David

I never use those toxic adhesives. I order my foam from Foam and More, in Michigan and have them add the self adhesive backing to it........Cheap? No, but neither is a good dose of lung disease.

I only have a couple suggestions. The appearance of the lace on the back doesn't bother me so much as the leather showing through... Here are a couple of suggestions. When finished lacing take your mallet and give your lacing a good pounding all the way round the seat... It will make it lie much flatter give a much neater appearance. It looks like you may be using really long pieces of lace. After you have laced several inches with the lace it begins to stretch a bit and when it stretches it gets quite a bit thinner. So lace with shorter pieces of lace, no longer than 2-3 ft. I usually have 4 or 5 splices in my lacing on a seat that size. If you still have a few spaces where the leather shows through, use some dye or antiquing paste to dye those spots so they don't stand out so brightly. Get an old toothbrush and really scrub the dye or paste into those areas. I also agree with the other poster who said to use a pear shader to add interest to your art..... pear shaders, knife cuts anything to make things more realistic. And try something other than skulls, they've been done to death..... pardon the pun..... skulls ... death.... never mind. Good luck, David Theobald

Welcome Michael, It's a great forum, you'll be surprised at how your leather interests will unfold. I started making knife sheaths, and now? Well, just click on my link below. Good luck with your leatherwork. Dave Theobald

Beautiful work Chuck.........as always. Have you ever considered a "how to" book on your beading? Lots of us would love to see the master at work. Best to you, Praying for your health. David Theobald

What holds them on the grip? Thanks, Dave Theobald

And your Smith's don't rattle when you shake them! JMHO Dave:rolleyes:

Good idea, the first alternative I've seen that makes sense. Dave

For the top (the tooled area) 6-8 oz vegetable tanned leather. For the sides 3-4 oz. You can work the conversion to metric. 1oz = 1/64 inch. Word of warning, this is not a good first project. Good luck, David Theobald

Especially like the first one also. Nice clean work Dave

Neat Lac works so does Super Shene take your choice. Super Shene is the only ecoflo product that I use. I consider their dyes, stains, and gels to be junk. I threw all of my Eco stuff away. Cova color, that's just paint. If you want to paint your leather try Liquitex water soluble stuff. Way bigger range of color. Higher quality paint. Just don't put it on anything that is a high wear item. It will wear off in short order. Dave Theobald

The booklet you are thinking of is called How to Lace.....no author. Get it at Tandy, on line or from their stores. Of course it is also available on Amazon.com. Dave Theobald

Excellent deep and well defined tooling. Beautiful work. Those formed bibs are great looking. Dave

Unfortunately the folks I've made them for have left them on for years, spilled things....Coke and gasoline and even ridden people sitting on them ..... yeah stupid idea. Then they complain that my bib damaged their paint.

I hate to be the one who throws cold water on this party but, in my experience, NOTHING well prevent a tank bib from chewing up the paint underneath. Leave that thing on there a year and your paint will be toast. It doesn't matter if you put shearling on the back, the combination of the vibration, sun, rain, heat, cold and just normal use will be enough to damage the paint. JMHO..... Dave Theobald

I think my advice would be to put your beveler away and use knife work only on the inverted pic. Give it a try, it should make a world of difference. Dave

Bob, I was thinking of the rig that I saw that belonged to Arvo Ojala. His holsters were metal LINED. His guns were a mess, but the man sure was fast! Your rig looks really great, I have to try building one some time. Dave

Looks great Bob, metal lined eh? That's gonna tear up your gun blue, isn't it?

The tape on the bottom of the pan will provide the shape of the bottom when it is removed. Just lay the tape out on the back of your leather, add 3/8" around the edge and you have your pattern. For the top pattern you do the same thing, but after the foam is added and trimmed to the edge of the pan.

Watty, You have given me something to try also, I've not used resolene to seal the finish. That just jumped to #1 on my list of things to try. If you have that many miles on the seat in the photos, you may have hit on something that really works. Take care overseas, David

Watty, you will notice that I never use color on my seats..... other than different shades of brown..... I did do an oxblood seat for Jeff Cochran....I had to strip and re-dye it three times in the first 6 months. The colors are just too fragile and they fade and rub off easily. The final time I used a couple coats of neet lac ..... way too much of it actually but it helped a bit to keep the color in place for at least a couple months....until the bike sold. I probably won't do color again. Dave

Let me know how that color holds up on your seat. Dave

My only suggestion would be to put a lining on it to help preserve the paint.