Hi, I'm making my first piece of armor, and of course I'm doing something ridiculously tedious: a lamellar chestpiece. So I've spent hours looking up various opinions and tutorials on how to go about leatherwork. I've found many disciplines pertaining to how to shape, harden, dye, paint, tool, fasten, weather-protect, etc... but for what I'm doing I need specific advice because I've lost myself in the details...
I'd like to be able to do the following, but I'm not sure in what order or if possible in conjunction:
- tool each lame (simply)
- paint/dye each lame with 2 colors
- shape the overall rig to my body after everything is laced (assuming I designed the thing to my body's dimensions during consctruction)
- protect paint/dye against rain/sweat
I've read up on waxing process, but not sure if I can do that after I've colored it. Any suggestions on how to do all those things I want or if it's just a pipe dream?
p.s. my leather is already hard-ish (12-14oz saddle-skirting lthr)
Thanks,
Serge