Hey
I have to refurbish a lot of my swords, maces, warhammers etc every so often as good old sweat, oil, grime and wear and tear will destroy a handle.
Heres what you can do.....assuming its a solid layer of leather.
On a budget, get an old purse.....purse leather is typically very thin but feels thicker with the lining....cut out the section you need...but make a pattern or be very careful if you have limited quantities...
If you have a pommel that has to be removed...thats the tough part...you can heat upp the tang and pull off the pommel or drill through it and remove the pommel.
I say this because often leather wrapped handles are tucked up under the pommel or hilt so no edge can unwravel....
Otherwise to affix your leather, use some contact cement ....or hide glue you can still buy....
attach it to both sides of the wood or metal.....and then to the leather....
wait about 20 minutes...
then affix....hurry and make sure to have a thin edged too to push and stick the leather down into an gaps.
..............finding leather....
tandy true.
Or go to a shoe repair place....
.....often fabric stores have leather *higher priced but you dont need a lot
....go to thrift stores......the place I go to has zillions of leather purses for about 5 bucks ...I can even look for some if you for you next time I go, post a photo of the thickness and color.
and for coloration.....you can use soaps to clean the leather first *good idea to remove oil and grease from the leather
.........then leather dyes.
Ill be honest its not easy achieving a perfect color match to leather if its not a simple color like brown, black, fuschia
feel free to ask me any questions, I have to do leather repair constantly with my armour and equipment .....
