He also had a green rug and an old belt on the back side, which I promptly removed and plan to replace with reindeer hide. The belt will probably turn into a custom leather strap and a bone/antler or wood handle for easier manueverability.
I'm torn between covering the front side with leather or a metal of some kind -- maybe even leaving it bare to stain at a later date.
All updates in progress will be posted here for later reference, but I would love any and all thoughts on how I should proceed.
