Actual Balteus Buckle and Apron Terminus Construction

[Matt Lukes]

Well it seems that the solder joint is actually VERY strong; I looped a piece of rod through the hinge loop and put as much force on it as I could and finally the loop uncurled and the buckle twisted a bit, but the joint remained solid. To be honest, I'm actually surprised the loop was so hard to uncurl :lol: So, with the base section being one piece, soldered at two points and with two loops, I now see that the buckle would be very much up to whatever force might be put on it by normal use. Of course this is an obvious truth or the Romans wouldn't have made them this way, but considering I'm not exactly sure how different modern materials and methods are from the ancient ones, I couldn't be sure the former were as good. Fortunately, they certainly seem to be

Matt