Belts

Most belts sold today are two thin layers of split leather glued back to back with a printed grain on top. They crack along the fold within a year, which is why people expect belts to be disposable.

These are cut as a single strip from the back of the hide, the firmest part, with no glue line to separate. A belt made that way softens along its length and keeps its edge instead of splitting.

Belt sizing catches people out because it is not your trouser size. Measure a belt you already wear from the buckle pin to the hole you actually use, and order that length.

If you are between two sizes, take the larger one. A hole can be added in two minutes by any cobbler, and often at home with a punch. Leather cannot be lengthened.

The buckle is solid cast metal rather than plated zinc over a hollow core, so the pin does not bend and the finish does not flake off at the corners where a belt rubs against a chair.

It is held on with screws rather than a fixed rivet on the models that allow it, which means a buckle can be swapped or a strap shortened from the buckle end if you change size. A belt is one of the few things you can keep for twenty years, and that only works if the parts come apart.

A new full-grain belt is stiff, and that is correct. For the first week it will hold the curve of the roll it was shipped in. Wear it and it takes the curve of your waist instead, usually within about ten days.

Do not try to speed this up by soaking it or heating it. Both break down the fibre structure that makes a single strip belt last. Wearing it is the method.

A single strip belt with a solid buckle should outlast most of what is in your wardrobe. The parts that go first are the hole you use every day, which stretches into an oval, and the keeper loop.

Neither is fatal. A cobbler can punch a fresh hole in minutes and replace a keeper for very little. That is the argument for buying one belt properly rather than three cheaply, and it is the reason we make these the way we do.

Will the edge fray? The edges are sanded and burnished rather than cut raw, so they darken and smooth over rather than fraying.

Does it match a leather bag in the same colour? Closely, but not exactly. Hides vary batch to batch, and a belt is cut from firmer leather than a bag.

Is it dressy or casual? The narrower widths with a plain buckle work with a suit. The wider ones read casual.