Solid Brass" is very satisfying to me.

All this to say, I think it's kind of cool what being a bit of a packrat will bring you. I'm excited about my "new" old belt, but less excited to realise that I'm more like Marcus than Indy, since this is basically "getting lost in my own museum".

If anyone wants to see a couple more pictures of the belts, or just some hi-res versions, there's an album here: http://imgur.com/a/hIsjx

[Indy Magnoli]

I've got to admit... you got me. Nice post!

[Screencapped]

April Fools a month late

[JockThePilot]

April Fools a month late

I'll admit as I was writing this up I was thinking, "I wish this had happened a month ago!"

But really, isn't the best April Fools one nobody sees coming? For example if it happens in May!

Joking aside, it was a lot of fun to distress my new "plated" buckle with some of the techniques others have used. The way the ammonia in Windex went to town on that thing was awesome!

[Indiana Jeff]

Classic!

Reminds me of when my sister was working on an art project and needed to age a bolt to be rusty. This was in pre-internet days so it was hunting through references at the library. My dad happened to mention it to my grandfather and next thing you know my grandfather dug through an old box in the garage and came out with an exact match that was rusted to perfection. Much to my grandmother's chagrin he triumphantly said, "That's why I keep everything."


Your work on the new one did come out great.


Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[JockThePilot]

My dad happened to mention it to my grandfather and next thing you know my grandfather dug through an old box in the garage and came out with an exact match that was rusted to perfection. Much to my grandmother's chagrin he triumphantly said, "That's why I keep everything."

Ha ha that is a great story! It is definitely worth holding on to as much stuff as you can if you're a creative type. (Exception: If you are approached by the producers of Hoarders then you may have gone too far.)

Thanks for your compliment about the "new" buckle. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, although if I hadn't have found the genuine article, I probably would've kept going. The next steps might've been some acrylic washes and dry brushing, and maybe even some "rub n buff" (which is a product I've been looking for an excuse to use) and topping it all off with some dullcote.

[Holt]

This here is fantastic and just what I have been looking for.

My Last crusade buckle is allready cokkin'