William,
Excellent instructional video. It reminds me of making an authentic leather fire bucket in my mid-twenties. What was most important to getting that right was to wet the leather, really, to soak it in water, as you indicated. I will have to employ this technique soon enough - in fact, I might just go ahead and do it on my Waterbury No. 72 Hall Clock, as I do not think the leather pad has ever been changed out. It's squashed down like a flat pancake. Probably cracked, too.
My sister once alluded to the "layers of felt cloth" that were wrapped around the gong to either dampen or liven the sound. It's amazing what folks will trick themselves into believing without seeing the internal mechanisms of things like clocks. I told her it was leather, and she was rather surprised
To be honest, before I saw it myself, I believed her version hook, line, and sinker
Pic attached of that ole' fire bucket
Note: I attached two pics to show the "butt stitch" seam at the rear of the piece. That was some feat, created basically utilizing an awl, needle, thimble, needlenose pliers, and waxed heavy thread to get it to render properly. The inside of the bucket has no thread or holes - it is, instead, glued along the seam, with the stitching routing through the outer edge, and into the middle thickness of the leather, through the other side, and out the back. As you might expect, the leather was quite thick - about 1/4" - in order to achieve that particular construct.
Sorry, I know this is off-topic, but I just had to share my excitement about leather!
Best,
Tim