Originally Posted by ThayerRags

I don’t think that you missed anything. The difference in belts now refers mostly to the difference in quality between artificial leather and real leather belts, or sometimes just differences between artificial leathers. I stock what I think is real leather belting, but I’m not sure if I could tell it from artificial leather or not. They’re getting pretty good at making artificial leather.

As a side note, did you know that the original “leather treadle belts” were made of raw cattle skin? They would take a raw hide freshly butchered, shave the hair off of the fuzzy side with a knife, cut the green hide into thin strips, and let them “cure” into a treadle belt. As the hide cured, the portion with the shaved hair on it would shrivel up, while the flesh side (opposite of the hair) would roll out and around the hair side as it cured. If you ever get to see an old treadle belt, you’ll be able to open it and peek inside to see the hair stubble inside.

CD in Oklahoma