zman7458

thanks for clearing that up, I think. I guess I would have to see them worn. I assume they strap on just below the knee and not the waist, cuz that wouldn't make sense. just one more question tho, don't the tops of your legs get sunburned? okay, I'm sorry I couldn't resist being obtuse. I'll have to google these to see how they're worn. I'll bet they look cool tho. kinda like mucklucks for cowboys.

very nice JR. it must be nice having someone to share ideas and thoughts on projects with who actually knows what is involved in the process. beautiful work Arvis

lol Tom, how did you come up with that? I reaaly like it, especially the color. WTG

really nice work. I like the dye job also, as for single versus double action airbrush. I think you get better control from the double, and the Paashe VL has a little wheel in front of the trigger that will let you set the trigger to act like a single action, but with very fine control.

very cool project. I'm with Pete, I'd be interested in how you did the ring also.

really nice work pete. great use of scraps, I might have to borrow this idea.

I like it, I don't have a clue what it is, but I like it. whats a chink used for?

very nice work. that was very clever use of acorns on the clock.

Whoa, very interesting project. I can't wait to see more.

spider, man that is freaking wicked. would make a great tail light cover with the red glow comming out the openings. oh great now you got me thinking again lol.

yep, it woke me up. at first I thought it was the dog running through the house ( its an old house and shakes if I sneeze hard) but there was no pitter patter of puppy feet, then I thought maybe I was in t he middle of a full blown poltergiest manifestation (two teenage boys in the house and thats about all that we haven't experienced with them <grin>). then I figured it had to be a quake, it's funny how your mind works when just waking up to something like that, my wife said she had the same thoughts about what it was when it woke her too. the after shock freaked me a little tho, I was on a 8 foot ladder right next to 2 large air handler ducts that ran for about 50 feet down the hall of the school we're working on. there was 2 pipe fitters working at the opposite end from me and all of a sudden the 2 ducts started dancing around like crazy. I thought the guys at the other end were shaking them, but when I looked down to see what they were doing, they were looking back at me probably thinking the same thing. thats when I got down from the ladder and found out we had just had an aftershock, boy they named that right!

the same goes for me LB, I'm still on the learning curve also. I really like what you did so far though. keep up the good work.

as some of you know I've been having a real bear of a time getting a handle on dying my projects without them streaking up on me. what I've failed to mention is that I've been using tandys highlighter colors as my primary dye. this is because I got a 12 bottle kit for a great price and it seemed to have most of the colors I want to work with, and in my haste to start cranking out projects I thoroughly overlooked one important word in the product I'm using as a stain...HIGHLIGHTER. now in my feeble defence I have to say that tandy really doesn't tell you exactly how to use this product as a highlighter, but insted they simply give the same directions as with regular dye. in essence apply with a damp sponge in circles then remove excess with a dry sponge and buff with wool. what they don't mention is that if you use a slightly damp sponge or rag you can take off more stain in areas that you want to highlight, hence highlighter. so to speak more clearly this product is made to be not as permanant as regular dye and the more water and rubbing you use more of the dye can be removed, even on a peice that has dryed overnight, if you come back and touch it with a damp cloth you will still remove some dye. this is very cool once you know it because you really can get some varying shades, although it does take some work to get it to feather out properly and most of the time I wind up with blotches of light spots, but since I've just figured this out I have some playing to do with different degrees of dampness to my rag I'm removing stain with. anyhow I just thought I would pass this on to those who hadn't figured it out yet. my bottom line though is the reason I was having such trouble with this stuff is because I was trying to use it as a base color and wound up just moving the pigment around while applying my finish. although it does stay in place as long as you don't touch it while applying your finish, so spray finish seems to be the only way to acheive this. Phil

thanks Ken, so you recomend carving as prescribed above, but only on leather that is thick enough to handle it. thanks again for the tip.

I think I saw that one, it was one of the reasons I started paying attention to see how many carve, there are a few here who don't carve at all I believe, and their work looks just as good as those who do cut. the sacrificeing strength point is well taken. especially since I 'm working my way towards a tooled bike seat myself. I think a bike seat might be one of the items that would profit from not being cut, I could be wrong. thanks for the input Tom

okay that makes sense, if a sharp line is needed, or focus is wanted then you cut. and visa versa. thik I'll try a whole pattern that I cut before and try just beveling it to see how much it changes. thanks for the advice guys. Clay, I do tend to forget this and I think my carving wound gain dimension if I could just keep this in mind. perhaps a sticky note on my work area 'how deep did you cut that?' thanks again, Phil

Ian, man those look sharp on that bike, a perfect match. top style and execution points on that one.

very nice Ian. lol as to the 'should vrods have bags' I know a site where 13000 people are torn over that debate. I personaly can't afford a vehicle thats strictly about form, mine has to function ergo bags on mine. this project goes in my keeper file. again very nice work!

great info and seats. thanks chachi

great looking planner Frog, the color is excellant. how'd you do the inside?

exactly what he said. thanx for a great site.

I've noticed there are some here who carve their patterns and some who don't, I'm just curious why you either do or don't. I was taught to carve everything aside from what I call accents, you know like folds in fabric or leaf tips and such. but I see alot here who don't carve anything and bevel everything in. my problem is that I like both, but my question is how do you know if a pattern or object will look best carvied and when does it not. this subject has all the earmarks of being something that folks who do and folks who do not would argue over, thats not my intention here, and I don't want to stir the pot as it were. I'm just curious from a learning stand point, and would like to pick the brains of those who do and do not. thanks, Phil

outstanding start Ken. I sense another masterwork in the making, I love the way it flows with all the diferent elements blending so nicely with one another.

Thanks Scouter, I got alot of the basics from scout camp and school shop class. it's a shame that most schools don't even have a shop program anymore. I feel like our kids are being deprived of an important part of a well rounded education with out it, oh well at least they can still learn how to play football eh?

Thanks Ken. theres a little story involved with that item and since I know we have some Harley guys on the forum I'll try to explain. right after I bought my bike I went online to see what I could find about the bike. I ran across a site called vrod forums which was just a bunch of folx who had vrods and shared information and stories about them, so I joined. the forum had a store where they sold (for a fair price I might add) about ten different items that had to do with the vrod which the members had come up with. now the reason they did this was because Harley didn't (and still doesn't) make hardley any items like shirts or jackets that had the vrod name or logo on it. so one day the owner of the site posted a message stating that he had received a letter from Harleys lawyers stating that they had to take the items with the vrod name on it out of the store, not only that but he had to change the name of the forum to something that didn't have vrod in it. well to say the least we were pissed and some people even went so far as to take anything that had the Harley name off their bikes (or at least threatened to). so thats when I decided I would make my own emblem without the Harley name on it for my bike. also when Harley was in the process of trying to make their drag bike motor into a street worthy dependable engine they contracted Porsches engineers to redesign the engine to their specs (not the first time Harley had used Porche to help them with an engine design by the way). so knowing that I decided I would marry the vrod emblem with the porche emblem ( I had seen something similar before, but couldn't find it) and this is what I came up with. so now if you see a vrod going down the road and notice a porsche emblem on it, you know the inside story. but to answer your question, if you don't count the time fiddling with it on the computer, I would guess about 10 hours to make the finished product. theres a few of them that I made out there on the street, but to be fair to Harley I didn't sell them, I gave them to forum members who had seen them and wanted one. it just seemed kind of poetic to me.