Janne

Simple & beautiful. And I really like the carving on it.

Hi, This is one of my first completed leather projects. It's already a month or two since I completed it, but anyway I thought I'd share it here. (Click the pics to view them bigger) Here's the panel cut and tooled, and the lacing started (sorry, no pics of tooling phase): Panel laced. I'm very proud that I took time to do symmetrical lacing :-) Here's the stitching in progress. Funny thing is that the stitches are not even visible when the panel is installed. But I know it's there ;-) Close-up of the tooling: The panel could be installed and removed also with the speedometer nacelle on the bike, with the help of this "fastening system": Stitching done: Panel completed and greased: Panel installed on the bike. The biggest flaw is that I put the tooling too far up, as you can see: Sorry for being picture-heavy. Hope you enjoy. - Janne

Awesome seat & tutorial, thanks David! Another newbie here with dumb but simple question: I see you laced the undyed leathers together and applied dyes afterwards, any particular reason for doing things in that order? One fellow Finn instructed me to always dye before lacing, and I understand the point there, so my other questions for you are: how did you apply the dye, and how did you manage to ensure the dye will go to all small spots between the laces? Is there any danger of undyed leather coming visible between the laces when the time passes by? Sorry if these topics are covered somewhere, I haven't found any answers yet. The reason I ask is that I have a tank panel in the making which I have already laced, and I'm in doubt if I should start over by taking all lacing off and dye it first, or can I manage dyeing it now when it is already laced. Thanks, Janne

Thanks again, everyone! OdinUK; go for it. You won't be dissapointed on XB12Ss, at least when it comes to rideability ;-) I ride a tuned & modified XB12S. Ranze, nice to meet you here. Maybe we Finns can share some info on where to buy things etc. ? So far I have ordered stuff here and there; Puuhari and Slojd-Detaljer in the first place. It's a pity that you cannot get everything you want from one place ;-) Last time I forgot to put an edge slicker into my order, but I asked my uncle to turn a few ones in a lathe for me. I'll probably get some different samples made of maple, birch and teak. Which one would be the best wood for burning edges? I'll get them next week when I go to Oulu for winter holiday. Today I finally got into working on some new pieces. I did a practice piece for a tank panel I promised to do for my friend's H-D Softail. I tried the packing tape to prevent warping, and yes it really works!

Thanks Billio8 for asking & Murse for pointing the right direction. I've been trying to figure out this same subject recently, so this sure helped me too.

^ What he said. I assume you are going to get them printed in color, right? I really do like the font on "Dakota braiding & leather work". Really good find, that alone communicates "good business" to me I also like the no-nonsense marketing text on the backside, I think that is something you really don't see much over here in Finland. I also do like the image you have chosen, but I'd perhaps fiddle with its size. I mean, I'd probably scale that down slightly to give the card a bit more free space (free space communicates, too). In my opinion the texts (your names & numbers) are too close to each other making them a bit hard to read. So scaling down the image may let you give a tad more leading between the rows. Have you already printed out some test pieces? If not, I'd do that in order to see how the elements in the card look like in relationship to each other in real size.

Well, here in Finland (as in the most of the European countries?) we use the metric system. Had to learn some English measures when bought my first bike (Harley). But really, I cannot memorize what is the equivalent metric measure for, let's say, 3/8" or 5/16" or whatever... And I just don't get the gallons etc.

Whoa, I guess that truck is indeed totalled... Glad that you and your friend are okay. Miracles do happen! Take care, Janne

Thanks for your warm welcomes! Actually, the Motorcycles and Biker Gear section was the first thing I knew on this forum, when I googled something related to making seats. Anyway, I have since found answers to some of my main concerns (casing, warping), so this rather short time here has been very valuable for me already. Thanks, once again. - Janne P.S. Nice to see other Finns here too

Hello all, My name is Janne and I come from southern Finland, near our capital Helsinki. I've been riding a bike for some years now (first Harley, now Buell) and been introduced to leather tooling via my interest in building bikes. I also play and build guitars, so I was familiar with Waylon Jenning's stunning leather tooled Telecaster too ;-) So finally I decided to take the bull by the horns. It was near Christmas, so I asked a basic leather tooling set for X-mas present from my wife. Then I found this amazing forum, which has already been so much help for me. Here's my first "proper" practice piece, an image I originally came up with when I was doodling around on my sketch book: I got lot to learn, but I'm very interested to know more. BR, Janne