Iron Belt

It was an idle boast, but now David Renwick, 32, is anything but idle. An artsy-craftsy Englishman who set up shop near Sheffield four years ago to practice the dying art of hand-forging iron, he whimsically wrote to an American pal: "I can make anything from lamps to chastity belts." The pal promptly responded with an order for a hand-forged chastity belt from an anonymous Texan. Well, why not? Renwick found a design in a public library, forged a replica--and immediately received orders for 40 more.

Since then, Renwick has had little time to produce anything but chastity belts. Orders for his belts--decorated with a frilly flower design and diamond-shaped cutouts around the waistband --keep arriving from the U.S., France, the Low Countries and Scandinavia. A Mr. Fung of Hong Kong wanted one with a 32-inch waist. A dealer in Italy asked for 150 of them and in Kuwait, Renwick's agent reports that a few sheiks are interested in his wares. "I'd much rather make a weather vane or a fat cow than reproduce something as inherently horrid as a chastity belt," Renwick insists. But he keeps forging ahead --at $60 a belt.

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