And parts of it really are 6th century!
Here is the belt itself. The pattern is from the Snartemo II band, as described on Shelagh Lewins' web page. It dates to about 500 CE (so, early 6th century) but was found in southern Norway, not England. But I wanted a fairly narrow historical pattern that would fit my two finds, and that was threaded in (because I am not up to turning individual cards). This uses two-hole threading in the patterned section (the border tablets are threaded in all four holes). This caused the pack of tablets to be very unstable, to the point that I eventually never removed my hand from the pack while working, unless I had clipped the pack with a clamp. I just passed it back and forth from hand to hand while throwing the shuttle, packing the weft and so on.
If there's a mistake you can make while tablet weaving, I think I made it on this belt. It gets narrow, it gets wide. I widened it purposefully at the far end, to fit the width of the strap end (I started the belt before I had the strap end in hand). And wonder of wonders... the character of the thing entirely changed. My tablet woven bands have always been firm and stiff, and I think it's because I pull the weft too tight. Letting it be looser made it softer, without losing definition or proportion on the pattern.
I have about seven feet of it - I will probably trim it down somewhat so that the strap end isn't hitting my ankles!
Here is my 6th century (according to eBay) belt buckle! I think this ran me about $30 including shipping from the UK. I am looking into ways to improve the aethetics of that patina without destroying it. There's a ring and dot pattern on the chape (the plate that attaches to the belt). The tongue moves freely.
Reverse of belt buckle. There are two protrubances with holes in them. If used on leather, you'd... what? Slit the leather, stick these through and then... stick a rivet through them? I am not getting a hammer anywhere near this, so I'm going to use those to sew it to the belt.
Miracle, new joys! It's the right size! (I started the belt before the buckle arrived.)
This is the only problem. The strap end (sewn on with linen thread) does not fit through the buckle. I can either pre-thread it, so that I'll have to put my belt on over my head, or -
Holy penannular brooches, Batman! My sister suggested this.That's just the belt coming up from behind, over the tongue, and then down and under again. Given the width of the belt and its thick and fuzzy nature, I think this might work. If it doesn't - I snip off either the strap end or the buckle, make a loop of it, and re-attach. No biggie.
One more picture for scale, showing a close-up of my (quite expensive!) strap end.
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