New Member

[Ian]

Just stumbled into this site - lots of good information. I started some years back as a harness maker, but business took another direction. Now I do about anything related to motorcyle leather but tooling is new to my arsenal within the last couple of years. Although this has become something I'm really getting into.

The picture I have posted is of my most recent seat along with a matching toolbag and one of the poanels made to attach to the side of the tank.

Thanks

Ian

[Opagon]

Great work, Glad to have you here!!!!

Heather

[Drac]

welcome aboard da board! if the rest of your stuff is as good as those are, you definitely have no probs in the tooling area.

[Ian]

welcome aboard da board! if the rest of your stuff is as good as those are, you definitely have no probs in the tooling area.

Thanks Drac,

Funny thing is, i had a hadful of tools that I'd never used. A guy came into the shop and asked me if I do tooled seats. Hell yeah, I told him. Then I had a couple of weeks to figure out how to use them. I should have gotten a book or something, because it's all been trial and error. Heck, I didn't even know about casing leather overnight until today - I've just wet it and started carving. I think I'll learn a lot here. The new upload is of the first tooling I ever did. I did the matching bag later.

Ian

[RockyWolf]

Hi Ian welcome along to the forum

[Oscar B]

Nice work, and welcome.

[TomSwede]

Hello Ian and welcome to leatherworker!

Nice introduction, I know one particular member that will like those webs. I'm sure he "hangs in a thread" somewhere and will soon pop in here!

I love stuff with lot's of backgrounding and been thinking of doing something with webs incorporated.

Backgrounding like that sure takes it's man and reading that you have yet to learn secrets of casing I was wondering about the degree of wetness in the leather when you stamped those backgrounds. I have my leather almost dried out with just the magic "cool touch" to it to be able to control where the mass of the leather is going to move. To wet and it seem to escape to the sides of my tool and just float around like that until leather has gone very dry, then it wanna set downwards like I want it too.

Look forward to seem more from you!

Tom

[pete]

Stunning!!! How did you finish the seat? colors,dyes, etc.

Great work!!!

pete

[esantoro]

fantastic work!

[Spider]

Hello Ian and welcome to leatherworker!

Nice introduction, I know one particular member that will like those webs. I'm sure he "hangs in a thread" somewhere and will soon pop in here!

I love stuff with lot's of backgrounding and been thinking of doing something with webs incorporated.

Backgrounding like that sure takes it's man and reading that you have yet to learn secrets of casing I was wondering about the degree of wetness in the leather when you stamped those backgrounds. I have my leather almost dried out with just the magic "cool touch" to it to be able to control where the mass of the leather is going to move. To wet and it seem to escape to the sides of my tool and just float around like that until leather has gone very dry, then it wanna set downwards like I want it too.

Look forward to seem more from you!

Tom

*gets up after fainting from the sight of such beautiful work*....oh sorry bout that but I really like this. WOW!!!

Welcome....*wipes drool from side of mouth*

[TracyMoss]

Welcome, lots of bikers around here. Were gettin' overrun. Nice seats.

[ArtS]

Awesome!! Really nice work. How does that side panel attach to the tank?

ArtS

Just stumbled into this site - lots of good information. I started some years back as a harness maker, but business took another direction. Now I do about anything related to motorcyle leather but tooling is new to my arsenal within the last couple of years. Although this has become something I'm really getting into.

The picture I have posted is of my most recent seat along with a matching toolbag and one of the poanels made to attach to the side of the tank.

Thanks

Ian

[Art]

Hi Ian,

Years ago the leather used to be cased overnight, however today most of the stuff I get I can wet down and let come back to color and start pounding. I use stuff called Pro-Carv in the water, but Dawn works pretty good also.

Art

Thanks Drac,

Funny thing is, i had a hadful of tools that I'd never used. A guy came into the shop and asked me if I do tooled seats. Hell yeah, I told him. Then I had a couple of weeks to figure out how to use them. I should have gotten a book or something, because it's all been trial and error. Heck, I didn't even know about casing leather overnight until today - I've just wet it and started carving. I think I'll learn a lot here. The new upload is of the first tooling I ever did. I did the matching bag later.

