Will this work?

[fredk]

You don't need a proper leather working awl but could use one of these pokey-hole tools

They can be bought cheaply.

Put your leather over a plastic cutting board and push the pokey-hole tool through

[fredk]

Been thinking on this

You have a sewing machine?  put a 'leather' needle in, put leather under needle and turn machine manually, without thread. That will punch your holes 

[dikman]

I've used that method myself to get even spacing of my stitching holes. Just used an ordinary needle and then followed up with an awl for saddle-stitching (used an old Singer hand-cranked 201).

[Bird Lady]

Been playing around with things all week. So frustrating when experiments take hours or overnight to dry to see if they worked or not.

I think if I can make this work, I'll need to invest in a scissors dedicated to cutting leather and a decent awl. But, I'm hoping that, and maybe some goop to stiffen with, will be all that I need, for now.

Found microwaving a bit of leather in a bowl of water, I think I tried 60 seconds, shrinks the leather and if quickly positioned over the form (bit of a wrestling trick with something so tiny) will dry pretty hard. But, I suspect there's no way to control the shrinkage or shaping too much. Didn't try less time though. Might play with it for another idea though.

Dunking it in boiling water worked fairly well to hold the shape but wasn't really hard. though it did allow me to still sew through it.

Those ideas seem fuddly, hard to be consistent and require hours of waiting time without knowing the outcome.

I've been experimenting with ways to do it consistently and faster.

Have an idea the works for shaping and is easy to duplicate, but, I'm back to how do I make it hard or at least stiff.

The attached photo is where I'm at. It was definitely a duh moment when I realized how simple it could be. The tongue is a piece of felt. I can control the bend and size completely and make the upper and lower beak parts with slightly different shapes.

Elmer's glue on the smooth side (is there a term for the "finished" side?) seems to add a bit of durability but only marginal stiffness. Elmer's on the rough/suede side adds a bit more stiffness and darkens the suede. I could live with the darkening or just add a bit of paint to the glue I suppose.

Would I be able to paint Resolene, or something else, on and use that to stiffen it better than the glue? Or would the Resolene not do much more than the glue is doing? Leather in image hasn't been treated with anything yet.

[Bird Lady]

Thank you everyone for trying to help me with this! Here's a little rogues gallery of what you were helping me with - the purple one shows how I'm going to do the beak going forward.

I think since I'm working with such tiny pieces, and random scraps, that getting a nice hard curved piece is just not practical - it adds too much time and fiddliness for little return. The cube in the photo is only 4" tall - so the beaks are very small. I did have some success but the wet shaping didn't come out all that different than using the technique above - the two on the left were wet shaped, the 2 on the right weren't.

I decided to leave the leather untreated except a bit of marker along the cut edge. With some polish, I can focus on shaping the tongue which is much easier to do for me. 

Again thank you for your time and sharing your expertise with me. I've learned a lot about working with leather. I had thought it couldn't be that hard to work with after working with fabrics since childhood. Yeah, it doesn't fray but it is definitely fussy about how it's cut and what angle the scissors is positioned. Like with so many handcrafted things, what looks fairly simple to do is often far harder than it looks.

[dikman]

They look great, so cute! I'm sure my grand-daughters (and wife) would love them.

[AlZilla]

Nice of you to come back and show us the end product. Very cute!

[wizard of tragacanth]

Things that help to stiffen the leather...

Dunk the leather in very warm water. Not hotter than 120°. If it burns your hand, its' too hot. Leave the leather submerged until bubbles stop surfacing, maybe 30 seconds or so. Remove and blot off any excess water.

Lay the leather on a rack to dry. Such a rack as the air can circulate all the way around the leather. Like an oven rack.

When the leather starts to return to its' original color, squeeze it in a press or use a rolling pin to compress the fibers. This is akin to a tannery process called "holstering" the leather, packing the fibers and making denser. If the leather is too wet or too dry, it will not work. It should be to a point that when you bend the leather, it somewhat retains its' shape. After compressing, cut the pieces to shape and mold them the way you want.

To go a step further, force dry them with 120° heat and a fan. In the beginning, check them every couple of minutes to make sure that they are holding the shape you want. Reshape them as necessary. Get them very dry but do not let them burn. You don't want grill marks on your finished pieces. If you are worried about burning them, lower the heat to 80° or 90° and when they are 90% dry, finish them by air drying at room temp. If edges start curling, bend them back as soon as you notice and maybe cut back on heat but even with air drying there will be some curling because the edges dry faster than the center.

This is the general process. Use your own judgement. Figure out your own methods. If you live in the desert, setting the leather in a hot garage works pretty good in the summer. If you put it in the sun, it will brown. That could be a plus or a minus.

Edited 2 hours ago by wizard of tragacanth

[fredk]

@Bird Lady Very nice birdies

Hope we helped you in some way