David

I believe the sale of Sucker Punch to Christian Clayton occured several years ago. The bikes are now made in Scotsdale AZ. dave

Thanks guy, I appreciate your looking at the seat's progress. Dave

Ok, the front and rear tooling is complete and yesterday I tied the seat together as I start to lace it up. I'm going to use chocolate color edge lacing to go with the stitching on the front. Let's hope I have enough of it, I ordered additional lace yesterday from Jim Downey only to find out he's sold his business.... I sure hope the new owner gets my order in time to ship on Monday. He told me that everyone who had ordered from him should get notification of the new owner in the mail soon. No change in prices he tells me. Dave

On a new seat pan I lay out the holes on the top leather first. I just draw a faint pencil line 3/8" in from the edge of the top leather then mark the hole position with a heavier dot from my pencil. "I create a top leather with all the holes punched and a bottom leather with just two holes punched on the centerline at the front and rear of the leather. Then I tie the front to the rear using only those two holes on the centerline and with the pan and padding sandwiched in between. Now I can pull the two leathers together and mark the rear leather for all the other holes. I mark a few holes then punch them using a rotary punch. About every three holes I add another tie down. It is a slow but effective method." See the thread Christian Bike Seat under motorcycles and biker gear. I did this several years ago. It was lost during the board crash and then saved by Johanna and Kate. Dave

Tyler, I hate to disillusion you about marking the holes..... I simply lay my pattern over the leather to be punched and trace the inside of all 100 holes with a ball point pen....lol yeah you read that right.... the holes trace out smaller than the punch I use so all the ink is cut off the leather. A different weave pattern... now that is an easy one to answer. I do a little trick that Shirley Z taught me.... I call it a fast basketweave. It is done exactly like the complicated basketweave EXCEPT every time you would take the lace under another piece of lace, go on top instead..... the result is a nice looking herringbone weave pattern. It takes less than 1/4th of the time a full basketweave takes. hope this stuff helps. Dave

Welcome to the forum Tom. The seat is looking good. I think Tom's expertise with an airbrush explains his skill in tooling. Lots of folks out there bring experience in other fields to our leather work. I'm a technical illustrator, which could explain the detail that I like to put in my tooling. As far as a critique goes, the only thing I would say is that the holes do seem a bit large and widely spaced. I use 1/8" holes spaced about 3/8" apart and 1/4" kangaroo lace. Try a roll of that from Jim Downey. Not cheap but you'll get several seats out of a roll and you'll never use calf skin again. Kangaroo lace is not unbreakable, but it is pretty darn strong. Don't try to stretch your hides to pull the edges together, that just won't work. Pull your lace tight enough to have a very tight braid around the edge. If the lace isn't tight you have lacing that looks lumpy. When you're finished don't forget to tap your lacing with a mallet to force it to lay down flat. And no twists in the lace....keep it straight. Very nice work thus far Tom and excellent airbrushing. Dave

Quite nice Bonnie, So nice to see your work at last. Dave

Thanks for the compmliment. The tool is a glassing tool from Barry King. It is used to compact and smooth the leather for tooling. David

Thanks everyone for the encouragement on this one. I'll keep you posted of course. Dave

Very nice Kate, nice airbrush work and the colors are going to be fine. Dave

Hey, I've just started the second of six seats that I'll be doing for a friend. I just finished the tooling on the front of this one today. Dave

Nice kate, I'm going to enjoy this Dave

Amazing work Bob, I always love to see your next work of art. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. Dave

Probably not a good idea with the melted beeswax. That would be the same as Aussie Conditioner. Which helps protect but by no means is it water PROOF. I would try Deft.... this is a wood finish available in hardware stores in gloss, satin, or flat. Apply very sparingly with a cloth. You don't want to build up a thick coat.... you want the small amount that you apply to soak in. It can be thinned a bit to facilitate this. Nice coasters. Well done. Dave