Tooling hardened leather armor

[TranscendentalTopiary]

I need some info on how to go about tooling leather that will be hardened for use as armor in sca heavy fighting and combat archery. No one in my local sca tools their armor so I'm not getting much help there, I've also spent probably a few hours both on search engines and searching this site looking for info but haven't found the answers to my specific questions.

 

I plan on taking my cut pattern piece (~10 oz veg tan) and getting it pretty well soaked with water then shaping and baking it in an oven at around 180°f. When the leather is no longer soaking wet but still damp (comparable to properly cased leather) I'll remove it, do any sk and tooling, keeping the shape, then put it back in the oven to fully dry. Once dry I'll paint on a few layers of wax reheating between coats until the leather is fully saturated with wax. 

 

Does this seem like the proper way to tool leather that will be hardened? I want to know what to expect without wasting too much leather. Other meathods I looked into seem like they swell and shrink the leather quite a bit and you loose definition in your tooling. Just not sure how fast the leather hardens up when still damp out of the oven to get started on the tooling. 

Another option i thought of is hardening the leather and doing my tooling on a separate thinner leather that wont be hardened and stitching that onto the hardened leather, just not sure if stitching holes would compromise the durability of the armor with repeated abuse. 

Thanks for any insight on this, it's greatly appreciated 

[Dwight]

Personally, . . . I have never had good fortune working with leather that was previously hardened, . . . it's just not the (pardon the pun) nature of the beast.

OTOH, . . . for what you want to accomplish, . . . take your leather, . . . cut it to the dimension and shape you desire, . . . stamp and tool, . . . and then dry it in a drying box that DOES NOT exceed 140 deg. F.  Let it hang in there until it is completely dry.

If you want to then harden it, . . . dip it in liquid beeswax, . . . you can then attach this to your armor with contact cement and stitching, . . . it WILL NOT COME OFF, . . . and if properly done, will not degrade the strength of the armor.

I've done this with some small pieces for special circumstances, . . .  and that piece of leather is super hard, . . . maintains definition, etc.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited September 29, 2016 by Dwight

[TranscendentalTopiary]

Dipping it wont work for larger pieces, I'm going to have to paint and bake it. 

 

Doesn't the leather stay soft until it cools from being in the oven? So until it's fully dry and cool it would still be toolable right?

 

Trying to avoid attaching tooled leather onto the hardened leather as it'll increase the cost of the finished product, on the other hand you can put the tooled portions onto a new body if the hardened leather ever gets damaged in fighting. The guys in my sca have been known to dent steel pretty good. 

[DJole]

I made a back of the head piece for rapier (it attaches to a fencing mask) out of leather. I don't have a photo of it, but it's 3 pieces (2 halves, left and right) with a strip linking them together. It also has 2 articulated lames at the bottom of the neck.
There is a small bit of tooling (a monogram) on the left half.

Quote

When the leather is no longer soaking wet but still damp (comparable to properly cased leather) I'll remove it, do any sk and tooling, keeping the shape, then put it back in the oven to fully dry.

There is no way that I could have done ANY tooling after the leather was hardened, so any tooling has to be done before the leather is hardened. Any hardening will shrink, thicken, and darken the leather, so intricate tooling is likely not going to work well. Attaching thinner tooled leather pieces to the hardened leather piece might be the only way to keep that decorative work sharp.

I'm not sure how you are going to take a HOT piece of damp leather out of the oven and expect to tool it. The leather has to be baked in the shape you want it-- I don't know if you can interrupt the process, lay it flat and tool it, and then return it to the oven.

I hardened my head protection piece via oven baking-- and be careful with the temperature and time, because getting the leather too hot will make it brittle. It will snap when flexed (I know this for a fact, when I baked one of the lames for too long, and I had to replace it.) I've never used wax, so I can't say anything about it. 

If you haven't done so already, you should check out Marc Carlson's guide to leather: <http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/hl.html>. I got valuable information from his site. 

Quote

 Other meathods I looked into seem like they swell and shrink the leather quite a bit and you loose definition in your tooling. Just not sure how fast the leather hardens up when still damp out of the oven to get started on the tooling. 

Boiling will certainly do this, and even oven baking will do this, as the steam from the wet leather is boiled out. 

This piece down in the photo below (the shell guard) was boiled to harden it (and that doesn't mean 212 degree F water! I kept the temp at about 180 degrees, as recommended by a few articles i read.) The boiling did affect the lines on the tooled shell, so they are less straight, and the beveling disappeared-- the beveling just became wider lines.
After it was tooled and dyed, I dipped it in the hot water for a few seconds (I think 10, but I am not sure), and then I placed it into a form to mold it into the curved bowl shape until it was cool and dry. The gold is acrylic paint applied afterwards. 
 

