ChaChi

I've always used a leather helmet since joining the fire service in 1996. I'm actually building one right now for display purposes. I've made a miniature version already but I'm never satisfied. Still wondering what "suspenders" are in the UK.

Yes it is.

I made these for a local fire chief to give to the guest speakers at his fire symposium this weekend. They have no idea they're getting them. Both travel around the country speaking at different fire schools and are still active in their home departments also so hopefully they'll be able to put these to good use. The FDNY back piece is a replica of his helmet front, and the Hanover back piece isa replica of his department patch.

After seeing all the cool seats Greybeard's done, I figured I show you one I did as an award last year for my Shadetree brothers. We always gather in Rockingham NC at the Harley drag races in October and everyone begins to tell all the stories of the stupid things they've done this year. Then they vote. They didn't know this was gonna be the prize or who knows what they'd have gotten into. I see 2009 being a banner year for stupid acts in the Shadetree community.

I chose a letter jacket because it's wool and can't be washed anyway so I knew I wouldn't destroy it in the washer. I've got a carhartt barn coat that I did a patch on too but it washed all the dye out in the wash. Still looks cool though.

Thanks everyone for the compliments. I wear it everywhere now that the frozen tundra seems to have made it's way to Kentucky and I still can't get over the attention it gets. I've passed out more business cards in the last 2 weeks because of it than ever before. I may have even scored a HUGE order while at church on Sunday. While waiting for my youngest daughter to get out of sunday school, I was approached by a guy curious about the jacket and, after explaining it, wants me to design a "buckle-less" belt to be worn at an auto manufacturing plant we have here. They can't wear belts on the production line unless the buckle's in the back, but that makes it difficult during those "urgent" bathroom breaks. Over 6000 employees out there too. Could be busy for a while if all goes well. The best part is that my oldest daughter now wants her name on her letter jacket done in leather. She kind of laughed it off while I was dong mine, but after seeing it, decided she'd rather have one made by me than some chinese kid somewhere. She's the sentimental type anyway so I know it will mean alot to her. Thanks again everybody!!

I wanted to do a work jacket for myself and ended up buying this letter jacket on ebay. I made all the patches from 9-10 oz leather in my spare time. My wife wants one now for her photography business

Wow!! That's beautiful. And definately deserving of a ribbon. You may have done just the opposite though with stirring interest in your area because they'll NEVER enter anything against you now for sure. Great looking piece.

Always hated the back of the backrest and thought of this while riding in a poker run the other day. I make these helmet fronts for firefighter helmets all the time and it looks like one would fit right in there in that space. I hate painting these things though. It hides absolutely ALL the work that goes into the tooling but it turned out OK. I dig it. Thanks for lookin!

I'll be there with the Shadetree guys hopefully holding their beers while the they judge the amateur Chop Off.

You'll have to drill the holes seperately if you intend to use rivets. I've seen it done quite a bit but I usually don't do it. I just glue the bottom piece of leather to the pan if it's a seat that hinges on the front and exposes the bottom when its flipped forward. If it's a regular style seat and the bottom will never show, I just wrap the side pieces around to the bottom and rivet away.

I'm patiently waiting for his response also. Come on Dave, give it up!!

Looks great to me. We are our own worst critics. Remember that. I love tribute pieces. I think if you really want to fix the spot around the "C", just enlarge your oval backgroud so the letters are all inside it. Should be easy enough to do and you have space outside the letters to pull it off. Truthfully. I wouldn't have even noticed it if you hadn't pointed it out. Still had to look pretty hard to see what you're talking about. If it were me, I'd background all the way outside the letters in that oval shape you got. Keep us posted.

Here's a factory seat I did a couple years ago. And here's a chopper seat I'm working on now that has a fiberglass pan. Notice the layers of different kinds of foam. The green in the flooring tiles like used for kids play areas and the blue is the yoga mat. Cover that in cotton batting after you have the shape you want and it's ready for leather.

