Lucky Phil is our Hillman expert; what I know I learned from the several articles that Phil sent along to me :-). The Herrett's catalog made a big impression on me as a teen in the mid-'60s and at some point I even made a belt or two then, using the clever 'billet in the outer layer' system. That requires that at least that layer be quite thick, and the thinner lining layer at least be quite stiff; both of which veg leather quite naturally provides vs chrome.

The big disadvantage to longevity for the belt, is that the billet can neither be replaced nor moved; on the other hand one still could stitch down the old one and then stitch another on top of it, in the traditional fashion. In which case the belt would have been converted to what we call a Border belt today, because it was used by the Border Patrol (the prior, similar belt used by the Texas Rangers was either a narrower trousers belt, so called a Ranger belt; or wide yet folded into a hollow money belt and called a Scout belt).

The belts of the 1920s Texas Rangers (there are two); apologies, I use this particular image a lot, which is of the Ranger Captain who replaced Frank Hamer:

ranger hickman 1925 (2).JPG

And the front and backside of a magnificent Scout belt by Heiser; which they officially called a Money belt:

sets (3).jpg

sets (3)a.jpg Whoops, NOT a scout belt; notice that the stitching of the loops is showing on the backside; so it is a single layer of leather in this case.

The Scout belts are one way to help date an old b&w image of a Texas Ranger. The many I've seen withe the Scout belt and the 7-1/2" SAAs are dated for the very late 19th century, and those with the narrow belts for the early 20th century. The use of a Ranger belt in the trousers with a Border belt below it, appears in images dated for the 1950s Texas Rangers. Lone Wolf Gonzaullas:

ranger gonzaullas (2).jpg

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Red Nichols The Holstorian