making a gladiator belt

[Tarbicus]

But nonetheless you want to sew the leather on, for that you need holes and it's easier to sew it on through holes drilled through leather - metal - leather. I can imagine that it must be too hard with the awl to find the hole in the leather because they should be matching. With drilling the holes through all those layers you don't need the awl to do the holes in the leather.

I'd be careful about that as an awl would cause less damage to the leather itself (something to do with the grain I believe). What you could do is clip the leather on and make holes in the leather using the awl through the other side of the brass. Once that's done, you can stitch on the leather using the awl again through the pre-made holes.