Hello from Kansas

[ksshane]

Found your forum via google, and wanted to introduce myself.

My name is Shane, and I am from Kansas (hince the username). Im pretty new to leather working/tooling. Actually I have not touched any leather tools since high school some 14 or so years ago. I really enjoyed it back then, but it really wasnt all that popular around here. The main reason I have gotten back into it now is I have always been into motorcycles. And I am currently building my 2nd ground up bike. I started looking at seats, and the hand tooled seats caught my eye. But more than that I thought to myself "Hey, I can do that". So here I am.

I made my first practice piece the other day, and was very pleased with it even though I only used a couple of tools to do it. Everyone that saw it seemed to express that they thought I really did a good job, but after seeing the work on this board. I would be embarrassed to post a picture.

Anyway. Seems like you have a very friendly forum here, and I look forward to being a part of it.

Thank you, and I hope I dont annoy to many of you with all my questions.

Shane

[pepin1948]

Don't be embarrassed to show your work, everyone starts somewhere! Like you, I'd not done leatherwork in years, then picked it up again about 10 years ago. It's rather "addictive"!

[Johanna]

Welcome, Shane, and glad you introduced yourself. Never be embarrassed to post your pics with this crowd. They will give you honest advice, and be as pleased as you as you see your work improving. There is an adult area of this site, and one of the members has posted pics of her bike seats there (she claims to only have worked with leather for a year, but we are suspicious! LOL) Let me know if you want to be able to see that part of the forum. Some of the best leatherworkers in the world belong to this board, and if there are any that are selfish with their "secrets", I don't know them.

Johanna

[ksshane]

Okay, this was my first piece. Just a little practice piece, and its nothing really special. But I had to start somewhere

Probably not enough there to really criticize I know, but I will have a wallet for everyone to tear into soon... As soon as I decide on a design.

Thanks

Shane

[Tom Katzke]

Okay, this was my first piece. Just a little practice piece, and its nothing really special. But I had to start somewhere

Probably not enough there to really criticize I know, but I will have a wallet for everyone to tear into soon... As soon as I decide on a design.

Thanks

Shane

A nice piece of work. One thing I can see is on the bone ends. You need to have the lines taper to nothing that make up the knobs of the bone. The way you did it they look to be the same depth and just stop. They should not just stop but blend or disapear into the bone shaft. If you look at the drawing you can see the lines come to a point.

After looking hard the only other thing is to watch what side of a line you bevel on. It looks like the teeth may have been beveled on the wrong side. It could be just the picture. Teeth are in the bone so the bone should be on top.

Over all I think you did a great job.