David

Can you tan and tool chicken skin? Just curious Dave

Touching or not touching is not that important, as long as you keep the holes close and use wide lace. You won't, or SHOULDN'T see the edges of the leather. Dave

Teagan, I try to have my front and back just touching or just shy of touching, but in making a seat like roger makes, you will want a front and side piece rather than a front and back like a typical solo seat with 1/2" to 1" padding. Look at Roger's tutorial he uses approx 6 oz for the front and 3 oz for the side. The type of seat that I make is a springer solo rather than a frame mount solo. Hope that helps. Dave

I don't know if anyone would consider me a pro or not but I have to disagree with Bobby this time. The maul has a much smaller sweet spot to strike the tool. You have to strike the maul head pretty much dead center on the tool or the maul can deflect. With a flat surface, the mallet has a much larger sweet spot to strike before the mallet deflects. I've never encountered the mallet/maul rotating in my hand as my fingers are always on the head of the maul/mallet. If you are using either one to knock holes in 15oz leather then you are using the wrong tool. You need something with a long handle for that kind of work. If you concentrate on where the maul hits the tool then the maul is for you. But if you concentrate on where the tool is on the leather, then I think the mallet is your tool. Just a personal opinion, which I guess is why we have both mauls and mallets. David Theobald

That is a wonderful photo. I think if I were you, I would make an effort to turn that into a business card. Thanks for sharing a great piece of leatherworker history. David Theobald

Very nice work indeed, What are your leather weights? Are the belts lined? With what? and thickness? Thanks, David Theobald

You may also want to try http://www.sharpsaddles.com/horncaps_conchos/index.html Dave Theobald

Still not working right here...maybe tonight... it took 40 minutes to post this Dave

I don't think this thread was started to demean anyone at Tandy. They are always pleasant and helpful. The fact remains that the eco flo line of products has weak coverage and is a rather fragile finish that tends to rub off with heavy usage. Keep in mind that I make motorcycle seats and they get HEAVY usage. The only seat I ever used this product on is back in my shop looking like it has been destroyed because it rubbed off on some poor guys butt! It is a very expensive re-do for me. The eco flo line is good for somethings I'm sure. As long as they don't get heavy wear. Fiebings products can be purchased directly from Fiebings in what ever quantity you choose. One maker's opinion David

I did a seat a year ago for a customer who wanted a specific cross on the seat... She wanted the seat for Sturgis this year. Well, she finally sent pics of the bike. I've included a couple of the seat which I think I posted here. Just realized that this seat went all the way back to September of last year. David Theobald

Ken, That's a pretty good start. Much better than my first seat. I kept cutting leather off and re-making the seat until I had one I liked. I made four before I had one that I would show anyone. So take heart and keep working at it. Dave

I agree with Tim, Jim Downey is the best place for lace.... sounds like the beginning of a slogan! ha As far as "strong calf lace" I think that is an oxymoron. Like Jumbo Shrimp..... David Theobald

AZ, You need to do a couple of things, first even out the hole spacing on your top and bottom leathers. The irregular hole pattern will give you an irregular lacing on the edge. That is a large seat pan. On my smaller pans I have 21 rivets holding the back leather on the pan. I'm afraid that only three will cause puckering of the leather when you begin to pull the lace tight. I won't comment on the tooling. Dave

Very nice Tim, Creative and well done. I like it a lot. Dave

Whatever the attachment means for this file was.... it wasn't a good idea. Dave

Yes still use this technique when starting a seat for a new pan. Dave

Max I would never use 4-5 oz for a seat top. I've switched to Wickett and Craig for my leather and use 7-8 oz for the tops of my seats. I don't wet mold my seats so I use the same weight for the bottoms too. If you are wet molding, look at Roger's response above also Shirley's response these are the two best at wet molding. Roger uses 3-4 oz on the sides and Shirley uses 4-5 oz on the sides. They also vary a bit on the weight for top leather but neither of them use anything as light as 4-5 for top leather.... we all like to tool too deep to use the light stuff for a top. David Theobald

Hey Steph, Glad you're here. Wish more of the Cin City folks would sign on. You sure can learn a lot here. Dave Theobald

Corey, F... The World Dave Bob, Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully I'll hear from the customer today, Dave

Hey Busted, FTW COULD stand for a lot of different things, but in biker lingo, the meaning is pretty clear. I did offer to tool the Forever Two Wheels on the seat...but just not the FTW because of the usual biker meaning. He wasn't having any of that. Good luck with getting the camera. Any specific camera in mind? Dave

Mad Max, The lace is 1/4" kangaroo pulled through 1/8" holes spaced about 3/8" apart. This causes the lace to bunch up and look really tight and compact.... which it is. My edge lacing feels like there is a steel bar inside of it. I pull it really tight. Dave Theobald

Hey Johanna, The artwork was supplied by the customer. It is a tattoo that he has on his arm. I wasn't satisfied with the skull. I think the tattoo artist kind of botched it and tried to cover it up. So I re-drew the skull part of it.... the customer approved. The hard part was the tilt backward of the skull, it is a very unusual angle and I found little information about the appearance of the underside of the jawbone. I wish I knew what the skull thing is all about! I don't see the facination myself but hey if the money's green, I'm all there. With a few exceptions. This brings me to the next of Dave's pet peves..... I try to explain to people that there are several things that I won't put on seats. They are: I won't do Satanic artwork. I won't do nudes. Nothing against them, I just don't do them well in leather. I won't do art that I consider obscene. I don't think I'm being too restrictive, just keeping my seats within the bounds of good taste. I had to turn down two jobs this weekend. One guy sent me his artwork, it was clearly Satanic.... Then he tries to tell me it is fantasy art..... I respectfully explained that there was nothing fantasy like about Satan and that his art.... a pentagram with a goat skull, was clearly depicting the symbols of Satan. He was indignant. The other guy wanted a praying hands seat.... I thought cool, I can get into that...it is a great classic tattoo design.... then he tells me he wants FTW above the hands.... I told him no, that was objectionable on many levels... THEN he trys to blow smoke at me and tell me that it means Forever Two Wheels! He must have thought I fell off the turnip truck yesterday. We won't even discuss the guy who wants the Tazmanian Devil with an erection. Geeze come on guys. Get a grip. OK, OK Dave has completed his rant for the morning. Best to all. David Theobald

Here is the latest heading out the the customer some time this week. Dave Theobald

Chuck, Thanks so much for the great information and please don't forget to post pictures of those new rifles when you have them finished. Or better yet, some in-progress pictures. Best to you David Theobald

DJ1935 Try this site http://www.justinboots.com David Theobald