my new art work seats

[Guest]

I am definately going to get some of the Permalock needles and give them a try. It sounds like they could speed things up a little bit.

I'll try to shed some light on the lacing issues that I brought up previously, First, the seat pan it is 14 gauge steel weighing in excess of 6 pounds. To make things more interesting it has four very wicked bolts welded out the back side of it. Even when they are wrapped for my protection, they have a way of finding their way to the most inconvenient/painful spots as I work. I punch my holes very small (less than half the size of the lace) because I want little or none of the hole to show on the top. This means that each stitch must have an awl....(not a leather awl, a plain old Stanley scratch-awl) pushed (FORCED) through each pair of holes before the lace goes through. This temporairly enlarges the holes. It also slows down the lacing.

With regard to hole alignment, punching the holes in the top and bottom of the seat at the same time is not possible.. They are totally different shapes and sizes. The seat back is 14 1/8" long from front to rear, the seat top is 13" long from front to rear. I'll try to show this in a couple pics.

The seat top and seat back must be tied down to the pan and padding before lacing starts.....so the process goes something like .... enlarge a pair of holes with the awl and pull the lace through, cut out the tie down in the next pair of holes and enlarge this pair of holes with the awl in preparation for the next stitch. Straighten out the lace in preparation for the next stitch. These extra steps mean that you must lay the needle down between each step and straighten out the lace before making the next stitch because you will NEVER get 1/4" roo lacing to turn around in a hole as small as I use. Each stitch is then pulled very tight. Tight enough to pull the seat front and seat back together over the 1/2" or 3/4" padding and 1/8" seat pan. Mind you this is 8-9 oz. DRY leather. All the time you are doing this you fight with a heavy steel seat with nasty, painful bolts poking your legs and stomach at every turn. I can really fly when I'm lacing a wallet, checkbook, notebook or holster. This is nothing like lacing a wallet. But it still beats wet molding for an old guy with arthritis in his hands.

The last photo shows the tie downs that hold everything together as I lace....I now use more of them than shown. The lacing seen here is purely decorative as is the stitching.

I hope this explains why it takes so long.

The two seats shown here are ones that I made for my son. The artwork is his tattoo. The seat on the left is the VERY first seat that I ever made. I/8" calfskin lace and all....It is also a different seat pan very light and cheap when compared to what I use now. The seat on the right has been on his bike for almost a year, he changed when I made the same seat for him in black......another biker in love with black seats.

Dave Theobald

Edited June 3, 2007 by David