Edited September 30, 2016 by DJole
added relevant quotes

[TranscendentalTopiary]

I was unsure how quickly the leather becomes hard once the baking process begins. I know when dipping in hot water/wax it remains pliable until after it has cooled a bit. I was hoping the oven meathod would be similar but now I'm thinking it isn't, or that the window where it is warm and soft - cool and stiff is too small to get any tooling done. 

 

I was thinking to do my tooling on my anvil horn to keep the shape made from forming and still have a solid surface to tool over. Also using oven mits to handle the hot leather.  No one seems to do it this way, so I'm guessing it doesn't work.

 

How long are you keeping it in the oven for? Will try a couple ways of doing this whenever tandy has a sale on their leather and will update

 

Thanks!

[DJole]

7 hours ago, TranscendentalTopiary said:

I was unsure how quickly the leather becomes hard once the baking process begins. I know when dipping in hot water/wax it remains pliable until after it has cooled a bit. I was hoping the oven meathod would be similar but now I'm thinking it isn't, or that the window where it is warm and soft - cool and stiff is too small to get any tooling done. 

I was thinking to do my tooling on my anvil horn to keep the shape made from forming and still have a solid surface to tool over. Also using oven mits to handle the hot leather.  No one seems to do it this way, so I'm guessing it doesn't work.

How long are you keeping it in the oven for? Will try a couple ways of doing this whenever tandy has a sale on their leather and will update

 

I can only claim very limited expertise since I've only ever done one piece in an oven, but I'll share my limited experience with you gladly.

The leather in the oven gradually got harder as time passed. So I don't think there would have been a window (like  you are asking about) when the leather can be pulled out and be warm AND soft enough for tooling.
Plus, if the leather needs to be cased for tooling, it would have very little or no moisture left from time in the oven. So if it were able to be tooled, you'd have to wet it again, and it would cool down and lose its shape, I think.
That's an interesting idea about tooling on the anvil horn-- I have no idea if it would work or not. Time for you to pull out some scrap leather and give it a try! I don't think I could tool with oven mitts on, but maybe others can.

I don't remember how long my one baked piece was in the oven for-- I'd have to go see if I can find the directions I used from a few online sources. It wasn't as long as you might think, though. Too long = scorched, burned, brittle and useless leather. 

Let me put a couple pix of my armor piece up.
It's hard to keep the leather from warping or wrinkling in unexpected ways unless it's fitted tightly around a rigid, oven safe form (which mine was not). 
The tooled monogram worked okay-- it's not too complicated and is mostly flat rather than a three dimensional design. 
The back strip joining the two halves together warped a bit, and you can see the left side (above and to the right of the monogram) has some wrinkles in it. 
I didn't really care too much about the looks, since (A) this was a piece only for me, not sold to anybody else, (B) it was the first time I had tried it,  and (C) it was going to be struck and stabbed with swords, so it would get scratched and dinged.

Edited September 30, 2016 by DJole

[TranscendentalTopiary]

Yeah, apparently oven drying doesn't take very long at all. Guess that idea is out.

Using the anvil should work just like using granite to tool over, just not as comfortable and a bit fiddly lol.

 

I think your head piece looks great imo

 

[DJole]

Thanks for the compliment. I like the way it looks (the design), but the little flaws don't matter-- it's not meant to be pretty! ;-)
Next time I do one of these, I'll have a much better idea of how to get it right.
 

[TinkerTailor]

Ever thought of hot-stamping the hardened leather?

[TranscendentalTopiary]

Don't have the supplies to hot stamp atm. Funding is a bit limited so I'm trying to keep costs down and still move forward with projects

[TinkerTailor]

candle/pencil torch and a craftool......not many supplies needed to test and see if it can be done.

[TranscendentalTopiary]

I'll see if any of my tools would work for hot stamping. I think all i have are bevelers and backgrounders tho

[TinkerTailor]

The head of a bolt will work for a test.

[TranscendentalTopiary]

Good thinking!

