Newbie Motorcycle seat.....process

[tomknox]

Hello, i'm npretty new here and I wanted to share my seat with you guys and gals. i'm an airbrush artist who wanted to try a hand at tooling leather. I live 30 mile from Zack White tannery and have made a few trips to get me started. I'm on a very limited budget right now which makes this very hard! I only have 1/8th latigo lace and the tannery does'nt carry any 1/4th and I can't afford the kangaroo lace right now. They also have been out of the "how to lace" book, if anyone out there has one they can part with for a newbie's christmas just let me know! I made the holes closer together hoping that it will allow the 1/8th lace to be tighter. Here's some pics of what I have so far, any comments/question/tips/or critiques are welcome to share!! Also, I would like to personally thank David Theobald for his help, without him I would'nt be this far along. This is only my second time tooling so please bare with me! I'm really more concerned with the laceing and dyeing.

Hello, i'm npretty new here and I wanted to share my seat with you guys and gals. i'm an airbrush artist who wanted to try a hand at tooling leather. I live 30 mile from Zack White tannery and have made a few trips to get me started. I'm on a very limited budget right now which makes this very hard! I only have 1/8th latigo lace and the tannery does'nt carry any 1/4th and I can't afford the kangaroo lace right now. They also have been out of the "how to lace" book, if anyone out there has one they can part with for a newbie's christmas just let me know! I made the holes closer together hoping that it will allow the 1/8th lace to be tighter. Here's some pics of what I have so far, any comments/question/tips/or critiques are welcome to share!! Also, I would like to personally thank David Theobald for his help, without him I would'nt be this far along. This is only my second time tooling so please bare with me! I'm really more concerned with the laceing and dyeing.

[tomknox]

Sorry for the double post, it won't let me edit it for some reason....

another...

closer....

a wetter pic....

[KenE]

Hello,

I'm a newbie motorcycle seat maker/leatherworker as well. I have a few seats under my belt now and still have (alot of ) improvements I need to make, but I thought I could share some comments. As far as the lacing, it looks as if your holes are quite far apart for 1/8" stuff, and perhaps a bit too big. Its hard to say because I don't have a real good sense of scale. I have only used the "pro lace" from tandy and I tend to go with 4-5 holes per inch (0.20" - 0.25") with that lace. 0.225" works pretty good. Usually the same distance in from the edge too. I had a real hard time finding out what to use on this and in the end I got some general numbers and tried lacing a bunch of practice strips with some crap leather. I recommend this so you get the results you like. I also want to step up to the 1/4" kangaroo lace, I hear you can get away with 0.375" or more in the spacing department which should save a TON of time due to the number of holes being reduced. Supposedly the Kangaroo lace is almost unbreakable (I'd like to test that!). I've broken alot of the pro lace from tandy and it is really frustrating. Admittedly I need to make the seat patterns slightly bigger so I'm not trying to stretch the snot out of them while lacing.

Alot of the pros seem to use airbrushing for the dye, so you are lucky you are already set up for this. I'd be interested in any tips coming from an airbrush artist. I was thinking of buying a cheap harbor freight brush just to apply the dye because some folks here have had good luck with them. I'm wondering if they are good enough as long as you don't require very fine detail. Any info on this approach would be appreciated. If you want to go traditional apply the dye in stages with wool remnants. I was told to dilute the dye and apply it in multiple coats in order to control the uniformity. 3 parts dye and 1 part thinner is a good place to start (always use practice pieces first). This seems to work well because the straight dye application can sometimes absorb into the leather at different rates and then you scramble to put thinner (water or spirit thinner depending on the dye you use) over it and try to rub it all together like a madman trying to blend it into a uniform color. I have been told that thinning when using an airbrush is redundant and tend to believe that. Personally I'd try to stay away from using antique until you master it with several practice pieces. Getting the resist right and getting a feel for the process is somewhat difficult and I think doing it on a whole bike seat will be tough at first (I botched one of my tooled seat tops this way).

Your tooling looks nice, I can't believe this is one of your first few pieces. Did a customer generate the art, or did you just draw it as an example piece to show your work? I'm having some issues selling some of my seats on ebay and I wonder if some of it has to do with the fact that the customer wants a very particular design on their seat (I can't blame them...I just need to start somewhere...).

~Ken

[tomknox]

Ken, as for the airbrush, I ONLY use Iwata because I believe that they are the best. DO NOT buy a cheap airbrush, i stress this. You need to buy the Iwata Eclipse HP-BCS, it's a bottle feed so it can hold alot of dye, it's easy to clean, and it sprays a very nice round pattern(will cover very well). I use the gravity feed (HP-CS) but it does'nt hold alot of paint/dye. I will post my airbrush work below just to show that i'm a decent artist and I think it helps me pick up new things a little easier than most. It's my art, just a sketch really, kinda something that you'll find in the airbrush world, and i do alot of pinstriping so there's an influence in there aswell too. ALSO, if you have a local hobby lobby then you can print the 40% coupon and buy the airbrush on discount, if not go to www.coastairbrush.com they are usually cheaper than ebay. Thanks for the comments!!!

[tomknox]

[tomknox]

[leatheroo]

welcome tom, great airbrush work...i LOVE my iwata!!!!!

[tomknox]

thanks leatheroo!

[rdb]

Looks pretty dang good, Tom. Couldn't ask for better advice than from Dave T.

I'm over in Chatham county. You can visit anytime. If you don't want to order online, there is a Tandy in Raleigh, if you need an emergency run for lace.

[tomknox]

thanks rdb!! chatham county? im here in burlington, probably close but i cant think of where chatham is off the top. i do believe its close though! Zack White is 30 miles but its about a 45 minute drive. I'm not sure if i posted this in the right section or if it should be in the motorcycle stuff. hopefully ill have more pics soon to show you gays and gals! rdb, if you or your buddys ever need any airbrushing or pinstriping just let me know. all of my work is right here: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=98371993 thanks again!