The Armour Archive

So I finished an arm defense, and I straped it with straps I cut from a belt. When I folded the pieces to hold the buckles, they would crinkle and get small tears.
When I tried to strap the rerebrace closed I had to bend the strap, and, lol, it got such big tears I just intentionaly ripped the strap apart with my fingers.
Some palces I could bend my straps without damage, others, not so much.
I was very dissapointed until I saw "man made" written on part of the belt, and now that I looked, the texture looks almost like denim where they didn't finish it.
Real leather doesn't weaken from being bent, does it?

Depends on the degree of the bend really. A tight bend will weaken it a bit, but if it's decent leather, it shouldn't rip. Else belts wouldn't work very well now would they?

Maybe if it's dry-rotted, but I'm guessing fake leather.

sometimes the leather will be damaged from other factors but the Man Made is deffinitly Pleather or vinal that has died from old age.

check with someof the local people most will have some extra strapping or head to good will stores for leather belts to repurpose.

Veg tan leather that is dry will crack a bit if you fold it.

Have any photos to post? Clothing, including belts will usually indicate that it's leather if it really is.

Edit: Sorry, I see that you already said it was "man made".

Got a photo?
You could also have badly-maintained or a bad tan. Leather that's lost a lot of its lubricants and has reverted to a more rawhide-like state will tear like a mother.

Leather is not "man made", so that's an important clue right there about what you're dealing with

For genuine leather to behave like you described, it has to have been mistreated, allowed to dry out (generally over years) or treated in a way that reduced its flexibility and made it brittle.

There are some finishes I use for certain projects that don't take kindly to being bent and will produce significant surface cracking in good quality leather - but these finishes are not meant for things that will be bent, folded, or otherwise mutilated

And whatever you do, don't make your shield strap out of that same kind of thing you used for your bracer straps

It makes a spectacular effect at the demo when your opponent tears the shield off your arm and throws it aside with a single blow!

Yeah, you picked a cheapjack belt. Now you know what compromising your materials does for you.

Russ Mitchell wrote:Got a photo?
You could also have badly-maintained or a bad tan. Leather that's lost a lot of its lubricants and has reverted to a more rawhide-like state will tear like a mother.

Well, it's deffinately artifical, as I can see the matrix where I cut it. I have a very old (real leather) belt, and it's in a delicate condition as you described.
Though the "material" I used for my straps is ripping in a diffirent way. It's actually not even ripping so much as tearing off in layers.

I geusse I'll find a belt marked genuine leather and try that, because the spring-post meathod is proving difficult for me to master.

Have you thought about just going ahead and ordering some real leather? You might end up spending the same amount just trying to find it in belts when you could just spend 20 bucks and get the real thing for sure.

Try Tractor Supply, or some other tack or feed place. Sometimes Hobby lobby/Michaels will have them. But Feed stores and such usually have a section with tack repair.. Latigo straps in bulk bags for a few bucks. Copper rivets in small quantities.

Here where I'm at, we have a Goodwill, a Hobby Lobby, and a TS in one stripmall, and I've never been in the goodwill by choice.