[Gabriel Rasa]

Hey, I lost the thread of the replies, but heavily tooled leather armor is sort of my jam, so in response to your first post:

No no no, you have to tool your leather BEFORE you shape it! Trying to put detailed tooling on leather that isn't perfectly flat is a nightmare. I mean, I've done it, after I did a whole piece and then decided that it needed more jazz (see the first picture -- originally it had only the dragon in the center and the border along the edges), so I took it apart and got it wet again, but it's not going to lie flat after you've already put curves in it, and it's so, so much easier just to do your tooling beforehand.

The second set of pictures is for a pair of elbowpads (Isabela's from Dragon Age 2, if you've ever played it), and you can see the steps -- do your tooling and finishing (edge beveling, punch any necessary holes, etc) before you shape it. The design does get slightly distorted when you put a curve on the leather, but it's never actually caused problems for me.

As for waxing, boiling, baking, etc -- honestly, I don't think it's necessary. 10 oz leather is plenty hard, especially after it's been wet-molded, so doing anything else to it is just "More Historically Accurate Than Thou" wankery, in my opinion. Both boiling and baking are touchy procedures; get the timing/temperature wrong and you run the risk of ruining your project on the very last step, and winding up with a mass of shriveled brittle garbage. Waxing is fun and much less dangerous (I wrote about it here: http://armory-rasa.tumblr.com/post/136427185638/thrall-cosplay-how-to-make-wax-hardened-leather) and you certainly don't need to dip your leather pieces, a disposable paintbrush and a hairdryer will do you fine. It's good for making pieces waterproof, and it does make them quite hard (as long as you're not wearing it anywhere warm :P), but unless you (or your customers) are going to be LARPing in the rain for days on end, again, I don't think the extra step of waxing is worth the time it takes.

(Full disclosure, I sell to the cosplay crowd, not the SCA crowd, so there's less demand for historically-accurate methods and being able to withstand the elements -- but it's more that the pieces wouldn't look so pretty after combat, not that they wouldn't be able to perform.)

But yeah, anyway. Do your tooling first, while all the pieces are flat. Don't even try doing it on an anvil after you've shaped the leather, it will just end in table-flipping rage.

[TranscendentalTopiary]

Those are amazing pieces! Yeah my first line of thought was more costume armor than functional (larp, renfaire etc) but figured if I'm going to do it i might as well do it right also it turns out that i'll have the clientele in the sca who want leather armor where i dont have clientele in the larp/faire scene. Maybe once i build a reputation I can start doing costume stuff too

[DJole]

Quote

As for waxing, boiling, baking, etc -- honestly, I don't think it's necessary. 10 oz leather is plenty hard, especially after it's been wet-molded, so doing anything else to it is just "More Historically Accurate Than Thou" wankery, in my opinion. Both boiling and baking are touchy procedures; get the timing/temperature wrong and you run the risk of ruining your project on the very last step, and winding up with a mass of shriveled brittle garbage. Waxing is fun and much less dangerous (I wrote about it here: http://armory-rasa.tumblr.com/post/136427185638/thrall-cosplay-how-to-make-wax-hardened-leather) and you certainly don't need to dip your leather pieces, a disposable paintbrush and a hairdryer will do you fine. It's good for making pieces waterproof, and it does make them quite hard (as long as you're not wearing it anywhere warm :P), but unless you (or your customers) are going to be LARPing in the rain for days on end, again, I don't think the extra step of waxing is worth the time it takes.

Gabriel Rasa: 

What you said above about waxing/boiling etc. makes sense for heavy leathers over soft body parts-- hardening it may not be needed. Thighs and upper arms (for example) won't require much hardening, if any, if heavy leather is used. Of course, you could take a lighter leather and harden it, but yes, boiling and baking are touchy procedures.
If that leather is meant to cover joints and bone (such as fingers, hands, elbows), and protect them from actual impact in SCA rattan combat, then a certain amount of rigidity is required. I am not an expert, and I can't say what will be rigid enough to protect those sensitive spots. 

Quote

(Full disclosure, I sell to the cosplay crowd, not the SCA crowd, so there's less demand for historically-accurate methods and being able to withstand the elements -- but it's more that the pieces wouldn't look so pretty after combat, not that they wouldn't be able to perform.)

That certainly makes the requirements of the armor different! You also have to be able to recreate existing pieces-- that's more than I would want to do!
I was noticing on the breastplate/shoulder assembly picture you posted above that the big pauldrons are mounted UNDER the breastplate, rather than over. Now if that's an aesthetic choice, then it's working as designed! (That's some nice tooling and design work on those pieces, by the way!) I was wondering if it works as a functional connection, or if connecting them over the breastplate would make smoother articulation, and keep the points of the shoulder armor from digging into the chest when the arms are raised. What do you think, as the designer?

