BlackDragon

All I've got to say is... WOW

My brother in law helped someone buy a motorcycle and told him I do leather work and I might be able to fix his saddlebags. The pastor works with people in bikers in recovery so depending how bad the bags were I could do it. I decided not to charge him because he dosen't have a lot of resources and especially because he bought the same bike I have (Yamaha V Star). The bags are pretty cheap genuine leather, probably in the $100 range. Some of the seams have begun to come apart, the rivets are either pulled through the leather or completey rusted, some of the conchos are missing and the tassels are ripped off. On the back, the leather for the tie offs were so thin (.70mm)they probably ripped off the first time they tied the bags to the bike. They only had one tie off point at the bottom and the previous ower made extra holes to use zipties. I restitched the corners, since some of the old rivets pulled through I used #9 copper rivets to reenforce the stitching, I added new conchos and tassels. On the back I added 2 extra tie off points and used 10oz with D-rings.

First off I would start brushing off the dust and dirt with a light brush, then a good cleaning, and after that I would condition the leather. You would have to decide if the saddle is going to be put back into service or just sit in a corner. If it goes back into service I would replace any pieces that wont survive much use. Like the leather tie offs, cinch & stirrups or other rigging points, etc. If it's going to just sit in a corner I would dust it from time to time and condition it once a year.

Wow. Thats great work!

That was interesting. My first real job was making sails. I was a young teen walking home from school and I would stop at this factory where they sewed stuff. I didnt know what they were sewing. After a couple days the owner walked over to me and asked if I was interested in learning what they did and he gave me a tour. He offered me a job as an apprentice and I worked there after school. That was about 40 years ago! The sewing machines where older Singers and they werent sunken in the floor like in the video. They did some huge racing sails. Sometimes I was the sail puller.

Thanks everyone! Im not sure what you mean by trigger guard spine. I took close up shots of the trigger area. I hope it clarifies what I did.

Thanks! I just noticed the pics got reversed, may have happened in selfie mode, the rig is right handed as shown in the first and second pic.

When I first started with leather I started like most people, small easy pieces. My first turn at trying something more serious was a gun belt that was towards the end of 2019. I learned a lot about how to do things and how not to do things. I used 9-10oz veg tan and 1-2oz pig suede for lining. I learned that I shouldn't use chrome tan lining for a nickel plated gun. Either I over saturated the belt with black or I didn't seal it properly because I still get a lot of rub off. I think I'll try sealing it again with resolene. The gun is an Uberti 1875 Army Outlaw in .45 Colt

Thanks!

Thanks! I was looking at oval punches and at this point I not sure which brand or sizes I should get. The cheap ones, well they're cheap but some of the expensive ones have bad reviews as to quality so I'm leary about pulling the trigger on them.

Thanks, I saw a similar design on youtube and did a couple of changes. It has an inside pocket, more like a sleeve, that is removable. I used chicago screws to attach it and It's big enough for a large cellphone. I made some other purses without pockets and boy did I get an ear full!

Thanks!

Thanks! It's hand stitched.

Thats great info thanks! Thank you

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. Why oval holes instead of round?

I made a purse for my sister out of veg tan dyed to a whiskey brown with dark brown accents and red suede interior. She took it to work and a coworker wanted one for his wife. I made that one black with whiskey accents. Please feel free to critique so I can improve

Ok sorry. I tried to posts pics but it kept saying the file sizes were to big so I posted them in flickr and added the link here. I found the smallest file sizes I have and posted them here. It a John Wayne replica holster.

I started dabbling in leather work in 2019 and started applying myself more during the 2020 shutdown. I came to this forum a couple times while doing research for a couple projects and finally decided to join. I hope to learn more about the craft and hopefully I can help others along the way. Here's a link to a few projects I've done. https://www.flickr.com/gp/196627394@N08/90bC3mK7jJ