JohnD

Nice work, The flap, the seat and the bike. Those things are supposed to be bullet proof. Bikes pretty much are the reason I started with leather working too. John

Oops' sorry Freak I didn't catch this thread last night. Thanks for the repost LB. John

That stuff makes me so angry. My wife had her purse stolen from her vehicle in our driveway. We got some stuff back, as the thief left a trail down our street. I guess as they went through it they tossed what they didn't want on the ground and dumped the purse in the dumpster behind a resteraunt at the end of my street. Sorry to hear you got ripped off, Clay and though, I'm glad you got some of your stuff back I really hope they catch the scumbags that did it. It's such a cowardly thing. Makes me angry. My sister got a voicemail today from a detective asking something about her credit cards... She's freaking out cause she doesn't have any and can't seem to get in touch wit the detective. John

Brian, I've never worked with kydex before, but I found this site that has a lot of info on working with it. http://www.paracordsecrets.com/articles/10/article.html As far as a jig goes (I hope this picture works), The measurements would be according to your needs. use a piece of plywood as the base, predrill the holes(the red dots) to fit your pins (nails, screws or some type of rod). Cut your kydex to length and width. If you need any holes I would measure and drill them now. place pins 1 and 2 in their holes and put the end of the kydex strip between them. heat the area and bend the strip around pin 2 till the other end is pointing up and to the left side of hole 3. Put your pin in hole 3 and heat the kydex and bend around pin 3 till its pointing straight down between holes 4 and 5. let it cool and remove from jig. Now like I said I've never worked with kydex, but I've used this method with steel. It'll probably take a few practice runs to get the feel for how hot to get the kydex, so it bends nice and cleanly. It also may be a good idea to mount the jig to your workbench, to keep it stable while you work. Hope this helps, good luck. John

Dave, May also be a military thing as I believe it may have been used as a slogan in some military units. Not to say you couldn't have "high class biker clientele", but it may be more likely. John

That's the one. Funny. I thought it looked like something you would have done. John

It looked dark brown, but could have been black, with tan design. I tried to find a pic to post online, with no luck and I left the mag at the shop. Nice work also. The article said he bought it off ebay. John

Very nice......The work and the deed. Was that your work in the new issue of The Horse? Page 34 "louder Faster" Just curious cause it looked like your style of seat. John

They don't look like they'd be hard to make from aluminum, without heat. Just make up a jig with some wood and nails or screws. SemperFi John

Dave, I have noticed that they (SPS) don't give you credit for your work very often, Which I think is kinda crappy. I think I saw once that they credited one of your seats to "Diamond Dave" or something like that. I only mentioned my disappointment in the fact that they didn't have any good pics of your seats, usually in features they tend to have at least one picture of a seat. That's all. The seat on page 34 I only mentioned because I thought it looked like something Bustedlifter (another member of this forum) had made. John Cycle source is a good magazine, If you look at the october issue, "The Flying Limey" has a seat I made on it.

Nice work as usual Dave. I saw the writeup on SPS in the new issue of The Horse, but, was dissappointed to see no good pics of your seats. I was looking forward to seeing more of your stuff in print. Although,(not intended to hijack) I saw something on page 34 or 35 that looked like it may have come from Busted lifter? John

But, missing something you went specifically to get! Casing is much more important than the beginner book let on.

I think the pebbling looks great. Good idea too, gives it a "non-slip grip" look. The veiner on the border looks cool too, almost looks like lacing. Nice work. John

That's great, I can't do any leather work without my 4 yr old son (my avatar) right next to me, pounding away. He stamped out a bracelet for himself and just had to make one for all his cousins. He now has his own mallet and a few stamps of his own. John

I spent a little time today to make a pear shader, I'm happy with the finished product, as it seems to work very well. The only problem is that it leaves a black stain as I shade. I made it out of mild steel that I had sitting around. Is this the reason for the staining, or perhaps my leather was too wet? I had made a lifter out of an old screwdriver before that did the same thing, but not all the time. The pear shader was only for practice and I plan to try again when I pick up some stainless bolts, but if I do use mild steel again, will zinc plating prevent the staining? John

Thanks Robert, I'm on my 3rd time tooling it. All the same style just making improvements each time. I can't remember who right now, but someone on the forum gave the advice to tool your patterns four times and I decided to try it with this. John

Robert, excellent. Thanks for taking the time. John

Thanks for the nice comments, guys. I look forward to seeing what you do with it. Enjoy, John

Very nice, Thanks for sharing that with us. John

Tandy also sells a kit to install tubular rivets with caps. Actually the same setup used for the quick-rivets should work, if I'm thinking of the right thing. This kit should cover it http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/product...?number=8105-00 Hope this helps, John

I considering doing 2 entrees for the contest, One based on Clay's tutorial and one based on Kate's, but then decided to just come up with my own. Here's what I came up with. Not that it's the best, but I just wanted to offer it up as an alternative in case someone was looking for a pattern. I will be using this for my own entry and thought, if anyone didn't mind doing the same pattern as someone else,(since it's not actually a judged contest) It would be interesting to see another interpretation of it. Good luck to all, John I don't know why, but you may need to resize the pic before printing

How has this thread been around for over a month and I just found it today??? This is a great topic, I have been wanting to try making some tools since I started working with leather. The pictures of tools you guys have made look amazing. It seems to me that the stamping end is made from the bolt head? I know that the SS bolts can cost as much as a new crafttool stamp but I think that making your own tools can be just as enjoyable as leather carving. I will be trying my hand at this very soon, Thank you for starting a great thread with some great information and some much needed inspiration. Jordon, I have almost the exact lathe in my basement right now, just needs a belt. John

Maybe make a wooden buck in the shape of the seat to form it, by wetmolding to the buck. Then, when dry, rivet to the seat frame. I agree with mike that Brooks uses about a 9/10oz. You want it stiff at first and with use it becomes more comfortable. Hope this helps. John

When I make belts or straps, I always scribe a line, mark out my holes along te length, then I lightly press with my hole punch to mark where the hole will be. If its not centered I just press the hole punch down again till I'm satisfied with the location. Don't worry about the previous marks as they will just rub out. That's how I do it anyway, Not an exact science but..... good luck, John

I grew up in MA, my parents never owned guns and didn't hunt. I joined the service and moved to NC, where I started huning. I bought 1 shotgun for hunting, which my (vegetarian at the time) wife would not even let me keep at home. After moving back to MA, the crime was so bad where we lived (in the 3 years we lived there our front door had been kicked in 4 times and had 2 vehicles stolen and had actually had an armed confrontation on 1 occasion) that MY WIFE thought it would be a good idea to get a handgun. She even asked me to teach her to use it. I got a permit to carry concealed, which actually contributed to my quitting drinking, cause I carried all the time. When our kids started going to school we came to the coclusion that we needed to move. We headed to NH, were now, I leave my keys in my ignition and hardly lock our front door. I still own my guns, which now include several shotguns and a few rifles. I keep everything trigger locked and in my gun safe, with the exception of the handgun, which resides, although trigger locked, hidden within easy reach of my bed. Although, I didn't grow up around guns and wasn't even really interested in them, I eventually found myself needing one for personal protection. Now that the need for one is essentially gone (I haven't had time to hunt in the past few years) I still keep them, cause.... well... nobody gets rid of guns, you just get more. John