Buckle tutorial 1

For years I've been threatening to put something like this up. I've left countless comments that say "You've got the buckles on backwards." And countless artists have confessed that they can't figure it out sometimes. Everyone from amateurs to published pros have trouble with this.

No matter how professional the artist, there's a 50% chance they're going to draw a buckle backwards. I've seen it in Comics, Cartoons, Anime, even fine art. Maybe they get caught up in the direction of the belt end and put the tongue of the buckle in the same direction, but as you can see, it's physically impossible.

But it's been hard to come up with a really simple and memorable way to illustrate this, to show that the tongue on the buckle points the opposite way from the free end.

Probably the easiest thing is to imagine what the end of a belt looks like when it's NOT buckled. Now you don't have to imagine any more. Here it is, in black and tan.

Perhaps in the future I'll do it for other styles of buckles, or other typical harnesswork features, but this is the first and most necessary reference. Enjoy!

Other things to note: Buckles like this don't lay flat - you've got three layers of leather for a good portion of the connection. I should add an edge-on shot to show this. Also, the entire tongue on the buckle is not visible, typically no more than half or less.

Details: This is done in 2" wide 10 oz (about 1/8" thick) Latigo leather with a 2" Roller Buckle and a wire loop. This is a fairly typical style, although you could catch the loop in behind the first rivet with the buckle. The loop IS necessary to prevent the strap from coming loose when it's not under tension.

These were straps for one of the chairs elsewhere in my Gallery.