I have a suit of lamellar armor that is leather harded with wax. You can buy candle wax at Micheals, and use a double boiler to melt the wax without burning. Put the leather in the wax until you cease seeing bubbles coming from the leather, and then remove and wipe off and position in the manner you want it to remain, in my case, flat. The leather changes color to a chocolate brown from a tan color, and when cold hardens up as the wax fills the air voids in the leather, and increases the stiffness of the leather. Feels plastic-like. You can still bend it, however you end up with stress lines in the leather that are white-tanish as you stress and extrude the wax impregnation.