Waist belt LfW

How to choose the size?

Put your jacket or overcoat (or jeans) on, depends on what you want to wear the belt over. Take another belt, tighten comfortly and mark its buckle position. Put it off, lay it flat and measure the marked lenght. Let it assume you got 102 cm (39 ½ in.). Look to the chart below: 102 cm is in the middle of gap 96-108 cm for belt size 110. You should take this size. Sizes 105 and 115 also fit you but you won't be able to wear 105 over winter uniform or to tighen 115 if you wear harder equipment.

The tongue has 7 paired holes for the buckle at a distance of 2 cm from each other. The buckle should sit on the middle hole so that it can be adjusted by 6 cm in each direction.

Divide cm to 2.54 to get inches.

Not all sizes are in stock at the same time. There are only sizes we have in stock now near "Add to cart" button. We try to have more of them at the same time... The belt size must be selected before purchase. It is impossible to shorten/lengthen the belt due to the design features!

Description

This product is intended for military-historical reenactment (immersive stydy of history); for creating costumes for theatrical and film, video plays condemning Nazism and fascism; as well as for exhibiting in museums of military history. This product is not propaganda of ideas and criminals convicted by an International Military Tribunal, and should not be used for such a purpose! The photos have been edited in accordance with the requirements of the law.

If you need additional photos of the product, write to us by email or in the messenger.

You can buy a buckle separately on our website. It's impossible to wear the belt without a buckle. We offer all basic buckle types (Wehrmacht, SS) made of steel or aluminum as well as rare buckles. If you need a tab for a buckle you can buy it separately. You can wear a buckle without a tab (tabs for some buckles are not obligatory).

The waist belt made of tight and resilent bull leather. Leather is not pressed, of natural colour (we hew only vegetable tanned skins for the belts) and calibrated down to 4 mm thickness and painted dark brown. Smooth side of leather is inside, that sets German leather equipment apart from for example Soviet. Belt is brown, colour like "milk chocolate". Leather parts are hewn. Our belts bear stamps Anton Kreisel, Ludenscheid, 1939. 

The belt must stand weight of equipment and not slack, that's why it is rigid enough. Cheap copies of these belts are usually soft (and this is inadmissible for such belts). Cheap copies often have dark colour (dark-brown, black from every side) and made of chemical but not vegetable tanned leather. Dark soft leather is relatively cheap and German manufacturers didn't use it.

Material of the hooks

There are stamped hooks made of aluminum or steel on the belts. All the hooks are painted in pale blue, they can only be distinguished by a magnet. It is logical to choose a belt with a steel hook for a steel buckle, but do not assume that a steel hook will be stronger than an aluminum one, this is a delusion! Steel hooks are made of 1 mm sheet, aluminum from 1.5 mm sheet, they are the same in terms of strength and wear resistance.

We do not keep separate records of the hook material. You can specify which hook is available for your size before ordering.

Historical reference.

The waist belt as those we sell was appeared in 1931 as many other parts of Wehrmacht equipment. Pieces of pre-war manufacture were of the highest quality. But during preparations for war circle of army contractors had been expanded and quality decreased. Therefore not straight stitches are normal for original belts. A series of orders was issuied in 1940, focused on making uniform simplier and cheaper, so belt hooks began to make of steel. To the very end of war in 1944 belts without straps appeared (holes for buckle's teeth were made in the main leather detail).