Wire Hanger Belt Buckle (No Heat)

Building stuff is all about concepts, so shoutout to PRO DR MR BOB for giving me the concept to use a wire to make a belt buckle. Apologies in advance for the terrible photo quality. So why not just buy a belt buckle? Cuz I wanted to see if I could make one. I plan on using this buckle to make a paracord belt. What you'll need:

Bench vice or a corner that can take hammer hits

Wire hanger or about 16 inches or stiff wire

A hammer

Wire cutters

Needle nose pliers

Bastard file (optional)

Duct tape (optional)

Cut two sections from your hanger: a 10 inch and a 6 inch (not pictured).

The length depends on how big of a buckle you want. For me, I want a 1.25 inch buckle, so I need at least 5 inches. I'm doubling the wire in the hopes that it'll be stronger.

Place your 10 and 6 inch sections in the vice with the lip of the vice just below the middle of the section. I put it right in the middle which is why the ends weren't equal. You can use the bastard file to smooth the ends if you want.

Place the doubled 10 inch in the vice with the bend sticking up about 3/4 inch. That's roughly half of 1.25 inches. After you've hammered that to a roughly right angle, measure 1.25 inches and repeat the hammering. Repeat 2 more times to get a rough square.

Take your doubled 6 inch and bend the corners to circle around the square. The prong is going to go on the side of the square with the two ends. I had to hammer the bend in the square to make it thinner; but if you make the bend on the end of the 6 inch wide enough, you won't have to.

At this point, you're basically done, but I went a step further.

I wrapped the ends of the wire with duct tape to keep them from snagging anything. Just like that, the buckle is done!

Pretty? Nope.

Easy? Sorta.

Functional? Yeah kinda.

Cheap? Oh yeah.