JohnD

Great work David, Congrats on the ribbon. 1st place, nice .... John

To each his own....... Live and let live...I always say.

My Brother-in-law owns a custom motorcycle shop. I help out with some free labor at times and also have acces to the shop to work on my own bike. When we would go to shows I would always be impressed with the tooled seats and such and talked about eventually making a seat for myself. He was building a bike for a customer on a tight budget. To keep costs down he planned to make the seat himself. We went to Tandy and bought the necessary stuff and when we got back he went straight to work. He quickly got frustrated yelling something about leather not being like metal and asked if I would give it a try. The first seat took me a full day, but the finished product wasn't up to par. The second one made the cut ( although, I was afraid to dye it for fear of ruining it, so he did the dye) The customer was stoked. The shop offered a production seat and my Brother in law was having problems with the guy who had been doing them, so he asked me to try one of them. I brought the seat pan home and went to work. I thought the first one came out great, but after going over what he wanted me to do different, he had me tear it apart and do it over. From that I now do the production seats and a side bag he will be offering. He has another guy, Jay from Truckalope Leather (IMHO, he is one of the best I've ever seen), do the custom tooling. I've done several projects for other people, belts, purses, guitar straps and such. I haven't had alot of time for it over the past few months, but I'm starting to get back to it lately. I really enjoy doing it and plan to do alot more. My brother in law said the whole thing was a plan to get me working leather so that he could have an in house leather guy. Here's the one started me out:

That's a good idea Kathy, I'll be making that part of my practice routine. That seemes to me to be a good way to practice several different methods of carving, some with a swivel knife some without, some using only a beveller or backrounder. Very good idea. plus just printing out the letters takes way less time than finding or drawing a pattern I want to practice with. Thanks for the tip. John

Thank you Kathy, I've looked at small lettering that people have done and wondered how they got it so neat. Now that you point it out it makes perfect sense. I have a pointed beveller as well as a small one and a few more modelling spoons and such are on my list. Thanks again to everyone responding, I think this web site is the best tool I have. I...I....I love you guys. John

Ken, Thanks for the response, that sounds like a good idea. I have a plan to come up with a skull design that I will practice until I can do it the same everytime, and just incorporate that design in whenever I need skulls on something,I just haven't had the time. So when I had some time last night I just doodled a quick one to get some practice with the tools. I will definitely try your advice though. Thanks. Clay, Thank you too, for the response. I can see the halo and I usually do just what you said, with backrounding up to the bevel line or using the modelling tool to rub it out. The thing I seem to be noticing is the way my swivel knife cuts seem to spread from the bevelling and the side of the cut thats not bevelled tends to look sloppy, as in, the edges tend to look pulled and have little "scraps" or threads hanging from them. Maybe this is something that will be resolved as I practice. I will also, as you mentioned take some more time with the modelling spoon and see if that helps. I have been practicing quite a bit with just my swivel knife, using the exercises Paul Burnett's free lessons. Reading the posts on this site is also an immense help. Thanks again for the responses and for the kind words, I really appreciate all the help I get from you guys. Now back to finishing my basement. John

I've been busy for the past few months and have finally been finding some time to practice. I had been practicing for the past few days on the swivel knife and decided to doodle up something to carve. The main thing I've noticed (though not the only thing) is that my carving has a sloppy appearance around the bevelled edges. I'm taking my time with both the knife cuts and the bevelling, not rushing. My question is : Is there something I can do specifically to clean this up? something that I'm missing or do I just need more practice? I'm aware of the sloppiness on the lettering and I believe I can remedy that with a smaller, angled blade, my concern is the general sloppiness around the whole carving. When I look at most of the folks' work on here, it all looks so neat and smooth and I just don't see that on my own. I would aprreciate any input or advice about that or anything else you may notice. Thanks, John Speaking of neat and smooth work, This guy is really impressive http://www.xianleather.com/Gallery.html

