Making anything from scratch requires a lot of preparation and an immense amount of research. A good while back, we got the itch to start creating our own line of belt buckles. After purchasing a really cool heavyweight bronze buckle from a street vendor in Seattle, I was looking at the design and kept thinking I can do this. That simple notion, sent me on a vast research quest reading upon lost wax casting, sand casting, metal etching and also machining metals in a variety of ways.After looking at budgets and formulating a plan of attack, we eventually built our own kiln to which we can do the metal casting and have a backyard foundry. In the process though, we also went right back to a very old technique that I learned quite a bit about in some printmaking classes back in college of acid etching aluminum plant. In this plan of attack, once our process is perfected, we could have several options for our buckles, from the lightweight aluminum etched buckles to the heavyweight cast ones.Needless to say, creating the buckles is a labor intensive process, but that is the fun part. It is a methodical process and one in which you can crank up the tunes and let the ideas roll.Check out our full line of belt buckles:rustyknucklesmusic.com/collections/belt-bucklesCast: Rusty KnucklesTags: process, belt buckle, metal and fabrication
