Yes, we love our kitties! This is my Mosi with mild kidney disease, and you gave me encouragement about her condition - she’s doing well! And that belt is actually mine 
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So glad to hear Mosi is doing well! 
Love the buckle and belt together, too! Just noticed the horses on the belt – very cool!
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Hey Zia, great to hear! It looks awesome coupled with your tooled leather belt! 
Was that your mother’s as well?
I’m also curious as to whether or not that’s a Pendleton Glacier National Park blanket that Mosi and your beautiful belt are resting on?
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That one is mine that I found in a vintage store off the plaza in Santa Fe, although I do have a belt from both my mom and my dad. The blanket is a brand (I’ve never heard of it other than this) which looks like Hudson’s Bay, that my parents bought in Canada probably before I was born. I have a Hudson Bay blanket, but didn’t want to risk our cats through the years scratching it 
so I have had this one out instead.
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@Ziacat
It’s a gorgeous buckle, regardless of how it was made.
Yes, lost wax is still very much a “thing” in jewelry making.
It’s fabulous and very special❤️
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No disappointments @Ziacat. Lost wax is a time consuming process and takes some skill to get it right as opposed to sand (not Tufa) casting which only requires a master pressed into sand with a hole to deposit molten metal and vent holes. I did some years ago. Piece of cake. Never got into lost wax. A lot more involved and a fair sum of $ investment in equipment.
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Hard agree that the stone looks Bisbee to me, it’s a dead ringer to some of the few examples I own.
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Although set up with a center bar and prong, here is a very similar buckle with the same number of radiating bars making up the wings. Hoel’s is calling this one sandcast and dating it to the 1950s.
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Thank you all so much for your input, I really appreciate it.
@TAH, I wish they had shown the back side of that buckle. I had wondered if mom’s could be a little bit older than the year she bought it, 1969, because the bar is not hinged, but I don’t know.
As a sidebar, I would like to say how much I enjoy this forum. I just left work, and it was crazy. In my mind I was repeating, “not my circus, not my monkeys.” So it’s kind of relaxing to get on here and decompress a little.
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Agreed! I learned that method first before I even learned, soldering techniques, etc. Sand casting, cuttle fish, it’s all used by craftsmen worldwide.
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