MK-VII strap completed

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 10:53 am

Here's my MK-VII with it's new bag strap that I made for it.
The strap is still a bit stiff even though I soaked it in Pecards
and gave it a couple hours in the dryer to beat it up a little.

skywlkr · Post by **skywlkr** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 11:47 am

Looks pretty good. What kind of leather did you use? I was thinking of making one using horse riding reins but I wasn't sure if the leather would be too thick.

Luke

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 12:23 pm

skywlkrinc wrote:Looks pretty good. What kind of leather did you use? I was thinking of making one using horse riding reins but I wasn't sure if the leather would be too thick.

Luke

The leather is a 1"x72" strap that I picked up at The Leather Factory
(a.k.a. Tandy) for $12.99. It is 1/8" thick. Horse reins would work fine
I would think.

P.S. The 72" length was a little long for me. I ended up shortening it
to about 65-67" for proper buckle placement.

skywlkr · Post by **skywlkr** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 12:36 pm

Very cool. I need need to chage the strap on my WPG and haven't been able to find a store with the appropriate sizes of leather. I was looking online and though reins might work, but not being a horse person I had no idea if they would work.

Luke

Robert Duke · Post by **Robert Duke** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:49 pm

nice job on the leather strap... did you put the bevel on the sides? It appears like Noel's with those little lines/bevels there

The buckle looks a little large or longer than the ones I usually see. I don't know, just my opinion. I don't have a bag yet and have been wanting one for a while.

I had suggested to some people to go to Tandy or whoever and replace the horrid looking & smelling strap that they are getting on their WPG bags. I am holding back from buying a WPG just a bit more hoping for something better.

Good going on making your own strap. I'd also be interested in what type of leather Tandy sold you...was it vegetable tanned or what? Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Robert Duke

Major Mike · Post by **Major Mike** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 3:52 pm

The hardest part of the strap is finding the right buckle, or webbing slide. Does anyone have a good source? I've been tearing up the electrons looking for one, but usually when I finally get it in hand, it just isn't right.

Post by **Dalexs** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:11 pm

IndyBill and Major Mike,

Re: the ever elusive perfect buckle:

Bill, If you ever get up to the Portland area, The Oregon Leather Company
on 2nd and Davis carries the perfect buckle. Its about 1/4" shoprter then the one you have on there now.

skywlkr · Post by **skywlkr** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:23 pm

I just discovered a leather goods store in the downtown area of my town. It's called "Iron Mountain Leather Works"
It sounds promising, so I'll have to check it out. The TV commercial shows everything from saddles and horse tack to leather motorcycling clothes. I'll give it a look see during the holidays.

Luke

Robert Duke · Post by **Robert Duke** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:34 pm

The Bag FAQ page has a picture of one that looks just about square-ish.

If you're happy, that's all that counts. http://www.indygear.com/gear/images/bag_buckle1b.jpg

If I get a repro bag I will be in the same boat.... that is looking for a buckle. I have plenty of leather to cut for my own strap. I have a lot of leather catalogs and order from Tandy regularly, so maybe I can find one and post it.

Keep on crackin,
Robert Duke

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:43 pm

The lines were added by me...I had to make a tool to do this, but that
wasn't too hard.

The strap is this one from The Leather Factory:
http://www.leatherfactory.com/PRODIMAGE/4527-00-L.JPG
I used their medium brown dye to get the color

And the buckle is this one:
http://www.leatherfactory.com/PRODIMAGE/1512-00-L.JPG

I agree the buckle should be more a square than a rectangle. I'll have
to look into Dalexes' source downtown (Fairview is actually a suburb of
Portland, about 10 miles out). The one above was only 79 cents and it's
nickel coated over solid brass. I've distressed it to show some of the brass
but it doesn't show too good in the pic.

Post by **Dalexs** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:16 pm

I just added a picture to my last post.
The buckles were about .70 cents. They don't always have them, but they are located in the upstairs saddle shop section, on the left side, about 4 aisles down. I seem to think the product number is something like #406.

Dalexs

Swindiana · Post by **Swindiana** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:43 pm

Robert Duke wrote:The Bag FAQ page has a picture of one that looks just about square-ish.

If you're happy, that's all that counts. http://www.indygear.com/gear/images/bag_buckle1b.jpg

That is the Noel Howard buckle. A bit too wide to be accurate. Then again, all that counts is if you're happy with it.

My strap and buckle:
http://medlem.spray.se/larskalvemark/in ... uckle2.jpg http://medlem.spray.se/larskalvemark/in ... uckle1.jpg
http://medlem.spray.se/larskalvemark/in ... uckle1.jpg

Regards
Swindy

IndianaJames · Post by **IndianaJames** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 9:00 pm

Bill,
Looking good! Thats the exact same setup ive got.....

