A Totally Organic Belt

This belt was created by Tim Rust using simple organic materials. I first saw it at Butser Hill and was impressed that it could hold a sword. 
The actual method of construction is similar to the simple waist tie used in many dark age societies before everyone rushes out to buy flashy bronze belt fittings. Although there are a number of iron age toggles found, there are plenty of graves where no metal fittings are found; even in graves with weapons. This begs the question as to how exactly was the sword carried (in addition to belting the tunic).
In my opinion, Tim's solution is a simple and elegant solution.

You will need:

• Strong belt leather
• A toggle of some kind (Tim used an antler end; as did I)
• Leather thong or very strong thread

You will need to cut the leather to have a wide part and a narrow section. The wider part needs to be wide enough to allow a hole to be cut and the narrow section passed through
Obviously the slot in the wider section needs to be vertical to allow the narrow section to fit easily. I cut a 'T' section in mine to facilitate threading.

As the slot in the narrower section must be fairly large to fit over the toggle, then you will only effectively get the chance to do it once. Make sure, therefore, that it's a universal fitting.


The toggle is drilled twice and I sewed mine with artificial sinew as it's pretty tough stuff but you could use thong.

The belt will bear a sword but it would appear that most swords are suspended with the two ring system, although some are found without any obvious suspension method.