Knucklehead seat

[Eero]

Took lot of time and studying, but finally got it done! 

Seat for the pre-war HD. Happy to get it done before the rest of the bike was restored!  

 

[KingsCountyLeather]

That is really beautiful!  Excellent work. It would be great if you would share the process? How is the shape held to the frame and are the studs on the back side decorative? What padding did you use?

[Madmax500000]

I would like to see a “how to” also I’ve been asked to do a few seats on bike just recently and would like to see your process. You do very clean work. Simple but beautiful. 

[charon]

+1 for the howto. Always wanted to do a seat like this

[bikermutt07]

It looks wonderful.

[Eero]

Thank You all!

I have few pictures that shows how I did it. Hope that they help!

Tubular rivets are holding outer rim-leather in place, and so they have structural motive.

Inner and outer rim-leathers are also glued in place with Bison Tix- contact glue.

Two 10 mm thick foam layers are glued in place with Palty "heavy duty adhesive" spray, as is surface skin, too.

Surface leather is worked in slowly, dampening the leather with water at the same time.

I made the stitching holes into the outer rim-leather after I glued and riveted it in place, because that was the last time I saw the exact place of the seatpan edge. After I glued the everything else in place, I punctured the

holes through all layers. Then I trimmed, sanded and polished the edges, sewed it and that was it.

Only thing to do was to impregnate the leather with the german-made super-balsam.

First picture is without balsam , then with couple of times (quite spotty), and last after two days of embalming, nice and even colour... I wiped off the wax occasionally during the procedure.

And here we go!

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by Eero

[ByNelson]

Thats impressive... Great work sir ! 

[KingsCountyLeather]

Fantastic job. Thanks for sharing.

[rodneywt1180b]

Very nice!  More shots of the bike as you make progress wouldn't hurt either.

[Tugadude]

As stated already, beautiful, clean work.  Another example of it doesn't have to be complex to elicit the "wow" reaction that is being discussed in another thread right now.

If you wanted, I'm sure you could solicit work like this from vintage motorcycle owners around the globe.  Maybe there are many others that do this, but maybe not.

I know someone that retrofits old bicycle saddles into rideable, beautiful pieces that oftentimes are better constructed than the originals.

 

[Eero]

Thanks again, all! Very nice to get so positive response!

The concave shape of the seatpan makes the challenge with this. You can´t just pull the leather tight, but work it into shape.

Btw, in the seventh picture in this post, the one of the complete seat without oil, you can see radial dents from my knuckles, when I was not careful and tried to do it easy way. Happily they disappeared quite well after finishing.

So, use only and only your palms, and gentle pressure to press the wet leather as you shape it!   I also used clean pair of cheap, suede-like gloves, when working the leather; bare hands had too much friction.

Top skin is about 2-2,5 mm, rim-leathers about 3,5-4 mm thick.

 

[ComputerDoctor]

Beautiful work and good luck on your restoration!

It is amazing to me that when I 'tool' my projects, I have to make sure that my fingernails are cut very short or those little half-moon markings show up.

Below is a good start for a restoration:) Notice that the only thing that looks to have partially survived is part of the real leather seat:)

Sam

[Tugadude]

Now that is going to take a little more than an oxalic acid bath...