Rios 1931 sailcloth straps - improvement mods

[Danny_T]

So I decided to take the plunge and finally get rid of those shitty ass buckles the rios sailcloth straps come with. Panatime had a summer sale 20% off code and I ordered a handful of the thumbnail buckles with screw in bars. I got 7 of them in various sizes and finishes. Panatime also had the 24mm Bass strap in stock that I wanted which was sold out from rios direct and I grabbed that also.

The items arrived today and I just finished completing the mods to the straps to allow the use of the upgraded buckles. I had to do two things to make it work.

1. Carefully cut out the buckle tang slot wider to fit the thumbnail tang in since the oem tang is a skinny ass pin.

2. Take my rotary leather punch and re- punch (carefully and accurately) all the buckle holes on the strap instead of just one to maintain a factory look. I used the #3 hole on the rotary punch which is just the right size to allow the thumbnail buckle tang to fit trough the strap (I did not want the holes to be too large as it would have looked unbalanced since the straps are tapered.

So here are the results. MAJOR upgrade IMO.



Old buckles



New buckles



Re-punched holes



Thanks for looking

[Marjak]

Neat work! I would like to try one of those straps but according their website the only come in 114/82mm..which is too short for me.

[CGSshorty]

Nice improvement. That one on the left has a little gape going on.

[toxicavenger]

great mod!!!! and your right the stock clasp was just a hair bigger than a paper clip.

[mattcantwin]

Agreed, major upgrade.

[JP Chestnut]

Straps fit for a straight man - good choice.

[1954Selmer]

Nice straps and love the upgrade!!

[Danny_T]

Nice improvement. That one on the left has a little gape going on.

Yeah that's the strap Terry gifted me and it was the first attempt to enlarge one hole. I had it done right the first time but I went one size up to the #4 on the strap punch so I can fit the 5mm tang on the h20 machined buckle, but I didn't get it perfectly centred which caused the gape.

But Terry likes holes gaped, so it's homage to him lol!!

[HapaHapa]

They look great Danny. I need to pay attention to those sales. Need to downsize some overly flanged Halios buckles and I need a bronze 22mm.

[toxicavenger]

Nice improvement. That one on the left has a little gape going on.

Yeah that's the strap Terry gifted me and it was the first attempt to enlarge one hole. I had it done right the first time but I went one size up to the #4 on the strap punch so I can fit the 5mm tang on the h20 machined buckle, but I didn't get it perfectly centred which caused the gape.

But Terry likes holes gaped, so it's homage to him lol!!

I do love me some gap

[rockmastermike]

that changes is major and absolutely makes it 100x better!