| Subject: Shopping For a Garrison Belt |
Author:
Stan
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Date Posted: 14:38:22 02/16/17 Thu
Garrison belts have always been a part of my life. When I wear a 1-3/4" wide black garrison belt, it is a statement of who I am. So when I purchase a garrison belt, I look for one that meets my exacting standards.
Before the 1990s, it was fairly easy to buy a good quality garrison belt. You could find them in the work clothes section of Sears Roebuck or any other middle-class department store. And you could always find them at Army Surplus stores.
Although I have several garrison belts, I used to wear the same one whenever I'd go country-western dancing at the gay bars in the 1980s and 1990s. The frequent and lengthy "workouts" my belt got on the dance floor would gradually make the belt softer and more supple, instead of stiff and hard (attributes which are more desirable for something else). This made it perfect for spanking guys with my garrison belt, something that I enjoyed doing. And, most important, my belt would not get damaged in the spanking process.
Unfortunately, I outgrew that belt (literally), and I found it harder to obtain a replacement garrison belt that came up to my standards. These standards, which I've fine-tuned over the years, include the following:
(1) I prefer a garrison belt whose non-buckle end is tapered at the top and the bottom toward the middle so that it ends in a point, rather than one that is rounded, forming a half-circle.
(2) I prefer a garrison belt with holes that are circular, rather than elliptical.
(3) The buckle on the belt must be removable. That makes it possible for me to replace the buckle with one that meets my standards.
(4) The buckle should be silver-colored (not gold-colored) for a black garrison belt. It should have a slightly dull sheen to it rather than being overly shiny. Big garrison belt buckles are conspicuous enough. A slightly dull sheen gives them a more subdued and tasteful appearance.
(5) The buckle should be solid metal, not thin and "grooved-in" on the back side of the buckle. Especially in earlier days, garrison belts usually came with thin grooved-in buckles. There were 2 problems with those thin grooved-in buckles: (a) They would usually get dull and oxidized over time and (b) more importantly, the thin, relatively sharp sides of the buckle would dig into the leather of the belt (especially if it was worn tightly) and scrape off the black finish of the belt. The solid metal buckles I prefer have neither of these problems and look nicer too. I've noticed that many of the solid metal garrison belt buckles I prefer have a small anchor embossed on the back side of the buckle. I'm not sure whether that was the manufacturer's logo or whether it had something to do with the Navy.
(6) Lastly, I'm not happy with the leather used on garrison belts nowadays. But I'm not sure if this problem can be avoided. So I'll just make you aware of my concern. From the 1950s through the 1980s, all the garrison belts I've worn were a tan color on the inside. Even though these belts were fairly stiff when I bought them, they would get more supple with use (like a good pair of boots). Also, after wearing the belt for several years, the tan color inside would darken very nicely, and the leather would become very smooth.
Nowadays, most of the new garrison belts I've seen have the leather dyed black all the way through. In the industry, it is referred to as "drum dyed". So the inside of the belt is no longer tan in color.
The last time I went shopping for a garrison belt, I ended up buying one at a police uniform shop, but, although somewhat expensive, even that was not totally satisfactory. The belt manufacturer's name was "Law Pro". The belt's leather was drum dyed (that is, black all the way through). One problem I noticed with the belt was that, even after wearing it for only a short period of time, numerous vertical crease marks would appear on the outer surface of the belt, especially where the belt covers the small of my back.
I have a theory about why garrison belts are now being made with leather dyed entirely black, and that is to avoid one problem that has existed with garrison belts since the "good old days". In those days, only the outer side and the top and bottom edges of the belt were black. The inside surface and the interior of the belt were tan in color. I don't know the details of how the belts were actually made, but it was as though the outer surface of the belt had a black coating or layer on it. And the problem was that, after a lot of wear, the outer black coating would flake off in very narrow vertical strips, exposing the tan color underneath. This was especially common where the side of the buckle scraped against the leather. Maybe the current method of dying all the leather black avoids that problem. Keep in mind that most garrison belts are now made primarily for law enforcement agencies, and a belt with the outer black coating flaking off would probably not be acceptable in a police department uniform inspection. I don't like the crease marks on my new belt, but maybe police departments figure that is preferable (and less noticeable to the general public) than narrow vertical tan strips which betray extensive wear on a black belt.
I think the care I've taken in selecting a garrison belt for myself is rewarded when I see a guy whose attention is irresistibly drawn to my belt, like a moth to a flame.
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