Thanks for the info, paul. I'll have to give that a try. John

Don't forget to include lots of family drama. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Just a word about the dremel, if you're planning to use it daily you may want to find something else. I have gone through 3 dremels over the years. I used them for cutting and shaping aluminum and brass and they could not handle it. I didn't use them everyday either mostly weekend use. after burning out the third one I bought an extension that I can attach to my drill press or buffer or any variable speed tool with a chuck. It has lasted through much more use than the dremel ever could. just my .02 John

There is a granite countertop place local to me that puts all their scraps in a big pile out back, when the pile gets big enough a big truck comes and hauls it away. I stopped in one day and asked about it and they let me "help myself". One piece I grabbed was about 3'x3' and another was around 2.5' x 4'. I actually went back the other day and grabbed another smaller piece to use for a portable work surface. The hardest part was finding pieces that weren't all dinged up on the surface, as they just toss the scraps on the pile. If anyone lives in the Northwood, NH area the place is right on Rt 4, although you may have to clear some snow to find what youy need.

I'm not an expert, but I think the size of the edge beveler makes a difference. If you use a small enough edge beveler, just enough to take the corners off and then use a rounded profile burnisher you should end up with the desired result. Someone who knows more about this will probably post more info soon enough. Hope this helps though. good luck, John

Beautiful work Paul, I can appreciate your attention to details. Your edge burnishing is awesome, I especially like the turned down top edge. I don't know if you've talked about it before, but do you mind if I ask about your burnishing method? Very nice, John

Dave, I thought the Boss and "angry chair's" owner were one in the same. I think I remember the write up in the horse saying that Jeff Cochrane built the bike for himself. But then, I guess everything has a price. Outstanding work as usual though. John

Dave, How do you get anything done with all that neatness???? steveb, With all the neat stuff you have hanging around your shop the thing that caught my eye was the T.P.

Ed, At first the guy told me they only had steel caps, but after checking some more he said he had some in brass. Come to think of it, I think that's why I went with 9/64 cause that what they had in brass. I was originally looking for 1/8. The measurements are the body diameter not the head dia.

I'm no expert, but the way I've been doing it is to gradually tap lighter and at the same time lift the tool away from the leather as I tap and move away from the subject. Hope this makes sense. John

Ed, I ordered 9/64 truss or oval head solid brass tubular rivets. ( they were actually only $6/100) I am actually going to call them again here soon to order some other sizes. John

Not to hijack the thread but, Ed, I ordered some rivets from here http://hansonrivet.com/w02.htm . It took me some time to figure out what I needed.I ended up calling them and the guy helped me figure out what I wanted. I think they were about $12.00 per hundred for the ones I ordered. The caps were about $4 per hundred.( check out the caps here http://hansonrivet.com/w05b.htm you can see how well designed thay are to hold the rivets). I guess not the cheapest, but when I put two pieces of leather strap together I could not pull them apart. If you know what you're looking for you can order exactly what you want, including brass or stainless. Hope this helps. John Oh yeah, don't buy the tool they sell for setting the rivets without a cap. It's like $25 and doesn't seem to work right, for me anyway.

Congrats Beeza, I'll have to pick that one up too, so I can tell everyone about the time I met you. Outstanding. John

I will be looking forward to this, yessir. John

Outstanding Ed, always looking forward to seeing your work. John

I guess that would be up to you Ed. I've never actually done it, I've only had it explained to me and saw examples in books and on the web. I tried to give a quick example with ms paint, but I couldn't get it to work right. It seems that if, before you pull your loop tight, you go over the top and through the loop on one side and under the and throug on the other and pull tight you'll end up with the twists. I'll have to try this and let you know for sure. John

I'm not an expert, but I think the 2 needle stitch, the saddle stitch, I think its called, is stonger and if a stitch breaks, the whole thing doesn't come apart. where with the awl, it makes a lock stitch where the stitching from one side holds the stitching from the other and if one comes apart the whole thing can come apart. I personally have never used the stitching awl. For a more secure stitch, you can use a locking saddle stitch, which is when you stitch (with 2 needles ) after you put both needles through, but before you pull your loops tight, you put your needles through the loops and then pull tight so that the thread is twisted together inside the leather. Very strong but time consuming. Hope this helps. John

nice work, Dan. What pan did you use?