[Gabriel Rasa]

On 10/3/2016 at 4:28 PM, DJole said:

I was noticing on the breastplate/shoulder assembly picture you posted above that the big pauldrons are mounted UNDER the breastplate, rather than over. Now if that's an aesthetic choice, then it's working as designed! (That's some nice tooling and design work on those pieces, by the way!) I was wondering if it works as a functional connection, or if connecting them over the breastplate would make smoother articulation, and keep the points of the shoulder armor from digging into the chest when the arms are raised. What do you think, as the designer?

That was actually my first attempt at a chestplate, and it was a learning experience, in that I've learned better than to connect shoulders that way. :D It looks nice enough, and it's fine for faires/cosplay (and six years later it's still working-as-intended, so it's not fragile) but it restricts your arm motion too much to be good for actual combat. (It swivels up and down smoothly, but it's an obstruction if you try to bring your arms forward.) What I've found is a better solution (and also easier to put on and take off without a squire) is to have the chestplate/backplate be one unit, and the shoulders as a separate unit, either attached with straps across the chest or hooking onto D-rings at the shoulder. I've done a few of those, but like 80% of what people buy from me is bracers so I don't have any good pictures yet.

I'm certainly no expert either on making armor that's intended to be used for combat, though I would very much like to learn. To a certain extent, ANY armor made out of 9-10 oz leather is going to be functional -- you make it out of armor-weight leather and it can't NOT be, assuming that the rivets don't pop off. The only difference between the cosplay stuff that I make and what I've gathered the OP is interested in making is the durability of the finish -- the acrylics that I use to get that metal effect would look pretty sad in pretty short order if you tried to use the pieces for combat, but the armor itself would hold up fine, including the tooling. It's the same basic technique, but instead of finishing with acrylics, you'd finish with an alcohol-based dye (to hell with eco-flo, seriously, that shit runs if you SNEEZE on it) and a topcoat of hot wax or resolene, depending on how waterproof you want it to be.

[Gabriel Rasa]

Aaand I just realized that I never answered your question, re: connecting the pauldrons over vs. under the chestplate. Answer is that the conchos holding it on have broken a couple of times (I bought the conchos from Thailand off eBay; the screws they came with weren't long enough to go through two layers of 10 oz leather so I had to pop out to Home Depot and try to find something a smidgen longer; and nothing, neither metric nor standard, threads onto them quite right, so they're always kind of touchy) and so I've put it back together several times, and wound up trying it both ways, and

It makes no difference. :D

Seriously, that would seem to be a not-in-danger-of-chafing point, and the real issue is that it doesn't want to let me move my arms forward.

[DJole]

2 hours ago, Gabriel Rasa said:

That was actually my first attempt at a chestplate, and it was a learning experience, in that I've learned better than to connect shoulders that way. :D It looks nice enough, and it's fine for faires/cosplay (and six years later it's still working-as-intended, so it's not fragile) but it restricts your arm motion too much to be good for actual combat. (It swivels up and down smoothly, but it's an obstruction if you try to bring your arms forward.) What I've found is a better solution (and also easier to put on and take off without a squire) is to have the chestplate/backplate be one unit, and the shoulders as a separate unit, either attached with straps across the chest or hooking onto D-rings at the shoulder. I've done a few of those, but like 80% of what people buy from me is bracers so I don't have any good pictures yet.

I'm certainly no expert either on making armor that's intended to be used for combat, though I would very much like to learn. To a certain extent, ANY armor made out of 9-10 oz leather is going to be functional -- you make it out of armor-weight leather and it can't NOT be, assuming that the rivets don't pop off. The only difference between the cosplay stuff that I make and what I've gathered the OP is interested in making is the durability of the finish -- the acrylics that I use to get that metal effect would look pretty sad in pretty short order if you tried to use the pieces for combat, but the armor itself would hold up fine, including the tooling. It's the same basic technique, but instead of finishing with acrylics, you'd finish with an alcohol-based dye (to hell with eco-flo, seriously, that shit runs if you SNEEZE on it) and a topcoat of hot wax or resolene, depending on how waterproof you want it to be.

It certainly can be easier to make cosplay/faire stuff, but it often has to be a lot artsier, so it's a tradeoff -- work to make it functional, or work to make it a pretty design. I certainly would be reluctant to spend a lot of time on tooling, dying and shaping to make a fancy, beautiful armor piece that's going to get sun, rain and mud on it, not to mention get battered and mashed by sticks.

