wwii axis reenactment forum

Guten Abend Kameraden

who is doing a good repro Y-strap and where in the UK can I have a look at it? SSMWholesale has one in their Ebay webshop and I am keen to buy one, but only after having seen it. Too often been dissapointed with repros, so I want to see it first. Is anybody else doing a nice Y-strap?

Schoene Gruesse
Felix the Kraut

ATF do a good range of repro Y straps but are US based so wont be of any use to you sadly.

I have got the canvas Y-Strap from SMwholesale now, SOF is doing them here in UK. Really nice, I do like them and after some shows I will sell them on Ebay as guaranteed original ; - )
But all the replica leather Y-straps dont look right, I am keeping my eyes open for an original.
Felix the Kraut

I had a set of DAK canvas type from SMW and after dirtying them up they do look the real
deal, the metal work is good and the webbing is strong and stitched well, as for the
leather types sadly imho they all look poorly made tbh, some have decent metal work but
are sadly let down by poor shoddy leather strapping which to be frank after a few events
they are kaput, or the leather is good but metal work attatchments are crap and made
from a soft alloy which bends and breaks after a while.

Personally i had a pair from Militaria Net about five yrs ago and are still going strong, being
honest the metal work on them are shite but the leather work is like iron, well stitched and
quite thick quality leather, you just need to swap the metal clips, luckilly i managed to
get some original clips from ebay and now they look the biz in my opinion, i have greased
the leather regularly which adds to the life of the leather also makes it more supple, i hope
this helps.

Good luck, Pipes

panther-store has nice y-straps..

I can vouch for both the ATF Y straps and the Panther Store ones. Ive had more than one person ask if my ATF canvas straps were originals.

Rudolf Ochse wrote:panther-store has nice y-straps..

Have Panther store changed their leather Y straps then, because
the ones ive seen look the same as the other dealers are flogging
with bendable alloy clip attatchments

Pipes

They are steel, painted feldgrau.

GraemeMac wrote:They are steel, painted feldgrau.

Cheers for that GreameMac, fair play, i must have been shown
an older set then ??
Just to add we are talking about leather Y straps NOT the canvas
ones that Panther sells which i know have the proper metal fittings ?

It was a fellow reenactor i was talking to at an event who showed
me his Panther leather Y straps and complained about the inferior
metal clips, he assumed mine were genuine but told him i had just
swapped the metal clips for genuine ones as i had the same problem
with mine

Regards Pipes

a bit of both really, the canvas and the leather Y-Riemen. I have bought an original (leather) and a repro (canvas) and I have made one on my own (using original metal parts)
If you see somebody on a show wearing 3 Y-Riemen - thats me then ; - )

Felix the Kraut

I think I have enough y-straps now, but to answer my initial question: I have found a nice y-strap in Russia!
http://www.replik.ru/Shop/belt.html
It looks fine to me, looks like he has cut no corners to save a few pennies. On the other hand, at a price of 5900 Russian rubles (= 110 British Pounds / 130 Euro / 180 US Dollar) I will find an original on Fleabay Germany - including shipping if I am lucky.
Felix the Kraut

http://replikikloda.republika.pl/produkty_niemcy.html

What about these? They look good to me, and good price

ATF's Y-straps are the best if you can get them.