Here’s a photo showing more detail of the basketweave pattern tooled into the seats for my motorcycle.
Basketweave Motorcycle Seat Detail
If you’ve ever tooled a large area of a pattern in basketweave, you can appreciate how tedious it can be. When done well, though, it is a beautiful leather carving pattern.
Here is a project I completed in March of ’09. I crafted and tooled a set of motorcycle seats for my bike.
Hand-tooled Leather Motorcycle Seats
I wanted to try to see what I could make for me before I offered to make any for anyone else. I have about 80 hours in the pair of them. Here are some of my notes on the project I shared with a friend.
“I put the last coat of sealer on it, and buffed it out. When I put them on the bike the sun came out from behind the clouds, and the seat just lit up. It was cool! I did them with an oil based antique gel, not the water based ones are all that Tandy carries anymore. Then I sprayed them with Leathersheen, which is a wax finish. I am planning on wearing an old pair of jeans when I ride them the first time, and if there is any rub off, I will get a product called Aussie sealer with Atom wax that is supposed to work well. Its still kind of a learning experience for me.”
I’m pretty excited about how they turned out. I am now taking referrals from a motorcycle shop for custom leather seats.