I wonder if I even have any 9/10 oz. leather around my leather stash. If it's thick enough, then it's going to spread the weight of a blunted weapon simulator pretty well, like you say, so there's little point in trying to make it rigid. I can see the weak point being riveted joints, as  you say. Lacing might work-- both durable and flexible, thus less likely to pop out of the leather, but it's not as sexy and shiny as the metal rivets.
I too share your frustration with the eco-flo dyes. I only keep mine around in case of doing leather stuff with kids. I have a collection of Fiebings and Angelus dyes because those colors don't run (to steal a phrase.)

[DJole]

2 hours ago, Gabriel Rasa said:

Aaand I just realized that I never answered your question, re: connecting the pauldrons over vs. under the chestplate. Answer is that the conchos holding it on have broken a couple of times (I bought the conchos from Thailand off eBay; the screws they came with weren't long enough to go through two layers of 10 oz leather so I had to pop out to Home Depot and try to find something a smidgen longer; and nothing, neither metric nor standard, threads onto them quite right, so they're always kind of touchy) and so I've put it back together several times, and wound up trying it both ways, and

It makes no difference. :D

Seriously, that would seem to be a not-in-danger-of-chafing point, and the real issue is that it doesn't want to let me move my arms forward.

Ah, that makes sense as a drawback. I hadn't considered that, not ever having been inside the armor. I can see that it would be tough to find something decorative enough yet tough enough to  hold up to the strain at that point. 

I have a somewhat similar problem with my metal rapier gorget-- it has 2 shallow angles at the front, which dig in right where the shoulder muscles meet the chest. This doesn't cause any pain, since I'm wearing a couple layers of cloth and a leather doublet underneath, but it does tend to shift the gorget out of position, and the points (even with turned up edges) have scraped and gouged my soft leather doublet which I wear as the outer layer of rapier "armor" over a shirt and doublet.  
The snapshot below is my leather coat-- it's a slick, somewhat shiny upholstery leather in a nice creamy white color. It was a close-out sale at Tandy, so I snatched up a roll of it, and I used a bit more than half to make this.
On the left side, you can see it's laced together rather than sewn or riveted, because the lacing was speedy and flexible. The lacing is going to hold the strain better than stitching, and if the lacing breaks, it's very easy to replace. It also means that the leather won't tear, since there's a lot of leather between the lacing holes. 
The front ties have an oval reinforcement patch sewn on both sides of the leather. The grey leather on the upper left of the photo is a protective "patch" that is laced onto the shoulder, to protect the white leather from the gorget. Over on the other side, I flipped up the patch so you can see the scraped spot. When the patches start to wear, I'll just cut a couple more and lace them on. Some day I have plans to put short sleeves on this thing, and maybe even skirt pieces around the bottom if I get ambitious. 
As you can see, I haven't bothered too much to make it super pretty, since it's not tooling leather, and it gets stabbed and sliced all the time. It has some black scuff marks on it from rubber rapier tips, but it's still going great after a couple years of use.

[Gabriel Rasa]

14 hours ago, DJole said:

It certainly can be easier to make cosplay/faire stuff, but it often has to be a lot artsier, so it's a tradeoff -- work to make it functional, or work to make it a pretty design. I certainly would be reluctant to spend a lot of time on tooling, dying and shaping to make a fancy, beautiful armor piece that's going to get sun, rain and mud on it, not to mention get battered and mashed by sticks.

I wonder if I even have any 9/10 oz. leather around my leather stash. If it's thick enough, then it's going to spread the weight of a blunted weapon simulator pretty well, like you say, so there's little point in trying to make it rigid. I can see the weak point being riveted joints, as  you say. Lacing might work-- both durable and flexible, thus less likely to pop out of the leather, but it's not as sexy and shiny as the metal rivets.
I too share your frustration with the eco-flo dyes. I only keep mine around in case of doing leather stuff with kids. I have a collection of Fiebings and Angelus dyes because those colors don't run (to steal a phrase.)

Well, extremely complicated tooling is my happy place, and I find that I really enjoy the technical challenge of reproducing something from a picture or a sketch, so it's not much of a tradeoff. :D And although cosplayers on the whole are remarkably forgiving of costume pieces that are uncomfortable or ill-fitting (I've heard enough horror stories that I think they pretty much all go into it expecting to Suffer For Their Art), I'm more satisfied when my work is both beautiful and functional, and when you're working with leather, there's no reason why it can't be.

