Want To Make A Seat..

[desertw0lf]

I've been doing this playing with leather thing for about two months now. I've made five holsters and a knife-pouch from scratch. I haven't ever really made anything else, but I want to do something special for my father for all that I put him through growing up.

He has an '07 HD Nightster completely tuned out that he rides when he feels like getting away from the nice easy riding of his Fatboy. I have a spare stock seat coming in the mail that he does not know about and I really want to make him a custom seat. I will need a ton of practice on my tooling, I know, and if anyone has any good resources for that that don't cost much (because I am currently so far in the poor that it isn't funny) I have plenty of scrap pieces to practice on. I have some basic tools, swivel knife, five basic modeling tools. That's about it. I read the Seatmaking tutorial up above and will read it several more times before I proceed, I am sure.

I don't want to remove any foam from the seat, it is a pretty uncomfortable seat as is for my father, so I want to basically tool a custom center and re-cover the seat.

What weight leather would you suggest for this?

Basically, I want to tool in his service year, Vietnam, and under that a star and on the bottom I am going to try to find out the Unit he was with and include that there.

I know it is a lot to go after as a novice, but it means a great deal to me to do something special for my father, and I will have to undoubtedly practice tooling and lettering for hour upon hour before ever doing the final thing.

Any advice is appreciated.