Parade belt

[rolandm]

Hi, anyone any ideas on how to recuperate damaged areas of lacquer on parade belts. I thought about lightly sanding down and then rubbing the areas with solvent and a final buff but don´t want to try anything until I hear from others who may have better workable ideas. Many thanks, Roland.

[militarymania]

no authority this,,but i would investigate if it would be feasible to remove all the old lacquer and then re-lacquer the entire belt,,,just a thought

[davejb]

First of all what kind of parade belt are you talking about, what nationality, colour etc, does it have any brass work or buckle

[rolandm]

First of all what kind of parade belt are you talking about, what nationality, colour etc, does it have any brass work or buckle

The belt is black, German WW2, and has a political type catch. I bought it without any buckle so assume it could be for almost any political group or even army.

[davejb]

Any chance of posting a picture, i am loathe to suggest any type of removal of original colouration, especially old laquer, it would destroy all history and collectability

[rolandm]

Any chance of posting a picture, i am loathe to suggest any type of removal of original colouration, especially old laquer, it would destroy all history and collectability

Sure, as soon as I get some time I´ll post a couple of images. The damage was done due to the ignorance of the previous owner who left it in his garage with a pile of junk on top and I guess a little solvent was spilled on it too. As a result the lacquered surface of this beautiful belt made of very good leather (still supple and good quality) has some ugly deep marks on its surface. I complained and got it cheap because of this. I love these leather belts and try to keep them as well maintained as possible, buckles are numerous but good leathers are more difficult to come across. Cheers, Roland.

[rolandm]

Hi again, managed to take a few pics of the belt, hope they´re not too small, still getting the hang of image re-sizing. Cheers, Roland

[davejb]

I think youve got a russian belt there judging by the end hook and i think its a lot more modern than ww2, lets see if there are any more comments

[rolandm]

I think youve got a russian belt there judging by the end hook and i think its a lot more modern than ww2, lets see if there are any more comments

Hi, the end hook is a typical catch found on almost all German political/para-military leather straps. I have several of these S.A., H.J., etc. and the catches are absolutely identical to this one. Roland.

[davejb]

If thats the case Roland then ive got one of these and all this time i thought it was Russian, thats a result, as for your problem re cleaning, i wouldnt use any type of abrasive on the belt, the existing laquer has indeed been " melted" by some form of solvent, i personally would try some acetone on one of the ends to see if this removes the lacquer but only a very small area, the problem i can see is that the damage is very deep, right back to the leather grain itself which you would have to remove all the lacquer from the belt and start again to build up the polish base. If you intend to do this, then provided its worked i would put parade gloss boot polish on the belt and keep building up layers until you reach a level your happy with. then i would add a leather creme to the belt that should seal the polish.if you like pm me so we can talk some more