Double cap rivets and rapid rivets are really iffy when it comes to nailing two piece of 9-10 oz veg tan together -- the medium posts are too short, and always risk the caps popping off, and the long posts are too long and slide sideways when you try to set them. (This has been the cause for some table-flipping rage on occasion.) I've taken to using tubular rivets at points that are going to be taking a lot of stress, because they are never, ever going to pop off by accident. (There are definite downsides to tubular rivets though -- they can be harder to come by, a PIA to set, and the star it makes on the underside is relatively sharp and can irritate skin and put snags in fabric underneath it.) I mix and match double cap rivets and tubular rivets in my Wonder Woman greaves, with double cap rivets to attach the little straps, and tubular rivets where it's taking more stress around the knee and where it articulates:

There's also a discreet line of stitching holding the knee caps in place, but for lack of an industrial sewing machine, I try to avoid stitching when I can -- it's just too time-consuming, and can very quickly drive the price up past what anyone's willing to pay. It's on my to-do list to explore posts-n-burrs style rivets, for an alternative that's stronger than double cap rivets but not as temperamental as tubular rivets.

 

[TinkerTailor]

4 minutes ago, Gabriel Rasa said:

 

Double cap rivets and rapid rivets are really iffy when it comes to nailing two piece of 9-10 oz veg tan together -- the medium posts are too short, and always risk the caps popping off, and the long posts are too long and slide sideways when you try to set them.  It's on my to-do list to explore posts-n-burrs style rivets, for an alternative that's stronger than double cap rivets but not as temperamental as tubular rivets.

 

Look into Chicago screws with thread locker to keep them from coming undone. These guys have some nice ones:

https://www.usbind.com/collections/screw-post-sets

[DJole]

2 hours ago, Gabriel Rasa said:

Well, extremely complicated tooling is my happy place, and I find that I really enjoy the technical challenge of reproducing something from a picture or a sketch, so it's not much of a tradeoff. :D And although cosplayers on the whole are remarkably forgiving of costume pieces that are uncomfortable or ill-fitting (I've heard enough horror stories that I think they pretty much all go into it expecting to Suffer For Their Art), I'm more satisfied when my work is both beautiful and functional, and when you're working with leather, there's no reason why it can't be.

Double cap rivets and rapid rivets are really iffy when it comes to nailing two piece of 9-10 oz veg tan together -- the medium posts are too short, and always risk the caps popping off, and the long posts are too long and slide sideways when you try to set them. (This has been the cause for some table-flipping rage on occasion.) I've taken to using tubular rivets at points that are going to be taking a lot of stress, because they are never, ever going to pop off by accident. (There are definite downsides to tubular rivets though -- they can be harder to come by, a PIA to set, and the star it makes on the underside is relatively sharp and can irritate skin and put snags in fabric underneath it.) I mix and match double cap rivets and tubular rivets in my Wonder Woman greaves, with double cap rivets to attach the little straps, and tubular rivets where it's taking more stress around the knee and where it articulates:

There's also a discreet line of stitching holding the knee caps in place, but for lack of an industrial sewing machine, I try to avoid stitching when I can -- it's just too time-consuming, and can very quickly drive the price up past what anyone's willing to pay. It's on my to-do list to explore posts-n-burrs style rivets, for an alternative that's stronger than double cap rivets but not as temperamental as tubular rivets.

 

If people are willing to pay you what you ask for the complicated tooling, that's great!  

I hear you about stitching-- hand stitching sure takes a while, but I can't afford a leather machine. I have a new set of gauntlets i made which are long leather cuffs sewn to a cheap set of goat skin gloves from Harbor Freight tools. One person saw them and commented on the "machine stitching," and then she found out they were hand stitched. She probably thought I was crazy, but when needs must... ;-)

I have used the copper post and burr rivets in my rapier helmet leather piece at the major stress points (there are two leather tabs sewn to the fencing mask, and the leather piece is riveted to those tabs with the post and burr. (I used double cap rivets elsewhere). The problem with those copper posts is that they are indeed plenty strong, but they normally don't look pretty, so they might detract from your pretty pieces. 
But I found an alternative with a quick web search-- perhaps these will work for you:
One-Inch Domed Head #9 Copper Rivets and Burrs (from http://www.brettunsvillage.com/leather/parts/rivets.htm)


 

I didn't know they made these with DOMED HEADS, so I think I'm gonna snag some of these for myself!

[TranscendentalTopiary]

How do those dome top rivets hold their shape when you're peening the other side? Those look really nice. I never really liked the peened side or the flat back of copper rivets and burrs