The 31 "round ridge" bells on this strap graduate from #0 size (1" diameter) to #6 (1 3/4" across). They were made in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
The owners wanted their bells to be cleaned and polished, but not lacquered. The brass will gradually and evenly darken to golden brown as the years go by. They also asked me to make the new strap similar in width and length to the old one and to reuse the nice brass and steel buckle on the new strap.
The dark brown, unlined strap is about 86" long and 7/8" wide. This length will fit around the body of a medium-sized horse, although this particular strap will be used only for display.
The vintage 1 1/8" buckle is a replacement for the buckle originally installed on the old 7/8" wide strap. A buckle should ideally be the same width as the strap to function properly. My usual solution would be to make the strap wider to fit the buckle, but that idea would not work for this project since the owners wanted me to stick fairly closely to the original design. Instead, I designed a leather spacer to make the buckle fit better on the narrower strap. Click "See more images" to view a closeup image of my solution.
This particular item is a custom, one-of-a-kind project made for a past client. Items in this Custom Projects section are for information only; they are not available for regular sale.