Great minds....

IJ

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:44 am

IndianaJames wrote:Bill,
Looking good! Thats the exact same setup ive got..... Great minds....

IJ

Thanks IJ.

Swindy,
Your buckle looks dead on with the screen shots. Who made your strap
and can we get buckles like that one?

-indybill

Swindiana · Post by **Swindiana** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 7:13 am

indybill;
All info can be found on this link:
http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic ... ght=buckle

A Swedish company called "Tjäder läder" made my strap, much alike Tandy Leather I guess.

Cheers!

Swindy

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 10:58 am

Swindiana wrote:indybill;
All info can be found on this link:
http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic ... ght=buckle

A Swedish company called "Tjäder läder" made my strap, much alike Tandy Leather I guess.

Cheers!

Swindy

Thanks. I'll see about aquiring a buckle like yours from Aplus.

auntsugar · Post by **auntsugar** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 6:56 am

This one looks close

It's also from[/url]http://www.leatherfactory.com

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:43 am

Well, there's good news and bad news.
The good news is I contacted A-Plus and they
sent me a couple of the MB-706 buckles to
try out. The bad news is they won't work...
at least not with my strap. The leather is too
thick for this buckle.

From the top it looks great...just like the one Swindy
has on his.

But from the side you can see that there is just too much
leather going through it and it won't lay flat. When I did
try to flatten it out the buckle started to bend. You can
see that it's a little bent in the picture. Part of the problem
is that this buckle is made of thin stamped metal. Another
contributing factor is that the center bar is in line with the
end bars. If it were offset it would be much better. So the
search continues. I plan on concentrating my search on
vendors that carry tack and saddle supplies since the type
and size buckle in the original was probably obtained this
way too.

Regards,
Indybill

Robert Duke · Post by **Robert Duke** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:55 am

I'd do a couple of things if it was me. I would thin the leather at the point where the leather goes thru. I'd mainly thin the leather on the part where the chicago screw is put on. Take it apart there and take a very sharp razor knife and carefully thin the area. A saddleshop would have a leather splitter which will take thin layers of leather off. It's only cutting the back, not the top which shows. You could also take some off the other part of the strap that runs thru the buckle on the top. Every little bit will count. Perhaps your strap was a bit too thick to begin with. One other thing you could do to add a bit more is to do your own offsetting of the centerbar on the buckle. That is tap it with a hammer and punch, slowly and very carefully. You should be able to see if it can take the stress or not. If it can't take too much, don't push it. If it looks willing to give some, then do a little bit. Every bit will add. You become the solution to the problem.

Good luck.

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:08 pm

As the search continues for the perfect buckle, here's a couple of leads
from today.

For our friends in and around the UK check out this site:
http://www.abbeysaddlery.co.uk/

For those in and around Denmark:
http://www.sprenger.de/reit/800_600/eng ... eschlaege/

And for those in the US check this one out:
http://www.siegelofca.com/prodimages/{9 ... ge5000.jpg

Regards,
Indybill

Sergei · Post by **Sergei** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 7:41 pm

The Siegel of California buckle is too big. I mean that the frame of the buckle is too wide.

Below is the Siegel buckle:

Below is a picture of one of my 13 buckle and straps from Lee Keppler. The is the Raiders version.

Lee's so far is the most accurate.

Unfortunately the IndyGear site has the big buckles from MBA that were wrong.

Note to Staff: We need to update the bag section as well!

-Sergei

Swindiana · Post by **Swindiana** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 1:28 am

Note to Staff: We need to update the bag section as well!

You have my full support :!:

Good call!

High regards

Swindy

indybill · Post by **indybill** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:00 am

Sergei wrote:The Siegel of California buckle is too big. I mean that the frame of the buckle is too wide.
-Sergei

Yeah, I realized that once I examined the pic closer. They have a
couple of different buckles that might work though.

Like this one:
[img]http://www.siegelofca.com/prodimages/{0 ... ge4607.jpg[/img]

or this one:
[img]http://www.siegelofca.com/prodimages/{3 ... ge4613.jpg[/img]

They look like they might have too much curve to them though. It's hard
to tell from the pics. I'll keep digging.

Regards,
Indybill

auntsugar · Post by **auntsugar** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:03 pm

The top one looks to have a serious curve, and the bottom looks like it has a slight curve.

MK-VII strap completed

MK-VII strap completed

Updated w/Pic