scottk1967

LIKE NEW EXTRA PARTS and thread contact me and we can talk about a price thats fair to both of us located in Rothsay MN

This has been interesting. I've gone through a lot of seats and have a couple I bought at swap meets sitting around waiting for me to get motivated. My dads done upholstery work for many decades and has done many do overs on my existing pan either Hd or aftermarket. We prefer metal pans by leaps and bounds. HD factory pans are a dissapointmet. My dads gotten older and it's my turn to start doing sets for myself and there's a lot to learn. My thought is if you use some sort of Kydex or plastic you got nothing to loose if you build it yourself every time you do a seat you'll learn something and get better just like my dad did and I hope to. I'd put some sort of soft fabric or some thing under your pan to keep your paint nice where it rubs. GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN DOING IT!

We both might be happier if you get a new one when the holiday sale starts I started hand sewing smaller items. I don't do a lot of leather sewing but it sure is nice when you do saddle bags. I might be hating myself if I sell it, I got my hole life ahead of me to use it even if I don't have the time right now, I'm not dead yet, just busy.

I also live in MN have a Tippmann I have used next to none made a pair of saddle bags and a few very small items. Have extra spools and an extra foot. Bought every thing in late 2011. Don't think I want to sell but would consider a high enough offer.

Any pictures of them on the bike? Nice pockets! I've made two small saddlebags and I'm trying to think outside the box and have a different size on each side made specially for how I will use them. Need ideas to fit my bike and needs.

I ended up with a few doubles for tools after a local leather store went out of business I have an extra Barry King modeling tool willing to sell it along with two Osborne modeling tools one is what I think is called a deer hoof and the other has a pointy end and a spoon on the other end. Don't know the model #. All tools are new and will ship in the USA only. The snows gone and I'm back to work so I'll be a little slow at responding. Please make fair offer with shipping included. I think I can do Paypal. Have used Tandy mini and Maxi punch set.

A few weeks back we went to the Donnie Smith bike show in St Paul they had a big swap meet I spent a couple hours digging through piles of old Harley parts, nothing more enjoyable in a Minnesota winter then a swap meet. The indian Larry Legacy was there so I got to see plenty of Paul cox seats, man that guy is good he had one seat that had a metal looking eagle that had some of the smoothest long strate beveling I've ever seen. Lots of tooled seats on bikes in the show but none for sale at the swap meet. The sad part is tooled seats are like bike paint an awesome paint job on my bike may not fit the personality of other people when it comes time to sell it. I know this from real life experience. My thought is keep your seats neutral and appealing to the masses. I'd think skulls are always good. This is a tuff one on what designs to use. A few years back my dad did a solo seat for my chopper that had no design on it and I could not understand why so many people at Sturgis took pictures of it and complimented it. Dad did a great job but it was a plain seat with lacing on the side and Sturgis is full of hot looking bike seats. I would think less is more when your trying to guess what people are willing to pay for. What people say they want is just talk until they get there wallet out. I'm thinking a few small leather items like biker wallets and stuff like that might make a few sales at the swap meet if people don't want to part with there money. Might at least pay for the table. I've tried selling a table of Harley parts at a couple swap meets and you just don't know what's going to happen. I hope you do well your stuff is nice and you deserve to do well.

If what you want to do is Sheridan style Chan Geer has a book that costs about $30 and is very worth it. It shows exactly what tools he uses in a picture but does not list brands. Which is good it lets you shop around for what you can afford. The book walks you through different flowers and leaves. It has lots of pictures and does an awesome job. I started with a Tandy kit back in the seventys when I was to young to really enjoy it. Tandy opened up a new store in ND about 4 years ago and I started up again and loaded up on tools when they went on sale. My fatherinlaw gave me his vintage tools from Tandy and they are probally a lot better then what you got in your kit. Buy the book before you buy the tools my work is way the better using my new Tandy pro Sheridan stainless, Hackbarth, Barry King and Hide Crafter Sheridan series stamps. I purchased a nice inexpensive Barry KIng swivel knife and blade and that was an improvement. I think they're around $55 doesn't sound inexpensive but is cheaper then most high end swivel knives. I'm in no way an expert but do know the Chan Geer book really helped his DVDs really helps see a lot of little things that might take years to learn or never learn at all. I laugh when I say it but good tools are almost a replacement for talent. I've wondered how many people that would have been leather crafters quite because of the loss of quality in Tandy stamps over the years. It almost seems like Tandys lowered standards have made a lot of other companys a good living and lowered there sales because people gave up do to poor quality. That's what I know.

