First Project - WWE Belt Extender

[DevlDog131]

Hello, All. New member and leather work beginner, here.

I'll be taking my eight year old daughter to her first WWE event next month, and she wants us to wear our matching Smackdown Tag Team Championship belts. In order for us to do that, I'm going to need an extender for mine. I found a maker on Etsy that makes them, but he has gone radio silent for the past few weeks. Since I can't find any other sources, and I've always had an interest in leather work, I'm just going to make my own.

It will be two ~7 oz. pieces of leather, black for the back and natural (to be dyed blue) for the face, tooled to (sort of) match the PU leather strap WWE uses for their replicas (see photo), with five pair of male and five pair of female snaps to connect to the replica. As a leather newbie, I am trying to nail down the order in which I perform my steps. My biggest question mark (to my inexperienced mind) is whether I should be tooling the face before or after gluing my layers together. I was thinking that gluing first would help to minimize stretching and deforming during the tooling/stamping/punching process. Any advice from the experts here on my proposed order of operations below would be greatly appreciated.

1. Cut pieces to shape (6" x 11")
2. Glue layers
3. Trim/sand edges even
4. Tool face of leather
5. Punch holes for snaps
6. Dye face
7. Bevel edges
8. Water burnish edges
9. Apply finish
10. Stitch border (more decorative than structural)
11. Install snaps
12. Burnish edges with beeswax

Thank you, in advance, for your help.

Edited January 29, 2020 by DevlDog131
Added leather dimensions

[TSes]

The first thing you want to do is check your snaps and make sure they will work on 14 oz. of leather. That's pretty thick, and standard size snaps won't work. You may have to install the snaps on one piece of leather before gluing together.

[DevlDog131]

17 minutes ago, TSes said:

The first thing you want to do is check your snaps and make sure they will work on 14 oz. of leather. That's pretty thick, and standard size snaps won't work. You may have to install the snaps on one piece of leather before gluing together.

Thanks. I actually considered in the planning stage. The snaps I purchased are extended post snaps with 5/16" posts. The total thickness of the leather is 1/4", so I'm good there. If its a bit too tight, I'll stamp down the area around the punch holes on the backside to make up the little bit of difference I'll need.

[DevlDog131]

One more question...

I want to recreate the WWE logo from the photo in the OP on the extender. I know I can trace the outline on with a stylus, but what tool would you recommend to fill it in?