Traditional Craftsmanship – The Buckle Maker

The Schwalm buckle shoes were closed with …buckles. They could be bought from a buckle maker.
The buckle maker got the brass blanks from yellow metal foundries in Kassel or Berlin.

The buckle maker had two tasks. First, he had to make the blanks usable by giving them a “heart”

and a “tongue” from black plate.

These components were movable, fastened around a pin.

Sometimes the buckle maker added a year or a sign of his workshop.

Second, the buckle maker had to embellish the festive buckles for holidays with additional decoration. He soldered pieces of copper sheet or copper rivets in bored holes.

Often the face of the copper sheets were finely engraved

or the area surrounding the rivets were decorated with chiseled marks.

In the end the buckles were brought to a mirror finish using mineral spirits and chalk.