Will this work?

[Bird Lady]

16 minutes ago, fredk said:

When moulding it; give it a good soaking and a little bit of stretching. Clamp it up and let it dry. 

Resolene will work if can soak in, so usually not chrome tan

Floor wax ? do you men 'Mop & Glo'? despite what it says that is not a wax but an acrylic varnish

You can use acrylic paints on leather. Any paints. Don't go buying expensive ones. I use paints meant for plastic models. They're cheap. They'll only crack off if you put the paint on really thick, which you won't have to do

 

Thank you and everyone else for teaching me and answering my questions!

 

My family tended to never throw out cleaners, so I do have some of the old Johnson wax Future acrylic floor polish. Not sure though if I should quickly put it up on Ebay. lol. Someone else suggested avoiding chrome tan for my beaks - but it sounds like it's easily recognizable. Yay that. And it also sounds like I could keep using scraps then - even better!

Since I do have some of the old-school Future, would you suggest using that or the Resolene? Would you recommend diluting either one with 50/50 water?

If I used paint (I have that cheapo acrylic craft paint) would that help with the stiffening or eliminate the need for the floor polish or Resolene? Should I water it down or use it straight out of the bottle?

Sorry for so many questions. I tend to stick to dry materials for my projects. I've learned the hard way that when chemicals are introduced to a project, i.e. glue, finishes, clay, paint, etc; they can look great for a long time, but can eventually fail big time. I had something randomly fail 30 months after I had boxed up the items - some were fine, some were not so fine. I've tried acrylic medium that the manufacturer insists always dries rock hard - mine is rubbery with only one coat.  

[dikman]

Something else that might work is shellac. It's used to stiffen felt hats, dissolved in alcohol (I used methylated spirits) and sprayed on the hat. I haven't tried it on leather but it might work on floppy leather.

[fredk]

Dilute either the Future or Resolene 1:1 with water. Use several thinned coats, maybe 3. I prefer to use a version of 'Future' which I can get

The paint won't help stiffen the leather

Thin the paint and apply thin coats to build up the colour

This knife scabbard was made in 2007, painted with acrylic model paints with no varnish to protect it. It was used regularly at events, tossed into a kit bag, generally neglected. It came back to me for repainting late 2016.

After 10 years;

Edited 3 hours ago by fredk