If your foam's not broken down already, you might try just reshaping it some to get a feel of what you'd like in a finished product. I've done a couple full size 2-up seats now where I've reused the original foam. It can be trimmed down to just about any shape with simple tools, however it's not as dense as what you may want. Factory seats are very cushy and actually TOO soft for extended hours in the saddle. That's why corbin an lepera and others use a much stiffer foam in their seats. I'll get some pics together of factory foam I've cut down. But when I do a chopper seat, I use the flooring tiles that lock together for work surfaces as my base foam. VERY STIFF but easy to work with. After that I use a closed cell foam I get at Wal-mart in the exercise section. It's actually a yoga mat. Much softer than the base stuff but still stiffer than factory and SUPER easy to shape. I'm looking for a solo pan now for my electra glide to finally do it up this way.

Here's my collection. No 2 seaters though. Great idea. I always like little projects like these.

I appreciate the compliments guys. I really do have alot of R&D time in these. And my main goal was to make them functional while appearing to be simple. Something that would fit right in to the traditionalist ways of the fire service. I'm completely pleased with them and how well they've been received by my brother firefighters. And OutBackP, I guess if you make your own, there would be many ways to break them in. If you go running around a bonfire in a set of bunker pants it wouldn"t take long at all too get them all sweaty. But really it just takes time, just like any leather product. I use 10 oz. leather on these straps. You could certainly use 7/8 oz or thinner and they'd break in a little easier. Thanks again. I'll try to post some other firefighter goods that I make in a few days.

Many people think they NEED the elastic for stretch to make them comfortable. And while it may work initially, anyone who's ever worn fire gear for any length of time on a scene can tell you that the elastic does no good after a while. The outer shell of our gear soaks up water and becomes very heavy. The elastic begins to stretch just when you need it most and before long, you're walking on the bottom of your pants with your heels. I purposely designed these to confront that very issue. The fact is that even my most skeptical customers to date are still wearing my suspenders after trying them out. There is a break-in period just like all leather goods but all it really takes is one good sweaty fire and they fit you perfectly after that. They mold to every contour of your body and you don't even know they're there except you're no longer tripping over your pants anymore. There is some "give" built into them where they connect to the pants. Those straps are removable from the suspenders so they can be replaced if need be, and because they're not permantly attached, they move enough to allow comfort. I've been a fulltime firefighter for over 12 years now and I probably have 9 or 10 sets of different suspenders I've used throughout the years. I had a tack maker make me some early on in my career that were the probably the best but they have 5 brass rings to make them work properly. That may work OK for a horse, but it hurts to get knocked to the floor by a falling ceiling and have 2 of those rings in the front trying to break a couple ribs. I've designed these to eliminate all metal hardware except 2 roller buckles and 4 rivets. No rings, no plastic, no take-up straps, and NO ELASTIC. I've yet to have someone say they just can't wear them. As far as shoulder movement goes, you can only move your shoulders a couple inches up even with hands straight above your head so that hasn't been an issue. The problem is not your gear moving up with your arms. I think you're way more likely to be exposed to the heat if your pants are SAGGING and causing a gap between your pants and coat. I've even Battalion Chiefs wearing them and they NEVER get sweaty! Thanks for the compliments BTW.

I'm diggin the hell outa those. The lacing looks super tight and the tooling is top notch. I gotta do me another belt! Great work on those.

For me to be able to do a seat like that, it would have to be called THIS YEAR"S SEAT and even then, I couldn't pull it of like you do. You've definately hit another gear with your tolling since I've been paying attention to your work. FABULOUS WORK again Rog.

This is my starting point when tooling a set of these for firefighters. I really planned to make them ALL just like this but I started adding a name here, a symbol there, and it just went haywire! Now I've done well over a hundred sets and probably only 3 or 4 have actually gone out plain like these. Most go out something like these Takes alot more time but their uniqueness is what sells them.

That is unbelievable!!!! I kinda hope I never get THAT good. The basic purpose of a purse is to carry all your important belongings with you in case you may need them at a later point in the day. If I ever get to that level of tooling, I'd be emptying my wife's purse out all the time to show all of the hidden artwork on the bottom. GREAT JOB. I can't quit coming back to it and looking again. I hope you put a good closure on there to avoid "the spill" at least 20 times a day.

Thanks everybody for the compliments. I've made over a hundred sets of suspenders so far for firefighters across the country and this set will always be special to me. I'll post more pics in the future of other sets.

Hell me too (SP that is). I was stationed in Minot North Dakota from 88-92. Too damn cold for marines up there for sure!

That's gonna be badass!!. Nice tooling. I shoulda been a marine instead of a chairborne ranger in the Air Force.