Old View Camera Handles/Straps

[Colin Myers]

I wonder if any forum member can help with the following queries :-
One on behalf of a friend with a very nice Burke & James 5" x 7" camera, whose handle/strap broke recently. Fortunately no damage was sustained by the camera, but he would like to preserve originality, by fitting something similar to what might have been supplied by the manufacturer. I am pretty sure that the broken strap was not original, it looks too narrow. Does anyone have a B&J with an original strap and could they forward a photograph?

Two is a query of my own, concerning my Agfo Ansco 8" x 10" with an old dry, cracked strap, poised ready to break. Having had a close look at the rear of the camera , it looks as if the retaining hasps for the strap might be rivetted on the inside.
Access to this area of the back, appears to require removal of the bellows, which at the rear are retained by a four piece frame, pinned and screwed. Have any forum members replaced the handle on their 8" x 10" Agfa Ansco? I am interested to hear what problems they encountered and where they sourced the relacement strap.

Colin Myers

[Jesse1973]

I can't help with question #2 .But as far as the replacement strap goes you could try Rockler as they sell hardware for woodworking projects.Lee Valley may also have something in there hardware catalog.

[Pawlowski6132]

Ha! The leather handle on my old Agfa Anco 8x10 just broke this weekend. I have a lot of different widths of leather belt material which is about seventy five years old from my great grandfather's cobbler store. I will pull that out and see if I can fashion someting with it. If it works, I will let you know and would be willing to send you some too. Maybe your Agfo Ansco is similar to mine?

;)


I wonder if any forum member can help with the following queries :-
One on behalf of a friend with a very nice Burke & James 5" x 7" camera, whose handle/strap broke recently. Fortunately no damage was sustained by the camera, but he would like to preserve originality, by fitting something similar to what might have been supplied by the manufacturer. I am pretty sure that the broken strap was not original, it looks too narrow. Does anyone have a B&J with an original strap and could they forward a photograph?

Two is a query of my own, concerning my Agfo Ansco 8" x 10" with an old dry, cracked strap, poised ready to break. Having had a close look at the rear of the camera , it looks as if the retaining hasps for the strap might be rivetted on the inside.
Access to this area of the back, appears to require removal of the bellows, which at the rear are retained by a four piece frame, pinned and screwed. Have any forum members replaced the handle on their 8" x 10" Agfa Ansco? I am interested to hear what problems they encountered and where they sourced the relacement strap.

Colin Myers

[big_ben_blue]

You may be able to drill out the rivets from the top. Unless you want to totally restore your camera from scratch, it's not worth going to dismantle the entire back just to reach the rivets. However, after the retaining hasp is out, its an easy matter of simply retracing the old handle onto a piece of new leather. There's surely a leather store (Tandy) or a shoe repair shop for that matter in your area. Instead of riveting, you could use screws to hold the hasp in place.
Some folks use cabinet handles instead of leather handles ... the right handle can give your camera a victorian look.
Now you could also change the way the leather handle fits into the hasp. That way the hasp wouldn't need to be removed. How about keeping the handle the same width, fitting it through the outside of the hasp and then rivet the ends back to the leather? Or use a belt?

Can't help about your friend though.

[Mark Tweed]

Colin, my B&J 5X7 has a molded black plastic handle (with mock stitching) attached with D rings that collapse and fold into the camera handle. Unless you scavenged a junk B&J, you may be hard pressed to find this exact type of handle. However a similar look can be created by fabricating one out of thick 1" black nylon webbing.

Here's a Google link to B&J 5X7's for reference.

http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=Burke+and+James+5X7&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1796&bih=1016

Mark

[Lachlan 717]

I need to replace one on a Korona and was going to head to the local Good Will/Op Shop to buy a thick belt.

One question that I do have: unless to laminate 2 pieces of leather together and/or aesthetics, what role does the stitching play on these leather handles?

Thanks

[Thom Bennett]

I got a luggage handle to replace the old leather strap on my 8x10 Deardorff. Works great and there was no need to take out the rivets. The strap has buckles on either end so it just buckles to the existing strap handles.

[Brian Ellis]

If you can give a shoe repair store a sketch of what you want, or probably even just show them a picture, you probably can get a strap made that way. I had a Deardorff leather strap duplicated by a shoe repair store. Almost any leather strap is probably going to look o.k., it's not like you're working with a valuable collector's item and need something exactly like the original.

[John Koehrer]

Atrevida(sp) on the bay has original DD style leather handles. They're not expensive ~$15?
On the DD the rivets have to be removed to replace the handle. He also carries the split rivets(DD) My local Ace actually had the correct size & style rivets.
You can search deardorff parts if I've misspelled the name.

[Jim Jones]

The problem with B&J handles failing must be contageous. The one on my 4x5 failed while photographinging it for this post. It has a metal strap for stiffness, but relied solely on the imitation leather for strength. I'll probably replace it with fabric webbing or perhaps leather. The plastic webbing strap improvised for my B&J press is merely glued together, and is holding up well. The 5x7 strap is also made of imitation leather, but with a metal strap that passes around the square loops. The imitation leather looks awful, but has served me well for 35 years, and should outlast me yet. Genuine leather would make a nicer strap than the original.

[jloen]

Tandy leather had what I needed for replacing the handle on an old Eastman View 5x7.
Looks, works great.

[Colin Myers]

Thanks everyone for your input.
Much apreciated and will pass on the relevant comments on the B&J issue to my friend

Colin Myers