troy

Did'nt know where exactly to put this stuff, so excuse but clearing the shelves out and you can see the books below - would really want to send all together as can't be bothered to do repeat trips to the post office. All you need to do is pay for the postage of course - all weights about 4 kg (excluding tree's) and after a recent parcel I had to sent to the states of similar weight, it cost £40.00. The tree's would be more perhaps so I'm guessing they may be of more use to a saddle maker in the UK or europe - blue one is a flexi ralide and the wooden with fibreglas came from germany. any way if any bodies interested send me an email - paul@mtn-m.co.uk - and we can work out the details.

Finally finished the seat and I feel sooo glad its over. ref's the placing of the leather, that was one hell of a task, cause did'nt help myself by using 3.5mm leather but to get the carving i wanted..........any how had to first re wet the sides of the leather, soaked em completly using warm water from a kettle leaving the carving area as untouched as possible. let is soak in a plastic bag while I had to run to town and do some important xmas stuff, then soaked again upon my return. The started the great task of moulding it around the foam and steel base. originally the foam was square cut but due to the ease a bevel would make and the fact that due to this square cut, it tended to cut into the legs over long distances, I bevelled the top edges which really shows to me on the finished seat, it did also make the moulding marginally easier. Way i did it was punch holes around the leather then used paracord to thread through them and pull the whole thing together. This I did again and again until after various cuts, swearing, panting and aching knockles I had the leather the sixe I needed. took it off punched holes for the lace and used an awl for those places that would be stitch underneath, then threaded the lace and (I used sinew) the thread loosly, replaced the leather onto the seat and tied them up. I had actually placed a plastic bag over the foam to stop it getting wet and due to the hordes of wet weather we get here, I decided to keep it on. Dying it came next, and I started by covering it in black stain, rubbed it off then covered it with black dye, rubbed it off again, then coated in aussie conditioner and boot polish after that had all dried. As can be seen, there are a few faded area's, which is what I was after, I did'nt want solid black as...well I find that boring, plus I thought the different tones would match the colours of the bike. Due to using thick leather, it did want to be a pain putting it back on, but thats what happens when you play with things. Have sat on it and it feels really fine but have'nt ridden it yet and probably won'e while ourt usual scottish weather plays havak with everything. Overall this task was different for me. Have moulded leather before over saddle forks but given the 2 inches of foam, this was slightly different in that their was only one solid side, the steel base. But in the end I think I'm gonna feel great crusing the roads on this and can't wait to see what the harley riders at our local gathering next year make of it. If someone wanted one done, I think I'd enjoy doing them, they are different and slightly reberious......

I don't know about leatherwork being hard, things like this is just part of the journey, whats hard is searching the net for idea's of some one else dream item, making it's....well fun! I'm afraid I've only come up with images like the other guys have mentioned, apart from a poster showing old bags/pouches showing that they had a shape similar to a large ballon, i.e narrow by the flap and wide down the bottom, most seem similar to a kilt bag although they have holes etc, as seen in my photos for the falconers gear such as their leashes and the birds hat thing, plus I noticed that the flap is sawn so as it does not fully open up the top obviously so that the strap hole is not interfered with. In the end, if their is no definitive description or photo's or designs of the item , then I suspect your best guess on the info gathered along with your skills will produce an item your customer should be pleased with - try these people they should know something - http://www.birdsofpreycentre.co.uk/ Paul

Hi Ray, nice bags you showed recently on facebook......but onto your quiry, I'm afraid all I can come up with is a few pictures from a falconry book of a bag, seeing as its a pounch you asked for it might be different but you never knew. They look similar to a gamekeepers shot bag but if you have'nt handled one of them either then I guess thats not much use, hopfully the picture with the gloves will give you some idea of dimensions....

And as if I needed to prove my comment ref's your work Alan, here's my latest attempt at fine lacing - aint easy mate especially when it seems all you thoughht you knew goes haywire, your eye sight goes north and all the laces start to form just one bit mass or mess!

try here - http://www.leatheroo.com/?page_id=27&slug=index.php&cPath=43_44_58 - its from Aussyland but the guys always been friendly and quick delivery.

Finally got round to the carving and have decided to just dye it plain black and highlight the W and K in maroon, which would make it fit in with the bikes colours. Encountered another problem thou. In the process of taking the old seat apart (plastic leather looking stuff over reformed foam on a thin steel sheet base)found that the steel plate has severe rust problems and that water must of got into the foam at some point, so before I can fit my new cover I have now to get new foam and possibly a new base - possibly I say, definetly really..was thinking of using aluminuim this time, any advice as to what should be used.

very nice work alan, I always (despite trying really hard) do not manage to get the lace to run the 45 degree's and get patterns perfectly stright, but you have - jealous as hell now.....

am planning an embitious thong braid of upto 40 strands each side on a 6 foot whip and was just wondering..........normally two strands are dropped at a time but with numbers this high, I was wondering if any body has had experiance with this and knows if I should be looking at dropping more strands at a time or should I keep to dropping only a couple at a time. Personnally I feel dropping a few at a time, like say 4 or 6 spaced evening around the thong would be better and make the transitions of the pattern easier, but any advise would be welcomed.

cut the holes on the corner slightly wider then the rest so you can pass through it twice.

