Equus Leather - Bridle Leather Belts - Official Affiliate Thread - Page 18

Hi Asp

Its only the specific roller buckles that have the metal roller, for e.g. the Stainless West End Roller or Brass West End Roller . Neither buckle is an official option for the Bakers AN but you can either order through me or leave us a note at the checkout as to the buckle you'd like. I'm afraid I haven't a photo of the leather roller I'm afraid, but we just stitch a thinned bit of leather in place of the metal roller.

Hope that helps!

Charlie

Yes, it's nearly blacker than blue if anything. It's difficult to say from photos but I think it's as good a match for those shoes as your likely to find. I'm very happ to send you an offcut to see first hand if you like though?

Charlie

Hi Nick,

I shan't bore you with too many details but the thing that takes the time is getting all the ingredients of the belts, or anything else, together with us at the right time to make the right belt. Each belt is made individually for its eventual owner, we don't batch make or make stock and fulfill orders from that and because we're a small bespoke makers we have a very finite amount of craftsman time. When you combine that with the fact that our ingredients largely come from other little niche outfits we need to put a lot of slack timewise into the sysytem so we can at least try and under promise and over deliver both on quality most importantly and on timeliness.

As to why we do it this way, in all honesty it's mostly because I feel it's the right way to do it. The best products are those made individually and it's much easier to make a good belt or anything else if you know the name of the person who's ultimately going to own and hopefully love it. From a more boring business perspective we couldn't offer the range of choices we do if we fulfilled orders from stock. Just the West End http://www.equusleather.co.uk/index.php/Belts/West-End-Bridle-Leather-Belt/flypage.tpl.html belt all by it self is avalable in 5,832 possible combinations if my maths is right,even if you ignore Bakers leathers or bespoke options like custom hole spacing, contrast thread etc. Our waiting list gives us the ability to offer that amount of choice across quite a lot of products, I know in this day and age to some it seems really slow and I completely understand that it does seem slow to people, because nearly everyone else buys in and holds stock so is faster than us. I'd rather we kept making stuff what I possibly rather arrogantly think is the right way and loose a sale or two than be quicker and loose the soul of what we do though.

I hope that kind of answers the question. There are a couple of things I've written on the website that might also illuminate a bit about what we do http://www.equusleather.co.uk/index.php/Our-Heritage.html and http://www.equusleather.co.uk/index.php/Making-quality-leathergoods.html

Sorry for the long and probably rather dull rant, I'm somewhat of a slow manufacturing zealot..

Charlie

Hi Winston,

From that photo I'd say its a good and probably perfect match - certainly I'd be happy to wear them together.

My offer of an off cut still stands though if you want to check first hand - FOC - just PM me your address if you want one

Charlie

Many thanks

Glad you like it The quick release buckles are clever bits of Victorian thinking and are rather cool

The white stuff is tanners grease - the stuff that makes bridle leather bridle leather really. We don't rub the belts down too vigerously before they go because I've always felt it gave just a little more protection to the finish in transit. It'll either wear or rub of very easily with a soft cloth though.

Charlie

Hi Winston,

Much appreciated, thank you!

Charlie