I'm looking at making a sword belt from the mid-18th century -- this is a separate project from the hunting sword belt I mentioned earlier; this belt is to fit a smallsword-style hanger such as this one or this one. It won't be quite the usual military belt, because I don't want to be bothered tracking down genuine buff leather, and I figured it would be fictionally made by the same private workshop that made my targe. So I'm wondering if I could use this buckle for the belt, since it's the same one I used on the arm strap of my targe, plus it's pretty cheap and I'm ordering some stuff from Crazy Crow anyway. Does a squircular buckle like that fit into that time period, or should it really have the spectacle shape?

Out of curiosity, have you contacted Mr. Najecki for buff leather? I know he's carried (and I believe produced) it if you're interested.

http://www.najecki.com/repro/pouches/Carriage.html#buff

He's a number of excellent buckles as well.

Thanks for that; I was under the impression that it was very hard to come by unworked pieces. I should try and get in touch with him about a strap for my Persian bowcase belt.

So, about that buckle. There are a couple here from the Jamestown group that seem similar in overall shape, which could be from anywhere from the early 17th to mid-18th century. Some of the ones found at Fort Stanwix (1758-69, '76-81, fig. 50 here) are similar as well.

I know that for the 18th century as a whole, the spectacle buckle seems to be preferred. But since the October sales are running out soon, I think I will go ahead and order the Crazy Crow one unless someone can tell me that it's really not right for the '45 period.