David

Wonderfully clean work Bruce. Nice crisp lettering. Nicely done all around. Dave

Hey Tina, That is some wonderful work....tell her to keep posting her results.... She's very talented indeed. David

Nicely done. Very interesting procedure, what weight leather did you use? Do you think that it would not have fit properly if you had wet molded it over the existing leather and then removed the old leather and replaced it with the new? Also how does the new seat compare with regard to weight? Dave Theobald

Thanks guys, All the nice words are welcomed. They really mean a lot. Dave

Thanks everyone for taking a look and making all the comments on this project. Best to you all, Dave

Well this one is finished. It is dark but not black. Like the customer ordered. Dave

Interesting stuff, nice tooling..... a smoke with a usb port..... now that is special. Dave

Hey Roo, I'm not sure why, but nearly all seat builders that I know build then dye. Probably has something to do with avoiding shrink from getting it wet with the dye. Dave

The dye will be as dark as I can without being black Dave

The seat is now assembled. The dye comes next, when I can accomplish it without frost bite. Dave

I finished the decorative stitching and lacing today. Later I'll begin assembling the seat. Dave

Rich, The top need to be about 3/8" larger than the edge of your padding. The bottom about 3/8" larger than the pan. I hope that helps. Don't go overboard on the thickness of your padding. About 3/4" is the thickest you should use. I've see 1" used on nearly flat pans. Dave Theobald

TomSwede I'm not a fan of the square holes either. The only alternative was to cut out the entire center of the seat and leave only about 1 1/2" of leather around the edge. That would have been ok except the customer had already picked out the Lucky 13 for the seat back. Like I said this is a Chopper Shocks seat so there are 2 small shock absorbers insead of springs under the seat. I'm not familiar with the set up but I've heard that they are a pretty hard ride..... as if a rigid isn't hard enough! Thanks all for taking a look. I hope to have the seat finished this weekend because I have two other seats to work on..... and then there is the fourth of Jeff Cochran's seats to design. Dave

Hey, I had been meaning to post an atta boy on your seat. It is really nice looking. Very nice job on the koi. As I'm sure you can tell, I'm a big fan of Japanese style tattoo art. Great color and nice tooling and even lacing. So many folks for get to pound the lacing when they finish..... your's looks good Dave

Thank you all for the kind comments on this seat. I'm surprised at the number of killer clown fans we have here. The customer wants a DARK finish. Not black but as dark as I can go without being black. Go to my website and take a look at a seat called Dark Jesus. That's what he wants as far as color goes. There is also going to be the extra stitching and lacing on this one. Thanks for taking a look at it. Dave

I doubt there will be a reply from Roger on this one. The original post was back in 2007. The last I spoke with Roger, he told me he is totally burned out and doesn't even like thinking about doing seats. I hope he recovers from that as Roger is a very talented leatherworker. Dave Theobald

MMM extreme embossing on that nose just might give the rider a bit of a uhhhhh....... well......... you know. Dave

Well here is the start on this lovely seat. I want to emphasize that this was customer requested art. The seat pan is a Chopper Shocks pan. This is the heaviest pan I've encountered to date. Enjoy? Dave

I tried Eco Flo dyes ONCE. I threw the bottle in the trash. The dye is far to fragile for use on any item that gets even moderate handling or wear. I honestly can't think of an item that I would consider using it on. I'll stick with that nasty old Fiebings alcohol based dye. It is tough and reliable. That's my 2 cents on Eco Flo.....which is about all it's worth. Dave Theobald

Beautiful work Kate, I really love your work. Dave

Thanks all for taking a look at the seats. The nice words mean a lot. Dave

That's pretty darn good advice. You gotta leave some thing to the imagination if you want to engage the viewer. Gave the seat to Jeff today. "My favorite so far" according to him. He liked the different colors on the seat....using various dyes, antiques and super sheen. I've given him three seats now and he hasn't finished the second bike yet........It's gonna be all black and chrome. So it looks like a can take a bit of a break before starting seat #4. Thanks to all for looking Dave

Thanks for taking a look everyone. Part of the dragon was left without scales because more scales would have just been too much......it would have blurred the edge shared with the koi and just made the entire composition too busy. Funny thing about designing artwork, you have to know when to stop. Dave

Signature seat #3 is finished. Let me know what you think. The first picture is of the seat with the lacing finished and neatsfoot oil applied. The second picture is of the finished seat with no flash The third picture is of the finished seat with a flash The actual look of the seat is somewhere between the two. The antiquing is still wet in these pictures Thanks for taking a look Dave