How to modify leather armor?

[Axle]

I bought a piece of armor that looks great but is a bit too long in the torso for me. It really restricts my ability to bend down and pick up packets and thrown weapons and such.

Any leather workers here with tips on the tools to buy to cut leather, how to treat the edge once it's been shown to have it blend in with the rest of the armor?

Also, how to create new holes and seal those with the metal pieces and the best tool for that and where to find them is also useful.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

What you'll need to cut the leather depends on the leather thickness, but as long as it's not ridiculously thick you can get leather shears that will do the trick. Slow going with a sharp utility knife with the armor laid out on a cutting mat (and replacing the blades often) may also work. To treat then edge you'll want to bevel it. There are leather beveling tools you can buy, or (if you cut it with a knife) you can try to just cut it at an angle. If the cut inside of the leather is a different color from the outside of the leather you'll have to dye the raw edge with leather dye.

To create those holes you'll need a tool called an awl. The metal pieces are called rivets and you'll need a few small tools to insert them properly.

You'll want to have a look at https://www.tandyleather.com/en/ I think it's the main place people get their leather equipment from.

You may (You're our SF Hawkkin right? ) want to ask locally or in our chapter's forum- a lot of the players in our chapter are either hobby or professional leatherworkers and may be willing to do the work on your armor for less money than buying all the tools and supplies would be.

 

[Axle]

What you'll need to cut the leather depends on the leather thickness, but as long as it's not ridiculously thick you can get leather shears that will do the trick. Slow going with a sharp utility knife with the armor laid out on a cutting mat (and replacing the blades often) may also work. To treat then edge you'll want to bevel it. There are leather beveling tools you can buy, or (if you cut it with a knife) you can try to just cut it at an angle. If the cut inside of the leather is a different color from the outside of the leather you'll have to dye the raw edge with leather dye.

To create those holes you'll need a tool called an awl. The metal pieces are called rivets and you'll need a few small tools to insert them properly.

You'll want to have a look at https://www.tandyleather.com/en/ I think it's the main place people get their leather equipment from.

You may (You're our SF Hawkkin right? ) want to ask locally or in our chapter's forum- a lot of the players in our chapter are either hobby or professional leatherworkers and may be willing to do the work on your armor for less money than buying all the tools and supplies would be.

Yeah, I am Stevaan Hawkkin. Thanks for all the advice and information! I'll ask on the SF forum as well.

 

[Ryft]

Also what may be relevant isn't necessarily the torso length (though this could certainly be an issue) but also the chest-armor design. While more an issue with metal armor, leather can also be pretty stiff, depending on the thickness. It's often a good idea to have a design that incorporates overlapping layers with a break between layers at near navel height. I'm guessing from the picture you posted in a different thread that this might be the real issue with the design of your armor. So while you could just hack it off at the bottom, then you might lose some coverage. If you put a break in it farther up, it might flex better overall. It might still need to be shortened, but possibly less with the break in the middle.

Best of luck! Modifying armor can be unforgiving outside of, say, maile.