Thoughts on repairing a leather chinstrap?

[Overlord]

Hello, I just purchased this Bavarian Raupenhelm from a friend who was at a flea-market. Unfortunately on its way to me the original chinstrap broke. It's a clean break and i'd like to repair it and i'm looking for advice. The leather isn't that stiff but it's cracked. I don't trust a cobbler I don't know much about so I want to do it myself if I can. The repaired chinstrap is only going to rest on the brim so i'm not looking to do a 'strong' fix. In doing some research, rubber cement should work alright to join them together with out drying the leather. I also though about sewing but using a Dremel and a very fine bit instead of having the needle pushing through the leather and stressing it further. THOUGHTS???

[Datrus]

I think sewing sounds like a bad idea. I would cut down two staples to be shorter than the leather is thick, gently press them in on the back of the strap. Maybe others have better ideas.

[oradour]

Overlord, what a great helmet, always liked these "Caterpillar helmets", as stated do not try to sew the strap back together, I would patch both pieces from behind with a another piece of old thin leather, so that at the front all that could be seen was a faint line......good luck !
Prost ! Steve.

[Dean]

I agree w/ oradour. Before I read his post that is exactly what I would have suggested...EXACTLY! even down to the THIN piece of leather on the back.
~Dean

[sargetom]

I've used super glue on such repairs. If your very careful it is hard to detect that there was even a repair. Let the glue set about a minute before putting the two end together and use the glue sparingly. If you ever sell the item be sure you disclose that such a repair was made.

Sargetom

[Nige H]

Hi Overlord,
One little thing I would add is that going by your pictures the broken strap has Red Rot

Red rot (leather) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

As a result I would also consider the possibility of replacing the strap at some point, you can try and feed the strap to help stabilise it but Red Rot is the Leather equivalent of Rust and so spreads and destroys the leathers structure as it does so.

Nige.