High Quality Leather Ammo Belts

With BooBooFett on extended break and Taco retiring soon, I've been talking to a local Leather craftsman about making a Special Edition ammo belt and he's agreed to make one for me and then offer to the community. I will get him started on this site and take no % to keep costs down and give back some to the community. He seems to have the skills and will be using high quality thick leather, but I may lack the knowledge to make sure the finished product is up to our collective community standards so I'd love input from you all.

We have started by creating a prototype of the pouches as you can see below with a few scrap pieces stained and dyed different colors. We are using the Strumfett/RafalFett diagrams for measurements and other close up pictures. These pouches will be functional and incredibly strong/rigid and I plan to use the darkest color stain/dye right now (but again feel free to chime in). I am currently favoring the darkest color (saddle tan dye + stain) which is slightly less red in real life.



Here are the changes we need to make please let me know if you see anything else:

1. Stitching needs to continue along the back, bottom and back up the front of the pouch.
2. Stitching should be white.
3. Front flap (and all leather attached to it) needs to be slightly wider to be the same width as the pouch.
4. Front flap will be held down with magnetic clip, similar to one used on a purse.
5. Leather spacers will be used to lift the back strap away from the pouch to allow the belt to feed between. This will allow the pouches to be taken on and off and therefore covering all permutations, but will it be too loose and will something else be required to hold the pouches in place so they don’t slide around or to the back?

Awesome contribution to the community! I look forward to seeing more on this!

Personally, I am perfectly happy with non-functional ammo pouches. The hip pouches hold my keys just fine!
But if that's something the community wants…

That is a great project and an excellent give-back to the community!

The front side of the flap seems too thick to me and the fact that the pouch is open (functional), don't let the flap to sit in the correct position; the flap fold angles are dictated by the pouch side contours and the lack of this feature is visible in your second image (the one with the back of the pouch). So far, the saddle tan dye looks the best color to me (so far).

Great start so far, I'd be really tempted to pick one up once a finished product can be seen. Keep us posted!!

Much needed project for people here. Hats off. Can't wait to see the final product.

Good start. Your on your way. However you could run into a problem. Once your pouches get wet again whether by accident or rain your pouches will lose it shape and collapse if it's not reinforced on the inside.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A

Could be an issue. Maybe a thin aluminum U inside would help prevent this?

After the holidays I was able to catch up with the gentleman creating the prototype belt. Here is the latest sample for inspection. As usual, please be critical.

1. As above stitching will be white.
2. The flap piece will be lengthened to cover more of the front of the pouch.
3. I still need to double check about getting wet after finished, but I believe it will be treated to stop issues.
4. I'm favoring the darker color below.
5. The front flap will be 1/2 as thick allowing for easier contouring to match the shape of the sides.
6. Using spaces in the back to allow the pouches to slide on and off the belt so people can use more or less pouches or just move them around. (I'm guessing most people just rivet/glue/sew them in place and maybe this will look cleaner, what do you guys think?)
7. The overall shape will be squared off better and match the outer flap in size and shape with a new forming block for the next one.




View attachment Sample_Pouch (1 of 6).jpgView attachment Sample_Pouch (2 of 6).jpgView attachment Sample_Pouch (3 of 6).jpgView attachment Sample_Pouch (4 of 6).jpgView attachment Sample_Pouch (5 of 6).jpgView attachment Sample_Pouch (6 of 6).jpg

Loos pretty good! It sounds like you've identified pretty much everything that needs addressing. My biggest concern is to get the flap folds crisper, but it sounds like you already have a plan for that. like the darker color too.

99centTaco said:

Good start. Your on your way. However you could run into a problem. Once your pouches get wet again whether by accident or rain your pouches will lose it shape and collapse if it's not reinforced on the

Click to expand...

Could this be remedied by treating the leather with a waterproofing agent like dubbin?

If it did get wet and lost its shape you could block it (insert a timber block from our non functional belts) to regain the shape

I spent some time studying the belt in detail and have attached a scan of the pattern I came up with.




Across the top is:


"SE ROTJ" (Special Edition Return of the Jedi).


The location of a "Heavily Weathered Pouch" if you compare to photos this pouch will stand out and be easy to spot. The marks on the diagram are just so it stands out in this blueprint as well.


The "Middle of the Belt". Might be a good place to start attaching the pouches so they are symmetrical.


There should be "~1/8 inch gap between" each pouch at most to touching in some cases. This distance should change to give a harried look, but should be the averaged to keep the belt symmetrical. We need to keep them tight to fit them on if we rivet directly to the belt so they don't get in the way of the backpack.


Top half of the scan:


Diagram showing how long the front flap is and if the front flap is contoured (angled) to match the sides or if it has a more natural curve to it as well as buttons. The key is on the right side.


Bottom Left Half:


Total count of how many of each type of pouch will be needed


Bottom Right Half:


The stitching diagram. Important to note the perpendicular lines on the top and bottom and that the back is not visible so it does not need stitching if that is easier.