Ian

[Ian]

Awesome!! Really nice work. How does that side panel attach to the tank?

ArtS

Thanks everyone for the generous welcome. This site is awesome - I just spent the good portion of the day reading all the informative posts. Man, does that saddle that Troy posted make me want to be an all-around better human being - it's out of this world beautiful.

Art, I made that set as a showpiece for a bike show, so I'm not even sure that the tank panel is practical, but when I get the tank back from the painter, I'm going to attach it with contact cement. I think it should stay on pretty good, but would definitely be a problem washing the bike. My first idea was to mount it on a magnetic backing like was they use for vehicle signs, but I'm not going to take any orders for them just in case they turn out too problematic.

Anyway, I'm happy I found this site. It's going to make a huge difference in my work.

Ian

[Roger]

IAN!!

i have been wonrdering what happened to you. i haven't seen you around the chopper board.

welcome and glad you found us

[abn]

Wow. Those pics are one heck of an introduction! Glad you found us, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Alex

[Ian]

IAN!!

i have been wonrdering what happened to you. i haven't seen you around the chopper board.

welcome and glad you found us

Hey Beez, I've been working 7 days a week with the shop all year, so didnt have much time for surfing and posting. I closed the storefront and am back to working out of the workshop and taking a more manageable number of jobs. I got so swamped that I didn't have the time to spend on improving and doing the more artistic things.

[steveb]

Looks great Ian - really clean look - I like it and your tooling is quite good.

Do you work for any shop in particular??

anyway...

I am in Southern CT, nice to see another East Coaster/New Englander here!!

steveb

[Don101]

Hi Ian welcome to the forum love the spider seat that is some nice work you do there, Don

[bustedlifter]

Neat-o! Great work. Looks like the tooling

" baptism by fire" worked out just fine.

[bcurrier]

Beautiful stuff. I especially like the spiderweb bag. Seeing it reminds me just how much most bags look alike and how refreshing it is when something different comes along. Plus, you manage to pull it off with subtle shape changes and restrained, but very effective tooling.

Bill

[TroyWest]

Hello Ian,

Welcome to the forum. I've really enjoyed this site myself. Thank you for the kind compliment. You seem to have come a long way from being a harness maker. Really cool stuff. Look forward to seeing more of it.

Troy

[Roger]

Hey Beez, I've been working 7 days a week with the shop all year, so didnt have much time for surfing and posting. I closed the storefront and am back to working out of the workshop and taking a more manageable number of jobs. I got so swamped that I didn't have the time to spend on improving and doing the more artistic things.

good to hear you are busy at least! it's hard to turn down work and it seems to only take a hiccup to really screw things up time wise

i look forward to seeing more of what you've been up to.

[Duke]

welcome ian, good to have you here.I was just thinkin, what are the number of people that have joined since the great crash? hm. maybe this is a question for johanna. I promote and tell EVERYONE about this site, especially when I am at work. good to have a site for resources on the things I am interested in.

[Ian]

good to hear you are busy at least! it's hard to turn down work and it seems to only take a hiccup to really screw things up time wise

i look forward to seeing more of what you've been up to.

Beez, I guess my experience with the storefront is something many people could learn from. Although some of the retail part was purchased wholesale, I made the mistake of trying to stock the majority with my own stuff. So, I spent a ridiculous amount of time making belts and saddlebags, clutch fringeand tank panels. Then I started recovering stock seats and taking on repairs (replacing jacket zippers etc). When the interesting jobs came in, I didn't have the time to spend on artwork and technique. When you have a couple of grand - plus a month overhead you have to take every job that comes through the door just to make the nut. Then, when you do repairs, you have to stock just about every type of leather and hardware known to man. But, bikers are the best and nicest customers in the world, so every day was a blast, and I was able to build up a good customer base that will carry through to my new venture. One of the good things about working away from home is that you're forced to open the doors at a regular time each day. I'm going to have to re-learn my dicipline having the shop just a few feet away from the internet and other distractions.