Tat2edCowboy Report post Posted June 1, 2011 I am making a saddle with an inlaid stingray seat. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to carve a design on stingray. The reason I ask is I found Alligator Bob's website and he does it on motorcycle seats. I tried emailing him and never recieved an answer. His website where I found it is http://www.alligator...om/stingray.htm . I have tried using a dremel with various bits but the design isn't as vibrant as his. The website claims he hand carves them but I can not figure it out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KAYAK45 Report post Posted June 4, 2011 GO FISH! Sorry Couldn't resist. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aparkes Report post Posted June 5, 2011 I have no idea how to do what you're trying to do, so I may or may not be helpful. But he might be dying/coloring the carved bits- experiment with acrylics or even enamels and see if you can make that work. Other than that the only thing I can think of is using a rougher dremel bit, or using something to scratch up the little beads individually. Since they're just calcium deposits, if you rough them up enough you can probably get some contrast going. Good luck! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin Report post Posted June 6, 2011 Sorry just another guess, but it looks like he is grinding the color off the "beads". Kevin Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scary Leatherworks Report post Posted June 6, 2011 Sorry I have no personal experience with sting ray but I don't think his claim for "hand carved" sting ray is accurate. First let me say his seat construction is awesome but I think those seats are mostly all ghastly except the plain inlaid ones but what can you expect from someone with pics of OCC Tuetels on his site. They build the easter eggs of bikes and he makes the easter egg seats to match. sorry for the rant. anyway I looked under the "seat tattoos" and a close up http://www.alligator...d%20Flames3.jpg of this seat looks to me like it's airbrushed. All the tattoo seats look airbrushed. I can't see any cut lines thru the "beads" of stingray. The only tooling I saw was on normal leather around the sting ray pieces. of course I could be wrong just my thoughts Scott Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tat2edCowboy Report post Posted June 6, 2011 Thought I would show my couple of attempts to do it in a small area. The area between the eyes is just doing the carving with a dremel. The small one to the outside of the eye on the left of the picture was trying to use some white dye on the carving. The carving only seems to duplicate his results pretty well but seems to be really dull in comparison to the spot in the middle of the back. I didn't think it was airbrushed because if you look between the beads, most areas are still black. I guess he could have just airbrushed the highlights and left the duller areas the carving itself. I would think the airbrushed areas would rub off pretty quick though, being that it's on a seat. I think I will probably abandon this for now and just do the normal stingray inlay, but I do appreciate the responses and look forward to hearing if someone has better luck than I did. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scary Leatherworks Report post Posted June 6, 2011 Oh I see what you mean after looking at your attempt regarding the area between still being black, so I guess I was wrong about the airbrush. I think your attempt looks fine and I never knew that was possible. Maybe he is applying some form of oil or something to bring out that bright white. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dawn Report post Posted June 7, 2011 i have messed with it too. i think that the bit has to be ver y course, the dremel on high speed and if i swiped slowly it would leave a pretty bright spot. i also found out the more you go over the spot the duller it gets. i have a hard time getting the look to be consistent. but thinking about it, i maybe pressing too hard. i attached a picture one of my first attempts. the problem is findiing the bits that are course enough. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tat2edCowboy Report post Posted June 7, 2011 i have messed with it too. i think that the bit has to be ver y course, the dremel on high speed and if i swiped slowly it would leave a pretty bright spot. i also found out the more you go over the spot the duller it gets. i have a hard time getting the look to be consistent. but thinking about it, i maybe pressing too hard. i attached a picture one of my first attempts. the problem is findiing the bits that are course enough. Thanks for the info Dawn (your carving looks really nice)! I think it might have something to do with the size of the skin also. The skin I am practicing on is a small and the beads are also very small, it doesn't take long before the beads are worn right off. I have a larger skin I think I will use a small piece of to see if I can get better results. I will also try your idea of coarse bits as well. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phatdaddy Report post Posted June 7, 2011 i have messed with it too. I think the cat is out of the bag. very cool. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
