dragonspit

very nice work. all your pieces are.

that was an awesome tute. thanks for posting it. as a noobie, been reading over and over the processes and different ways to do it, but to watch it done methodically while listening to the demonstrator really puts it all together for many reasons. very very nice.

On my last project I used some hemp cord to do some accent lacing. when I was looking for something I came across some wire, even a bit thinner than this and thought, hmmmm. I think anything outside the box is worth trying to get a special look. the only question I would have with this wire is, will it oxidize or retain its luster. if it didnt, it could take down the quality of the work visually. It wouldnt rust I dont think, but it might corrode some.

very nice. clean. did you add any stain or dye, is that all natural?

Beautiful work as always Dave. your work is something to aspire to. as for lack of notation. well, I think ya got a couple things going on. I am guilty of this first one. your stuff is so good, it gets mundane to post,,,great job dave, wonderful seat dave, perfect as always dave. I mean, how much of that can you write, lol. You have become a staple and a beacon for seat artists to say the least. so i think a little of that. I think the economy that has everything down, plays another percentage to a certain aspect. You wouldnt think much on a forum, but if your draggin $$ wise, a cool bike seat is past talking about to folks. you can tell by the prices of HD's on craigslist. (which I should be taking advantage of , but cant seem to scrap the cash either). another maybe time of year. summer is winding down some of the fringes of the forums a little less active? not sure. but I think its just a period of time,,,,that willl pass, unlike everyone wanted to be like dave. I do. I was realized surprised, you dye AFTER you do all the lacing?

sorry I missed this, thanks for the input. I will have to try that next time I use a single loop.

getting it titled, now thats funny. I have seen some pretty wild rides in my time, but this really is over the top. incredible. yeah, that radiator, geeze. I bet the thing sounds unbelievable. just wow.

yeah, he is quite proud of it. puts in his pocket for safety when he walks his dog, lol. under the pillow at night....just in case.

I gotta say, putting something in a forum labeled "show off" really isnt comforting to me, lol. more like, "this is what I got this time". I guess I should say I dont feel like I am able to "show off"., but it's where we show stuff so. This was made for my 10yr old son. Most summers I spent on the softball fiields all over the state or country with my daughter, she was off traveling and playing this summer so I was able to get my son out and about for a few trips. they were great. one trip was to franklin NC to do some gem mining like you might see on the travel channel if your able. we found some cool stuff, but dang, didnt get rich like we expected. he was very patient looking through his bucket of dirt. we then met some family in Gatlinburg Tenn see for 5 days. well they had all kinds of knife shops. my son has a collection of daggers he has on his wall from medieval fairs and such, but no carrying goods. so I decided to buy him and inexpensive pocket knife as to train him. Another trip we did, was in charleston sc where we went Kayaking. on that trip we found a sandbar that had fossilized sharks teeth if you looked well enough. I actually found half of a megledon tooth. its huge...nasty nasty thing. anyway, I decided to make josh something to carry his knife and a reminder of the summer. so what you see is a stone we got at the gem mining camp, and what you cant see (cuz when I took this pic it wasnt attached yet) was at the end of the braid we attached one of his sharkes teeth. He was a happy little boy. as I got into leather to learn tooling, just for fun, this was actually the only thing I did that doesnt have any. I did inlay his initial in the case with some imitation gator skin stuff. all the little pieces kind of got me off kilter with the assembly order and I got not dried stain on the letter outline. and I used sinew thread but struggled with that in on area. but for small parts it wasnt to bad. like all learning curves, some things came out good, others not like I planned but the overall happy boy trumps any problems. now lets see if I get this pic thing right, havent posted since the new system is up.

very cool idea and nicely done.

I haven't yet, but the wife and I chatted about making a couple things after I get my skill level up a bit. a couple of cabinet door to cover, and I want to do a wall hangin or two. that kind of things, but nothing yet.

I only had done one so far with a spine cover, but I didnt understand and didnt use a three piece system, just one big ole piece with a spine cover. thats really a lot of extra work for nothing, so I wouldnt recommend that way lol. it turned out fine and its stout, but just was unnecessary.

now that made me laugh. Your wife isnt letting you put any baby of hers, in anything hands free. no such thing with a baby.

Thanks for the comments Brian. the 4 prong punch was something I think was going to be a must if I do something like this again, and I prolly will.

Really really nice. the blue inset colors look almost as if you cut the leather out completely and the cover is set on top of a blue ....something. I really like the way you did the edging for the spine cover to match the outside edges. looks very well done. Ummmm,, no inside pics? Bob

answers a lot . thanks again. need to file this for sure.

Chris, thanks for the in-depth. I know you have in the past put alll this out there more or less. but its nice to have it all in one spot. At some point, I see myself doing one of these and will be awesome to have. you also answered one nagging question, but made me think of another. To that end, whats your opinion on this. so when you read about casing leather for tooling, most of the crafters agree that Paul's link on casing , where you submerse the leather in water until the bubbles stop. then let dry for whatever it takes. Now you like my local Tandy guy just spray enough to get down in the leather some. I am assuming if you submersed you leather for tooling for this kind of project, did your tooling, let it dry, would you have trouble re wetting to do the wet mold? or do you have sacrifice some depth, and do shallow wettin for tooling, in order to be able to not have any struggles while wet molding the bib? Its really a general question as you detailing is obviously deep enough tooling for the projects. just wondered if you expiermented with that any. Bob