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Hajime Saitou - Finished Pieces

Though not on me because effort. I did end up going to Tandy and buying stuff with the pouch, and spending way too much time fiddling with it before realizing the production team almost certainly glued it (and so did I in the end).

Flying out to Milwaukee tomorrow to sit and watch movies and finish up last little bits and pieces of things with pinnedtogether before ACen!

momijizukamori:

Any friends who do leatherworking or hell, even period-recreation stuff - what the everloving fuck am I looking at? WHY ARE THERE SNAPS. The strap holding the sheath is connected to the rest of this mess at only one point (because it shifts back and forth as he walks).

I don’t understand what was going through the design team’s mind here sob

I crosspost my cosplay stuff to DW, because I have a bunch of non-tumblr costuming friends there, and one gave me a solid breakdown of all the ‘why’s:

Basically, anything that will be hooked on a belt like this will have
snaps so you can attach it to the belt.  The idea there is being able to
take things on and off without sliding EVERYTHING on and off.  Military
people need to be versatile and while there is a certain order you
should put things on your belt (particularly for a dress uniform) when
in the field you need to be able to put things where you can GET them
and you don’t have fracking time to get undressed to do it.  That gets
you ded.  :)

So there are snaps on the loops of every anything that goes on a belt.

Now
that complex contraption that looks like it is holding a sword or
sword/gun also has a practical purpose.  Most people are running away
from things when they are in a uniform and/or fighting.  You need to
make sure your long pointy thing doesn’t spend all it’s time sliding
around your belt where you can’t get it and also that it doesn’t slap
your leg, tangle in your leg, or stick you while you run.  When things
are short, like a revolver, you have a big thick thing for the belt
and/or it is directly integrated into the belt so you don’t have the
slapping.  If you look at holsters for longer revolvers they often have a
leg strap (see Mal in Firefly) to ensure you can haul ass without your
piece doing you harm.  

In this case, you have a stabilizing
piece and also a piece with a rotating rivet to ensure your sword is
always down and always by your leg in an area where it won’t hurt you or
get in your way, but will still be easily accessible to kill someone
else with.

Thin straps with hook closures have several purposes
depending on dress or non-dress use.  They can have additional pieces
that attache to them in the field for use, they can simply be
decorative, or they can also stabilize items on the belt.  Usually when
they have a clip end like that they are for active use items in the
field.  And, in a gore kind of way, they are handy for taking things
from dead people as trophies or proof of kill and clipping them on you
to show your boss that you weren’t hiding in the bushes during the
fight.

Finally - snaps: you can die.  In a fight having someone
be able to take your stuff off of you to use for someone else is
important. They also don’t need to waste time undressing you to get at
your stuff.