MADMAX22

OK so I was doing it backwards pretty much. Thanks

OK so playing with the antique stuff I have tried on several items to get the antiqueing to go on lighter and not soak into the leather so much. I usually end up with a really dark brown leather and very little contrast between the smooth raised spots and the backgrounding and lower spots. So any good tricks Does the leather need to be totally dry or slightly wet? Should it be died or oiled first before hand? I followed the directions on the fiebings antique and even after only about 5 min I cant get any of the stuff to come off of areas to lighten it up any. Anyways thanks for any input.

Thats great guys, answered both ways of doing it for me. Thanks a bunch.

OK so I am working on my first wallet among other things and I have scene variouse wallets here that have a single piece of thicker leather with slits cut in it to hold like credit cards and stuff. Is that all it is is thicker leather with slits cut at the right spots. I guess that would hold them in but wanted to make sure I was thinking along the right lines. Thanks for the input.

Thats really cool looking. Is the shark any harder or easier to work with? Hey one other thing on the construction, does the blade ride on that center piece of leather?

Thanks a bunch, looks like I was doing a few things wrong. I didnt work in the neatlac either so Ill have to try that next time and I am sure I put too much on also. THanks for the input.

Hey guys dont know if this is everywhere but was in the local joann's fabrics today and they had alot of stuff 40-50%off. Not any real leather working stuff but alot of the fabrics for say liners and stuff were all 40% off and the buttons and snaps were all 50% off. I picked up a bunch buttons, eyelets and some nice fabric for future products. Anyways worth a look see if you got one near by.

That was pretty neat. And using paint cans. I really like how he did the comet

OK so I have gotten a few books and been searching around for some info on this and cant seem to get a decent full answer. I know that when you get your tooling and everything done that is when you dye your work. Learned that you then buff out your finished product (something I wish I new for my last attempt lol). This will give it a decent shine and prepare it for your next finish or wax. Now this is where I am a bit confused. After the dye process you want to add a wax or do you just use the finishers. I used some snowseal on my last project and then sealed it neat lac. Now could I just use the snowseal or some other wax and be done with it. Or do I really need the neat lac or similer finish on the leather. The only problem I had with the way I did it was on the strap for my belt watch project the neatlac started peeling off. Figure it was from it being on a strap and not getting prepared properly before finishing. Thanks for any input. I must say this leather working stuff allthough somewhat hard to pick up at first is very fun, just wish I had more time to do it.

Very nice, kind of like a Irish grateful dead mechanic lol. Very cool look. Did you free hand the border. Thats pretty neat.

Very very nice looking bike you got there. I felt the same way when I got my roadliner (yamaha). The one thing is with Harley tourers and goldwings they come with pretty much everything. Not alot your gonna do to em to really make them more useful. Nice that you found a piece to add. Looks really good too. Just think in about 50k miles maybe the seat will wear out and you can do that yourself. You got any pics of the stroker you got.

Great looking bags and bike. What kind of bike is that? Did you get the lazering done locally?

Hey guys/gals Ive been away for a while (busy busy , glad to be finally getting back into trying to work with leather again, I finished a checkbook holder for the GF, basically tooled some leather and handsewed the internals, then applied some antique and then sealed it with super sheen. Looks ok for my first try. Anyways I was wondering how do you guys oil or maintain your leather once it has been sealed? Does the supersheen allow any type of condtioner to get thru to the leather? I had been thinking of trying this on a couple of things for my motorcycle however living up here in the puget sound area of WA it rains all the time and is allways really high humidity.

That is just some great work. I love looking at this type of stuff it gives me hope for the future lol.

Ive got an '07 roadliner-s, its a Star (yamaha), aewsome bike I msut say.

Hey was shown this guide for redoing your seats. More for the insides but for those of us with the metric cruisers or death rockets this is a pretty good guide I think http://www.diymotorcycleseat.com/

That is sweet dude, it would look really cool I think if it was that dark brown fade to black like that other seat that you did. Good job

Thanks guys, I downloaded and read over all four available tutorials and they have helped alot. Well on my way for my first project.

Thats a nice looking seat. I have a question for you. What do you seal them with. Im really new and jsut been picking up as much as I can about doing seats. Thanks

This is a really cool idea. Hopefully you guys will ahve more of them. There were some really good looking carvings in that album, allways nice to see a bunch of new ideas.

There is about an hour away. Im pretty artistic and relativly sefl teachable so as long as I get some books Im sure Ill be fine to get started. I am going to get some of those books you guys recommend.

Thanks for the input guys. Ill do some more research and what not. The books Ill have to order online as I scoured the area today looking for books/mags whatever and couldnt find anything. Once again thanks for the input.

OK I apologize for possibly not using the correct terminology and this is a really beginner question but here it goes. I have no experience but have been reading up on stuff for the last few days but I dont have a book at home yet. I understand some of the basics about wetting the leather, what type of leather to use, cutting the groove for the stitching and stuff like that or atleast am starting too and Ive tried that on some of the leather that Ive gotten. I would like to start by doing a very simple checkbook holder. The question I am wondering is when you transfer your image over to the leather, then you cut your lines to about half the depth of the leather now this is where I get stuck. Once you have it cut are you suppose to tool the side away from the cut that you want to lay down or to be recessed I should say. Or do you need to cut any of that leather off or does it all compress. Hope ya all understand what I am getting at. Thanks for any info.

Thats a good guide beeza, very informative. Thanks and Beaver thansk for digging up the guide.

Thats really nice, I like the pics it helps for someone new like me so I can piece together how you did things. On the edges to get that nice black smooth finish what do you guys use on that?