I cut two oversized pieces of leather for the ends, punched two holes in each with the leather punch shown, and punched matching holes in the shell with the sheet metal punch.
Then I glued them on with contact cement.
Then I trimed the excess off, and added the loops to support the strap.
I cut an oversized piece of leather to wrap all the way around the box, and overlap for the lid. I glued the lid in place after making matching holes for the catch. The nails were used to align the holes as I set the metal in place, because the contact cement would grab instantly.
I coated the shell with conact cement, and once it was tacky, quickly wrapped the case with the leather.
This is the first time I've used one of these fasteners. Note that I used normal leatherworking rivits to fasten it.
The hole for the other half of the connecter was tricky, since it's actually designed to punch through slits in leather and fold over.
Spiffy, eh?
Then I trimmed the excess leather.
People ask me, "Rich, how to you get your leatherwork looking so wonderfully glossy black?" Well, not exactly, I usually have to slip it into a bragging session, but the key is Kiwi Leather Dye, followed by Kiwi Liquid Wax. No, this isn't a paid endorsement. But I wouldn't mind if they DID slip me a few bucks.
The Liquid Wax says it dries to a nice sheen, but it doesn't on the latigo. But if you wait for it to almost, but not quite completely dry, you can take off the haze with a paper towel and get a really eye-popping gloss on it. If you don't wait for it to dry enough, you can make one hell of a mess.
What a shine!
Next I whipped up a simple strap. I need to make an adjustable one. This one's a tad too long.