MADMAX22

Definatly airbrushed and I must say she does some outstanding work. If you have a airbrush you can start with black and just keep shading till you get the effect you want. You may be able to use a dry brush technique but that is gonna be difficult and time consuming I imagine.

Ive gotten from him before. Pretty darn good for the price.

I allways wondered if hemp would be good for leather working. I know its pretty tough stuff and relatively cheap (hence why the army used it). Have you ever used it and if so how did it wax up and take to stitching.

This is how I heard about it was from Petes post. I beleive springfeild leather carries it, not sure if this would be applicable to seats as well.

Hey David was wondering have you ever tried the Bicks 4 mixed with the black? I have heard of it being mentioned with dying, I think it was RDB that talked about it and said it worked really well to prevent the croaking. I was thinking about ordering some to try it out.

Welcome to the forums. Great job on your first projects. Im no holster guru so .... They look good to me so Ill let the others comment on them. I really like your stitching and edges look good also. The awl haft you linked will do fine, Im not sure about the osbourne blades but think about how long you need and get that and I think youll end up shaping them yourself anyways. Oh and those are two of my favorite handguns. I have a MP40 and love it.

Good to hear man. Hey maybe cut the strong pills in half and see what happens. Well good luck anyways and work thru it the best ya can.

May try vinegaroon but not sure how well it will work for your projects.

Excellent seats. I really like the top one for some reason. Simple with some braiding.

Speaking of pieces has anyone made leather chess pieces. Im sure someone has. Kate time for you to show them up and make a leather chess piece set.

You still need to oil it to bring out the deep black color. Once you have oiled it then finish it as you normally would. I have finished them with atom wax for a nice sheen and I also like to use sno-seal because I like that stuff and after its set on it for a bit its not very shiny and leaves the leather black with a slight sheen to it. Very nice.

That is some nice carving. Good one on this.

I am wondering, is there anything special for sealing or waterproofing this bull shoulder. I am gonna try some for my own personal seat and generally use sno seal after a good conditioning/oil on the leather. What do you use on yours. Any other good pointers for working with this stuff, does it stretch alot?

Thanks for the info Dwight

You do some interesting research Esantoro. I also wonder how accurate the specs are. Companies love to massage specs to make there products look better or to fall in spec with minimum requirments.

I really like that. Not to much and not to little either.

The only reason I soaked my stuff is so that it was black all the way thru. You can cut and trim if you need to and it will still be black. If the leather gets cut or scratched it will not show any natural color underneath. Another reason is that on some leathers that dont take to being black as easily, soaking will help the overall effect at the end. WandC seems to take it very very well. Some of the tandy stuff I had didnt as well unless I soaked then after oiling it turned out great. Just my technique. I am pretty sure for anything involving leather work there are atleast 2 to 20 different ways to do it lol.

The couple of times I have had it the noncasable portion was either a small circle or are about 10" roughly. Not huge but big enough. Another time it was the lower portion toward the belly about 1/4 of the belly section, kind of like ya dipped it in something. That being said I have not ran into it very often. However I have also shyed away from getting leather from tandy lately. For me atleast it was a 50min drive with a bridge toll so it just wasnt feasable anymore.

Sounds great, dont forget to try and get some pics of it on the bike. That would be outstanding. Not that alot of us here are bike junkies or anything ...

Welcome back and excellent looking wristbans. That inlayed cross idea is really cool.

Great finish and nice looking roadie. I think it goes with the white bike excellent. The factory guys do split the bottom portion into two segments. Ateast on my roadliner they did. It looks fine on synthetics but not sure how it would look with leather, Im still working on that.

One thing as mentioned over time the batch of vine will smell far less then when its new. Mines is probably about a 9 months old and still smells but not too bad. I let my project soak in the vine until its done bubbling. Usually about 15min or so. Then I take it out and rinse with fresh cold water. After the rinse I dunk it in baking soda and water let it sit for a couple of minutes then shake it around in there for a bit and let it sit for a bit more. Alot of typing but its not that painful lol. I take it out of the baking soda bath and rinse that off with fresh water. Then set the project up to dry. I use a fan but do it however you want. Once the project is completely dry it will smell but not very bad and not very strong at all. Then you gotta oil it a few times. Apply your sealer and what ever else you wanna do. I usually oil/atomwax/ then aussie wax or similer. Once Im done its about normal smelling as you can get. I have found the total process of vinegaroon is a little more involved but the end result is outstanding.

Thanks Hidepounder, thats probably what I will end up having to do. I was looking at a rough edge with the veg tan slightly burnished but still rough. It may in my instance work for the project and go well with it. For most though i think your method is about the best way to get it looking good.

thats great, I like it.

Personally I would paint if possible the pan black. Then rivet the leather to the top edge. Or maybe use some of the black rivets that you hold leather together with (forgot there name lol). I think I would make the sides of the square back rest portion seperate pieces and lace or stitch them to the main piece. ORange with scales, oh man that sounds like you could come up with some cool ass solutions for that. Good luck man and looking forward to seeing the finished product. Yeah and you guys that seat design is probably for one of two things. The bike is shaped like that and or that back upright portion will actually keep the person in the seat when his bike is screaming down the track. If you were on a normal looking seat you would be getting dragged thru the air lol.