C & D Jarnagin Company
THE STRANGE HISTORY OF BUFF LEATHER
ITS ORIGINS AND MILITARY APPLICATIONS
By David Jarnagin & Ken R Knopp
Published in Company of Military Historians Journal Spring 2016 Vol. 68, No. 1
In this soldiers picture you can see how dirty whitened buff would become from use in the field. From the LOC Collection.
Pictured are three types of leather used in waist belts. The botton is white buff, middle is blackend buff and the top is waxed leather. Author's collection
This is the inside of two different blackened buff belts. Note the lower one is not well tanned where as the top one is what the inside of a blackened buff belt should look like when it was tanned properly. On the top belt you can see an area behind the hook where the original black color is still present. The edges were dyed on both belts. This is the inside of two different blackend buff belts. Author's collection
This blackend buff NCO belt shows there was up keep to even these belts and it was harder then the waxed belts. Author's collection
English pattern October 21 1859 ball bag in (whitened) buff and U.S. Army pattern 1844 (whitened) buff waist belt. As can be seen there is very little difference between buff ball bag made in England and the US made 1844 waist belt. Constance work was needed by the soldiers to keep the buff from looking dingy. Author's collection
