Old Joe

I didn't get to follow through with my multicolor stain idea because Tandy and Michaels don't have regular tan antiquing gel. I ended up going with varying coats of saddle tan and the effect is almost what I was shooting for. I got the seat mounted onto the seat pan and do not recommend the Tandy rivet setter. It's a pain in you know what when working with curved surfaces like a seat pan. I bent 5 of the rivets which is a drag because it scuff the leather a bit. Next time I will lace it. Here is a pic of the finished product, minus the satin sheen. You can see some of the obvious mistakes but overall I am pleased for a first effort (the dark spots are shadows). I am already planning the 2nd version that should be much improved because I leaned a lot on this project.

Here is my first project. It's pretty close to what I wanted but I hope it gets better when I antique and buff it. I am thinking of doing tan for everything except the flames which will be saddle tan (which really seems a bit more orange). I learned a lot while tooling this. For all my fellow beginners: 1. Be patient. I had to keep going over spots that didn't look right. It took hours. 2. Have a plan. I printed the image from my computer and traced it on the leather. No mistakes that way. 3. Use the right tools. I bought a set of 30 stamping tools off ebay and tried to follow the tutorials as best I could. 4. Don't be shy. Hit that stamping tool hard enough to make your mark. 5. Make sure your leather is in good condition...a couple of times I tried to tool it while it was too dry and the work I did disappeared when I dampened the leather again.