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  1. The Dinghy Skippers & Man O' Wars are now available!
Brown leather belt with gold buckle on a white background
Brown leather belt with gold buckle on a white background
Brown leather belt with a gold buckle on a white background
Brown leather belt with a gold buckle on a white background
Brown leather belt with gold buckle on a white background

The Iron Snail

The Man O' War's Leaf Belt

Sale price $75.00

Size (Your Pants Size)
Size chart

Perhaps the most important strip of leather you’ll ever come across. One to keep those pesky pants of yours afloat. The Man O’ War('s Leaf)! The Man O’ War follows the precise methodology of the Dinghy Skipper: letting the user enjoy a material in its simplest, yet considered, form. It isn’t often we’re able to interact with leather from one of the highest-quality tanneries on the planet—let alone have a reason to use it as a tool. Toss it on, forget about it, and let it soften, conform to your waist, and age beautifully.

Now, to get to brass tacks: the Man O’ War's Leaf is a burly, hand-selected 12–13oz leather—quite thick—and thus comes with a 600,000 year warranty. The edges are beveled and single stage burnished by two hands in the great state of Georgia by none other than Mr. Aaron Harker himself.

Sizing Advice: Stick to your pants size! A belt is nice and easy. It comes with some ease in either direction. If your waist is a 30" order a 30" and the belt will have a little extra length for you.

Note: The Man O’ War’s Leaf now has oval holes rather than the circular holes currently pictured. This allows the buckle tongue to sit more naturally and the belt to lie flatter. Pictures will be updated shortly.

This is a Leaf Line item, more information is below.

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What is with the "Leaf"?

You’re currently viewing our Leaf line of products. The goal of the Leaf line is to offer our pieces at a lower cost without compromising on quality, manufacturing, or anything of the sort. Instead, we look for ways to lower costs such as: using non-selvedge denim instead of selvedge, using fabrics without patterns so our fabric yield is higher, removing linings to make pieces for slightly warmer weather, sticking to more traditional materials, etcetera. Our Leaf line products are made in the same factories, have the same fit, some of the same details as our Primordial line, and are all guaranteed to be of outstanding quality.

How did we lower the cost? Simple! We took away some of Mr. Harker's workload. The burnishing of the Man O' War's Leaf is single stage, i.e. no beeswax finish, we removed the hand sewn keeper in place of a center bar buckle that does the job for us, and we switched tanneries from Wickett & Craig to Chahinleather in Mexico, using American cattle.

Specs at a Glance

- 1.5" wide
- Hand-burnished
- Made from Chahin leather
- Made in USA
- Lifetime Warranty
Brown leather belt with a gold buckle on a white background

The Leather

The Man O' War's Leaf uses Hickory Bridle leather sourced from Chahinleather. It's beefy, ultra-durable, and has a wonderful shine and handfeel to it. It's also quite element resistant! All of that is due to the leather being hot stuffed with oils and tallows. To me, it makes the leather feel a bit like clay. It's fluid rather than creaky.

Brown leather belt with a gold buckle on a white background

A Bit of Bling

“The buckle is the face of your belt.” — Me

For our first round of Man O’ War's Leafs, we’ve chosen a center bar buckle. The center bar served as a two for one for us. When Mr. Harker and I were trying to figure how to offer a more cost-friendly belt, one of the big cost savers would be to modify our keeper construction OR to use a buckle that removed it entirely for us. For this iteration, we went with the latter.

As for the screws, we went with an ol' favorite of mine. Solid brass, machined "crater" screws. Something about the crater is just so...deep.

The Man O' War

  1. The Portuguese man o’ war (Physalia physalis) is a highly venomous, carnivorous marine colonial organism found in warm, tropical waters—often mistaken for a jellyfish. It is, in fact, a siphonophore.
  2. A man-of-war was a powerful warship or frigate, frequently used in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century.

Our Man O’ War belt tells the tale of a creature resembling both. A being of massive scale, meandering passively through the seas via wind, mimicking a man-made vessel, with tentacles filtering through the water. Passive. Powerful. Enormous.

Brown leather belt with gold buckle on a white background

Oh, Mr. Harker!

Who else would we trust to build a belt for us other than Mr. Harker of Harker Leatherworks (and those he chooses to bring on should we need to scale)?

“Passionate” is the wrong word to describe Mr. Harker. He floods our inboxes with ideas, creations, experiments, improvements (ask him about distilled water), and new gear acquisitions—all in the name of creating a belt that we all find special.