Western Belt Buckles: A Guest Post

A Guest Post by Charles Pogue

Not all western belt bucklesare those big rectangle or oval solid metal ones, that a fellow has to put his boots on before his belt, or he won't be able to bend over far enough to put those boots on at all. No, some of them are just square buckles with a hole in the middle for the end of the belt to slip through like the one "Duke" wore in the movie Hondo.

Some western belt buckles, also known as cowboy belt buckles, have some fancy engraving on them, but at least they aren't so heavy that walking a mile or two with them on will drop you a pound or two like some of those monstrous one's you sometimes see in a rodeo parade might.


Pat Garrett (you've heard of him, right?) wore an octagon shaped belt buckle. It was simple, but is a good representation of what an original western belt buckle was like. Of course, some of them are solid with a pin on the back that inserts into the hole in the belt. The one in the picture is like that.

Nowadays belt buckles are more a fashion statement than even the western belt. Some of them cost more than the belt or the jeans they hold up.

Actually, the western belt buckle originated with the movies, but their designs associate our minds with the old west so much that we seem to think the idea is older than it really is. Cowboys, and wanna be cowboys, like to wear these belt buckles, especially to rodeos.


There are lots of western belt buckles available. It's not anything at all for a place to advertise upwards of a thousand belt buckles.

I guess that's why when you're walking the streets of Laredo, Dodge City, or Abilene, you hardly ever see two buckles that are alike.

Do you wear western belt buckles?

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