JohnD

Awesome as usual Roger. Also, I saw Nardi's '67 BSA in the new issue of The Horse. That seat is holding up great, It looks the same as it did the first time I saw it and he rides that bike quite a bit. Great quality work and congrats on the magazine. John

Nice work Tom, very impressive. After reading your other thread, I was looking forward to seeing the finished product. You did not disappoint. Great work man. John

Great job Jordan. My son just recently asked me to make him some "jerusalem cruisers". Funny.

TwinOaks explained it very well. I also tend not use a swivel on areas where I think it might look sloppy,or the swivel knife may be too big to make a neat cut, If that makes sense? An example would be: I had a problem with my lettering coming out sloppy, I would over cut with my knife. I think it was Kate who suggested that I didn't have to use the swivel knife on everything and that I should try experimentimg with what might work. Now, On smaller lettering and smaller details in general, I skip the swivel knife and just tool in the details. John

Will do David, Keep us posted if possible. John

Wow, That's alot of work. Looks great and what a great way to advertise. That should land you some more projects through the summer, Huh? John

Marlon, Very impressive from both of you. The dying is beautiful as well. Very nice. John Luke just have to say that rifle is gorgeous. Impressive kill with a flintlock.

Thanks Guys, I put the mink oil on this morning and just buffed it out a few minutes ago. The lambswool came up black (from the sides). I applied another coat and once that dries I'll buff it again. Hopefully that will take care of it. I still need to make the matching tank bib. I saved some of the mixed colors, so it should work out. Tom, I gave it up too, not cause of crappy winters, but because of the expensive repairs. It's only so many times you can limp home with boot laces and duct tape holding your sled together til it wears on you. It seemed everytime I went out, I broke something. I agree that its a great ride, but nothing beats NH roads on two wheels. Between that and the leather there's, no money left for snowmobiling. Unless.....Maybe I start charging for my leather work?!? Someday.

Just thought I'd update the progress. The seat is going on a '91 FXLR (lowrider, anyway) that is black and red. I didn't want to do the whole thing black, so I mixed some red in with some buckskin for the lightest area and some red with light brown for the next darkest and then red and chocolate broen to finally black. I applied it with a rag (t-shirt) from light to dark, applying and kind of rubbing it in. I use the same rag for every color. Then I used a clean rag with some lexol leather conditioner on it and rub it in from the center out. This seems to blend the different colors a bit. It also tends to lighten the the lighter parts, which adds to the "sunburst" effect, I think. I then put a coat of sheen on it and tried to use hi-liter to bring out the tooling. I don't know if this is the right way to do it, But it seems to work for me. Although, it's not the most consistant method, kind of a "see how it turns out" thing. Every time I touch the rag to the leather, the feeling is "OOPS" or "oh no", but I just keep going, til I get where I wanted to go. Kind of like snowmobiling if you've ever been. After the dye dries I go over the thing with either lambswool or a piece of denim to try to get the excess off so that when in use it wont ruin anyones pants. I usually also use o couple of coats of super shene, but this time I'm going to try mink oil paste to see how that turns out. The reddish parts didn't end up like I had planned, but it'll do. In the pictures, it looks like I missed a few spots in the tooling recesses, but in real life it doesn't.

Ian, Not to change the subject but, where in western MA are you? I'm up in Meredith, NH. There's a few members from the NE area here. John

I believe I'll be heading to The Horse Smokeout in NC this June and, since there seems to be a few riders on here, I was wondering if anyone else might be going. I'll be working at the Acme booth so I won't be doing too much partying, but I wouldn't mind meeting anyone that may be there from here. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot. John

freakin decent froghunter. Cool idea. I've believe I've been inspired. John

Wow, Ken, simply amazing. That tutorial is awesome too, thanks for taking the time. Again, I have to say The folks here make this site the best out there. John

Thanks for the comments everyone. I used to have a girlfriend who was going to beauty school and asked if she could cut my hair. Like an idiot, I let her. She did ok, but felt the back was crooked. She trimmed it a little, still crooked. a little more, still crooked and so on. We went to party, where my friends, in no subtle way, let me know my hairline in the back was closer to the top of my head than to my neck. I shaved my head soon after and waited for the peewee herman and bowtie killer comments to die down. ChaChi, I stared at it for a little while and decided to leave it be. Spider, I've finished the truck more times than I care to remember, with my 5 year old son, I work more with Lego than leather. Sawyer, I bought some books from Borders full of uncopyrighted "ornamental borders, scrolls and cartouches" to get an idea of how do draw what I wanted and then arranged the different elements to fit the seat. If you check the art section at borders, they have a ton of books of uncopyrighted designs, floral motifs, japanese prints, heraldic designs, just bunches of stuff for ideas. Thanks again for all the responses and nice comments. rdb, I just amy add that quote to my sig. Thanks, John

