Can I use this for tooling at all? I'm brand new at this and just picked up a bunch of tools and leather from a friend who decided to get out of it.
Building a pair of engine guard chaps for a buddy's bike. The guard bars have a compound arch to them (they go out and around the case, but also have a bend upwards when you look at them from the side. Because of this I wasn't keen on doing a full wrap chap for them (I think it's be almost impossible to get the front and back to fit together and not have void space without a lot of snaps etc to hold them together - aesthetically ugly imho. So I've come up with the idea to make them as in insert that is laced around the crash bars themselves. The templates took a while ;0) Gonna do them double layer so that I can put pockets on the rider's side and plain on the back side - this will hide all of the stitching/lace work from putting the pockets on.
So that's the background - the leather I'm using is pre-dyed black - my question is whether I can dress these things up a bit by tooling some eagles on the front side (away from rider) before gluing/stitching the front and back together. Will pre-dyed take ad hold the stamping? Using around 10 oz leather (I think ;0) so these should be almost like flexible plywood when I'm done and last a good long time.
Wide open to advice here folks! :0)
Cheers
Rob
