[lugerholsterrepair]

Piet..Well it was a shot in the dark! The orange color is quite correct. It is thought that the Germans treated the linen thread with mechurichrome to prevent destruction by microbes.

I do not believe buckles were galvanized...many excellent unused surviving late buckles prove to be painted with a high quality oil enamel paint. I suspect early buckles were simply left in plain steel but perhaps you are correct..they could possibly have had a light coating of something like galvanizing. I have never seen them with the kind of galvanizing one would find on nails...
I will have to keep an eye out for this on the many holsters that come into my shop.

Thanks for the report!

Jerry Burney