KenE

I think any animal that is slaughtered should be respected and used as much in its entirety as possible. I don't really have a problem with eating horse meat if the animal needs to be killed. To me it is respectful to the animal that it's flesh is not wasted. My problem though is if people are selling the meat overseas as a delicacy, it probably demands a high price. When alot of money is involved, I would not trust most businesses to do what is ethical. ~Ken

Hello, Nice looking seat. I like how it is dark, but has complex color shades in it. Regarding the question about the holes from another post'er, I also had this problem and solved it a slightly different way (but close...) on my seat. I made a paper pattern on the bottom which was larger than the seat pan (so as to wrap up the sides a small amount so that I could lace it). I then layed down paper on the top (some people use butcher paper but I don't have any yet) and then carefully trimmed it such that the two patterns touched. Make sure you have a centerline drawn on the seat and the patterns, and line everything up. You probably want to throw some tape on there to keep it all from moving. Now make tick marks every 1.5" - 2" on both patterns while it is on the seat. Try to make your tick marks an even number of hole spacings. Now you can fill in the space between the marks with evenly spaced holes when you lay it out on the leather. This prevents you from having error stack-up like you would have if you just used a divider to measure hole to hole. I've found that just using dividers you can be off by a hole or two by the time you get to the end of a long piece. Take it for what its worth, I've only done one in my life! ~Ken

Welcome, I've only been on here a short time and the folks here have been really helpful. It feels like the old internet before [alot of] forums and chat rooms became filled with useless filler and ignorant vulgarity. ~Ken

Here is my first bike seat ever (not to mention my second carving experience). Some things I am happy with, others I am really disappointed about. Hopefully someone will like it enough to buy it to cover materials for the next one. I think the lacing came out pretty good (uneven in spots) but I know I can improve this. The biggest let downs for me are the wrinkles in the seat top, and the nicks and scratches in the top that soak up the dye to create the little pock marks seen in the photos. I'd also think I should have backgrounded the designs, and used more even beveling. All I can say is I have my mind set to only buy high quality leather from now on! I had bought this leather before beginning the hobby and it was a clearance of low grade import leather. I think the money I saved was traded by misery in casing, tooling, and dyeing! Any other critique? I appreciate any advice or help offered. ~Ken

Thanks for the tutorial. This is nice because we can go through the steps to get the practice. I enjoy learning from many people to develop a style that is appropriate for me. ~Ken

This is cool. Picking up on the Guns n Roses reference, it kind of looks like "Slash meets Jack the Ripper". How can you go wrong with that? ~Ken

I think this is cool. Maybe go with earth tones on the colors so that it does with the ancient theme?? Just an idea, I'm still a beginner.

Looks cool. Its good to see something classic black, yet different. ~Ken

I don't know if anyone has templates, but if you want to start making your own you could just start with some thick paper or poster board and tape the pieces together until you get the shapes you want. Then once you get the overall shape you can transfer it to thick poster board and draw in stitch marks, holes, etc. I don't know if that helps but that is what I'd try. ~Ken

Hello, First of all, I'm an amateur at leatherworking in general, so go easy! ) I am in the process of making my first motorcycle seat covering. The seat pan and foam radiuses upward on the back (Somewhat typical "solo" spring style seat), and when I pull the top down over the sides the middle of my leather is wanting to pucker up toward the middle at the start of the radius back piece. Should I do some wet forming before I start lacing? Should I wet the leather center while lacing it? (being careful not to wet the lacing holes) Or should I lace the thing dry and then give it a good wet molding in place by putting some foam on top of it with generous weights? I started dyeing the project, but on the top piece I only went around the edges in case I had to apply some water to stretch the edges out some. Thank you in Advance, ~Ken

Hey Frog. I remember you showing me that when it was in process while I was asking you for some pointers on motorcycle seats. It looked awesome then and now it even looks nicer complete. BTW, thanks for pointing me to this forum as well.

At first I thought this was a George Romero themed post (Dawn of the Dead, etc) but it looks to be the Mexican holiday. Looks good, nice detail and color.

Looks good!