Have used black hull walnut powder for years - originally got it from braintan.com but it seems these days you can get it from most herb places. I like it as you only have to mix alittle in cold water and a soak of 10 minutes gives you a dark brown colour. Have experimented with various things over this time and found the best results come from items like grass, bark, nettles hulls etc that have only recently been cut before most of the tannins have been washed out - items like the bark and nettles actually made the lace develop a sort of leathery feel after a weeks soaking.

cheers for all your good comments - sort of makes the sweat and blood worth while. It did teach me alot that I thought I knew and showed me that I know more then I thought apart from the long knot which i did think at the time was the way long knots are made for bosal's - have learnt since that they are alot easier but I don't mind, the satifaction I felt unpon finally finishing it after 3 hard concentration days made the effort worthwhile. Paul

after careful and deep thinking about this, I have come to the conclusion that if I am gonna go to all the trouble of making a fantastic carving, braiding the works then I'm better off letting someone else do it - no perhaps not, I feel alot of testing dyes on skraps of leather coming on - oh well here we go into another different venture. cheers

I blame al stohlman for getting me a carving bug, and ron edwards for giving me the braiding bug plus the hordes of artist out their showing off their masterpieces - this quirt below may not be as much of a master piece but damn its as close as my experiance allows at the moment, theirs sure to be plenty of more challenges to come that will improve it no dault I just hope they cost less in stress, sweat and blood.

Have decided to carve my own seat and would like to paint it after wards (in preferance to dying) but considering the battering its gonna get I am wondering what paints are best to use, the usual acylics or something different and what is the best finish to cover it with to help with weather and my back side etc. cheers for any pointers Paul

Ye I know this is an old subject and been done to boulder dust, but my patients has gone; have tried making my own skiver using all sort of things and failure has loomed like a thunder cloud over all my attempts. What I am looking for is something small that can skive rawhide and leather lace of 6 to 2mm widths down to amounts of .2mm i.e at present I am cutting red deer rawhide from back to neck where the back is .8mm and the neck is 1mm thick, so I need something that will allow me to skive that excess .2mm off. Not much I know but it does show to my eyes. Any help of such a devise that I can buy would be great. Oh better add that I already have a means to cut lace and edge it mysek, so its just a skiver I need. cheers paul

Just wondering if someone knows where I can get snake skins from, preferably in the UK or Europe or even further afield if it is allowed to be exported to here (scotland). I'm after rattle snake mostly but others with small scales will do, i.e python scales tend to be too large for this sort of work. cheers

Best veggy tanned I've found is from here - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leather-Shoulder-Tooling-Hide-Full-Grain-for-Crafts-/261041578652?pt=UK_Crafts_Leathercraft_LE&hash=item3cc74a629c - over the years the service has been consistant and have used it for saddles, carving and for whips (braiding etc). The other advantage is the different thicknesses avaliable, for sheaths I guess you'd be after the 3.5mm. There is better more costly leather out there and when this stuff doe'nt do what I need then I may buy it but for a beginner you can't go wrong.

if its cowhide leather your planning to use, then get double shoulders, they tend to be the most even in thickness and strength - I use lace down to 3mm with it on knots where I tigthen them quite abit and don't gety alot of breaks - for supplies in the states, I have used tandy's but they are expensive. If cut from the outside in, I can get upto 130-150m of 6mm lace from 10ft square.

"Herringbone knot type plaits plus a few others / worked out by Barney Belford" I don't actually know if this is a published book or not but does any one know if it is and how to get it. I do have some versions of his knots from the AWPA journels but it would be nice to have them in one place.

There is probably some instructions out their in www land but by far the most useful book I have found is this - http://ramsskullpress.com/products-page/leatherwork/141-2/ - has literally loads of different knots, is proabaly the braided knot to have, like ashleys really - enough knots for all occasions with very clear instructions.

Considering the fact that I gave up making my own rawhide years ago, and since a well known maker here in scotland passed away, I had to find another source who after recieving a hide from, I think I have. Below are pictures of what these people (http://www.barrheadleather.co.uk/raw-hide-c46.html.) call a second i.e it has warbles holes within it making it unusable for drums etc, but given that it only cost £10.00 or roughly 15.00 dollars I thought I'd try it. In my experiance, warble holes can be upto 4mm wide, these are almost closed/healed and is still usefull as either bow backing or to make laces for fid work where the lace is not pulled as much as in knots where the lace is cut from outside in. I cannot gurentee that all these hides are like this one, but around the neck it is 2mm, every where else from .7 to 1mm. It feels like thick stiff paper and I imagine could be cut and beveled dry, as I normally do, coating the lace in aussie condioner before braiding starts. As you can see they have some rough bits but these can be lightly sanded off but it has a lovely deep tan colour as expected when tanned properly. Overall, for only £10.00 this hide is great as it would cost me more then that to make it myself now and you can pay with paypal which makes it more secure.

cheers knothead and roo4u for your comments. I'm wondering as its 3cm at the handle and 2cm along the whip if it would be regarded as too chunky, I guess for a whip these sizes are OK for the weight but for such a short length as this (3 foot from start of handle to end knots in strings)would it be regarded as OK? troy

After a long spell away from the pulling on the lace, have wiped the dust from the awl and dowel and rejoined the satified who make and create. Don't know why I started again with a quirt but as good an exercise for the wriest as any I guess - as for my ignorance; I know what a whips for (saving dansels in distress and avoiding large boulders)but a quirt. I gather they may be used to swish away flies and such but are they really an aid to help command a horse such as if it see's the thong out of the corner of its eye's? could some one enligthen me as to their proper use which may help me in their designing. mexican style quirt with long knot for handle and cats style thongs for end. the long interweave centre band knot taken from ron's book

It is my wife, who is quite small and petit, modeling the quiver and she said that it felt OK, felt comfortable and did'nt really notice the weight. I did make it so that the natural curve of the horn is displayed to the front, but from above they run almost striaght like a normal quiver, I guess if worn over a long time they may bother the wearer but over here (UK) where due to import/export stuff is the only place I can send it, it would be used for short periods for show standing static in front of bales of hay.