How-To...introduction To Making A Whaletail Motorcycle Bib

[Spinner]

Chris, thanks for the in-depth. I know you have in the past put alll this out there more or less. but its nice to have it all in one spot. At some point, I see myself doing one of these and will be awesome to have. you also answered one nagging question, but made me think of another. To that end, whats your opinion on this.

so when you read about casing leather for tooling, most of the crafters agree that Paul's link on casing , where you submerse the leather in water until the bubbles stop. then let dry for whatever it takes. Now you like my local Tandy guy just spray enough to get down in the leather some. I am assuming if you submersed you leather for tooling for this kind of project, did your tooling, let it dry, would you have trouble re wetting to do the wet mold? or do you have sacrifice some depth, and do shallow wettin for tooling, in order to be able to not have any struggles while wet molding the bib? Its really a general question as you detailing is obviously deep enough tooling for the projects. just wondered if you expiermented with that any.

Bob

Hey Bob,

I have tried both methods with these, soaking and spraying and found a few things in regards to bibs specifically. Number one is when I soak and re-wet the leather tends to take 2-3 times longer to dry on the tank. Normally most of leatherworking wet forming is done on wood blocks and such so the wood and indoor temps help the leather dry fairly fast. On a tank, being metal, the moisture has to dissipate through the flesh side as it just sits on the underside. A sprayed piece has more top than bottom moisture and tends to dry faster. The other thing is that I may not necessarily want the top soaking wet due to stretch & shrink. If the top was fully cased, it can pull away from the dash cutout area more than planned for when drying and thus end up being outside of the dash panel (i.e. gaps between the leather and dash. By only wetting the area to be formed and simply spritzing the area on top, I eliminate any unwanted shrinkage but the spritz gives it just enough water so they leather doesn't get uneven color due (water spots). Spraying also helps you control where the water goes so you can wet right up to but not including the tooling and thus don't have to worry about the tooled area raising.

Hope that answers the question,

Chris

[Randy Cornelius]

Enjoyed your articule, lots of information. I just got done re-covering my corbin seat on my 1500 Goldwing. Not sure I ever want to do another one.

RC

[dragonspit]

Hey Bob,

I have tried both methods with these, soaking and spraying and found a few things in regards to bibs specifically. Number one is when I soak and re-wet the leather tends to take 2-3 times longer to dry on the tank. Normally most of leatherworking wet forming is done on wood blocks and such so the wood and indoor temps help the leather dry fairly fast. On a tank, being metal, the moisture has to dissipate through the flesh side as it just sits on the underside. A sprayed piece has more top than bottom moisture and tends to dry faster. The other thing is that I may not necessarily want the top soaking wet due to stretch & shrink. If the top was fully cased, it can pull away from the dash cutout area more than planned for when drying and thus end up being outside of the dash panel (i.e. gaps between the leather and dash. By only wetting the area to be formed and simply spritzing the area on top, I eliminate any unwanted shrinkage but the spritz gives it just enough water so they leather doesn't get uneven color due (water spots). Spraying also helps you control where the water goes so you can wet right up to but not including the tooling and thus don't have to worry about the tooled area raising.

Hope that answers the question,

Chris

answers a lot . thanks again. need to file this for sure.