Nice smooth design. Good choice not to use any highly detailed vieners or backgrounders will keep the seat clean and nice looking after being caught in the rain a few times. Vey nice design! Last winter I made a set of saddle bags for the Superglide I run to Sturgis. Got rained and hailed on between Deadwood and Spearfish and it rained the hole day I road the 540 miles home. My over stuffed saddle bags were "wet formed" by time I got home. I'll be making another set next winter and I'll be Saddle lacking the inside not just the outside using what I learned along the way. Great smooth desing wice choice in tooling. oops! design and wise choice in tooling.

Here's what I'm wondering, for all off you guys that do this for a living and all of you that do this for extra income, everything said and done what do you make an hour? I just got done reading one of the threads where they talked about how long it took to make a certain item and some guys talked about what they got for the item. Is it just me or a lot of very talented skilled people under paid. I imagine the guys doing it for extra cash it's a cash business and they're not being taxed on it like you would a regular pay check. My dads like seventy something and until recently ran an upholstery business for extra income. A very talented and skilled man. I asked him what he thought a person should get for his leathercraft and he said $20. I asked my friend who sells his work how long it took to do a certain item and what he ended up getting an hour as extra income and he told me $10. This is in eastern North Dakota, I imagine the Wyoming and states with more cows and horses may make more an hour. Any words of wisdom out there. I'm in it for fun and don't always have time to do much work and will probally just keep it fun.

HMM! What kind off glue?

WOW for me too! Is this something your planning to wear on a vintage cycle or something as fun?

Just what's in there? Is my wife going to be OK with it or is it for wierdos?

OK it's been a month since I first posted. Here is what I know now from real life personal experience. I did go to Tandy and did get seven sheridan tools at $18 each, Tandys lowest price. Two lifters, one flower center, one sheridan beveler, one leaf liner, one center shader and one thumb print. There all nice stainless tools not US made but nice. Very good tools to start the sheridan experience. And this is the bazar part I stumbled into some other sheridan tools at a great price. I now own a Barry King flower center(the smooth one) and two Barry King swivel knifes and one blade. This morning I ordered a beader blade for the Barry King knife and one edging blade for a Tandy, I don't want to buy another knife so I'll use one that I already have. I also have two Hackbarth bevelers I havent used yet but look a H E Double Tooth Pick better then your standard Tandy non US made tool. I also now have US made Hackbarth viener, two seeders and a backgrounder. All made of steel and very nice. I also picked up a Hide Crafter sheridan beveler and leaf liner that are stainless and US made. Very nice!! It's my understanding that Double K leathers has the Hide Crafter tools now that there is no Hide Crafters anymore. I believe they sell them for $16.50 stainless and made in the US. The Tandy leaf liner and Hidecrafter are perty much equal but the sheridan Hide Crafter beveler is steeper and is my favorite. I ordered some stuff from Springfield leather and decided to be brave and order one of there brade stamps for $13.99 foreign made not stainless not shure what kind of finish the tool has but looks nice. It stamps sharp and smooth and is superior to your standard Tandy. I like the tool but wish it was US made. To be truthfull I took a piece of leather that I had stamped with vieners, camoflauge, mule foot Tandy stamps and took them with me to the store I bought the Hackbarth and Hidecrafter stamps and decided in some cases with some old and some new Tandy stamps I could not justify in anyway to spend the money to repace them. Some Tandys are very nice and cheaper. To me it would be like spending an extra $30 for a Tshirt with a fancy brand name to look like the cool kids. My advice is if you can test drive the tool before you buy it. I realise for most people this is hard to do. I did go through my rack of stamps and seperate the good from the bad. Now I have a rack of favorites and a rack of look before you leap stamps. I hope this helps somebody. I wish somebody made sharp looking basketweaves for around $25 because that's seems like a fair price to me.

Has anybody actually held in there hand or used a Tandy sheridan tool? There Tandy there bound to be on sale.