Thanks David, If you look at the bottom of the "c" of the initials you can see where, around 11:30pm last night I obliviously tooled my way out of the lines of the oval background. My first reaction was and remains to just leave it, cause my wife says no one will notice anyway. John

Sorry about the bad pics, But I only have my cell phone camera. I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would. A friend of mine asked me if I would make a seat for him, a tribute to his grandfather. He said all he wanted was his grandad's inititals, The years and the words strength and honor. This is what I came up with. He hasn't seen the design as he's refused to see it til it's done. I know there are quite a few flaws and imperfections, the most obvious being the backgrounding at the bottom of the "C" of the initials. if anyone has any tips on how I should fix this one in particular, please let me know. I'm doing it for free and he has said he doesn't care if it's not perfect, but...you know. It's still cased and taking the tooling, so I'm going over it to try to clean up some of the tooling.

Nice work David, I like it. I'm working on a memorial type seat that will have victorian scroll work. I have also been looking at your "tattoo" seat, as I've had a request for "a dragon with a couple of koi". In the process of coming up with a design, I like looking at how others have done it. Your posts provide great inspiration, Thanks for that. John

Just bout of curiosity would anyone mind posting a picture of one? Thanks. John

That's a good idea. I have 5 sisters and 14 billion nieces always wanting me to make them something. Practice and use up scraps. nice. Although I could probably easily look into it myself, but since I'm already typing I might as well ask, Where do the sticks come from? Thanks for the great idea. John

Yes, I have. I got them I think Monday. I ordered smooth bevelers 0-4 and round #3 and concave #3.( just to try them) Right off the bat you can see the difference in them from the Craftool bevelers, The angle is much steeper, which I had to get used to as I used to tilt the Craftool to bevel at a steeper angle. They make a nice deep bevel, which I felt I could never achieve with the craftools.(Which may have had alot to do with my casing inconsistancies) They're also flatter with more rounded sides, so they "walk" alot easier and leave a much smoother bevel. With the steeper angle they don't make such a wide bevel either (unless you tilt them to make it wider) which I think looks alot nicer. All in all, I really like them a lot. They were definitly worth the money and the wait. I'm very happy with them so far. Thanks for asking Duke. John P.S. I had mentioned in another post that I thought they might be less expensive ordering direct from Barry, but I was wrong. they were the same price as from Montana leather. ($20 ea.) The shipping was much cheaper from Barry though, about half as much as Montana.

Barry King does make a Turnback, You can see it here, http://montanaleather.com/barrykingtools7.htm if you scroll down the page. you can order directly from Barry, I think its a little bit cheaper, Though I don't know how much. His number is 1-307-672-5657 . John

Is that a particular brand or contruction method or might that happen with any?

After Clay's post I can see how this would be useful , But this thing definitly started life as a way to get into a room. I think the real issue here is will it " Beaverslayer and Spider's Doorknob tools" or "Spider and Beaverslayer's Doorknob Tools" ?

Mike, Welcome to the forum. I really don't know much in the way of conditioning or finishing leather, But of all the questions you asked above, I think it would be safe to say that casing is one of the most important factors in carving and tooling the leather. Casing is wetting the leather to the proper moisture content so that it will accept and hold the tooling. There are probably hundreds of ways of doing this and everyone has their own favorite way that works best for them, So i won't get into the particulars as I am very inconsistant with my casing methods right now. Iwould think it would be a good idea to do a search of the threads for anything on casing. Also you can go to Paul Burnett's website http://www.paintingcow.com/ and sign up for his free lessons, which will give you access to his previous lessons, The lesson from November 2007 is all about casing and proper leather humidity. As far as finishing and conditioning, I only have experience with sheen, which will remain flexible while giving a shine. And I also now use alot, Mink oil buffed to a shine which gives a nice hand buffed finish. My opinion on the best finish for something like that belt would probably be a few coats of sheen sprayed on to achieve the level of closs you're looking for. Again, I Don't have a lot of experience with finishing and I'm sure someone will come along with much better advice than I have given. Hope this helps anyway. John

Beautiful work on the belt. $16,400.00 ? When I think of the list of things I might buy if I had that much to blow......To be honest a belt doesn't even make the list! I'd probably waste it on something frivolous(sp?) like a car.......or one of my kids college education.