steveb leatherworks: the blather

So….I’ve got to thank and pay props to my customers…they rock..they keep the steveb globlal freight train rolling down the highway under full steam. Without them, well i’d be putzing around making collars for Paco, my CSO (chief sleeping oficer) that he’d refuse to wear. Where the hell is the fun in that? So Dr. […]

Walked from Grand Central to the West Side in the 20’s on a cold morning. Lots of empty stores on 5th Avenue…a little strange. But there is still building going on…this is NYC ya know…it never, ever stops Cops giving tickets and people scurrying to their next stop.  Just another day in NYC..ya got to love it..c’mon take a walk […]

Jon wanted a Big X New Hampshire Fin, never having made a big X New Hampshire fin before, I asked customer Jon for some guidance and he clarified that an outline of he state of New Hampshire (Live free or Die) needed to appear behind the big X and so…here you have it….the big X fin… homage to New Hampshire – another […]

While perusing the goodies at the NYC IMS show, i happened upon Ducati, resplendent in their blood red trade show environment. The usual fare of hyper active sport bikes were there on display. Ducati really has a handle on how to turn a piece of metal into functional art. Functional with a emphasis on “fun”. I’ve ridden […]

If you keep your eyes open in the urban sprawl you can come upon some curious sites. Hard to believe someone was actually playing in this sad, diesel dust covered excuse for snow on the side of a dangerously busy road……..but they were    

In a word, boring.

I’ve mentioned it here before – i do alot of work for guys in the military. Come to think of it, I’d like to do more work for women in the military, but until that happens, the guys will do just fine. So, I’ve been sent patches over the years by my customers in the armed forces. Got a nice collection of them, […]

Leather looks best when it gets a beating.. kinda like the crackly look of a bar brawlers face after 40 yrs. of boozing….(like that huh?)…it just gets better and more dramatic – it toughens up. In my experience, Veg Tan leather tends to break in to a specific point pretty quickly – and then it tends to stay  at that point for awhile…like…years, […]

oh man, I’ve cried me a river for the past 6mos and you’d think the cheap bastids who control the purse strings over here at the steveb co.inc, etc. would give a crap. But, noooo these shit heels in the front office with the solar powered calculators say to me – ” B, you are going to continue […]

  Not so bad – take a quick run out the back door before the day really starts. Think on this view whilst your heading to work in your cage pilgrim. Thanks for sharing Jason!

Shrinkage – the word hasn’t been the same since that fateful Seinfeld episode.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysEHVhliosw[/youtube] But in this instance the shrinkage I am referring to is of the vegetable tanned leather type – the type of leather  that i favor for my work… veg tan leather shrinks if it is not sealed up tight to moisture. The only problem with sealing leather, is basically your turning […]

I’ve scored some pretty cool stuff in my years…. … worked and performed at all kinds of events (music, car, bike, sporting, art) , resulting in a collection of T-shirts … traded and bartered whatever it was I had at the time that had value for things I wanted … it is handy knowing and being friendly […]

Went to the IMS show on Friday in NYC. I was thinking that the plane that used the Hudson as a runway the night before, might cause a bit of travel hardship if i were inclined to take my car, so a smarter, more sensisble head prevailed and i took the train down to NYC.  The weather has been a […]

So i had this whole crazy story concocted on how i was comissioned by the royal hiney-ness of here to hey now to develop a proprietary cover for the ignition porthole on his evo. but ya know, I figured I’d let you masochists who read my crap off the hook and get away easy….this time….ya know,  it is the weekend, it is cold as […]

So – I am pretty sure this is 1944, pics taken in Margate NJ. ” by the shore”. Seeing as how Molle was an Aussie, I guess Mickey was partial to them, this fine handsome gent was one of many that hung out and courted her. I notice the cigarette in her hand, she started […]

When i worked for American Iron Magazine I had the pleasure of judging a few bikes shows. At least I went into it thinking it would be a pleasure. Winds up, that judging a show, and really doing it right – requires alot of work. To boot, a deep knowledge of VTwins and bike construction is required if you’re going to do things respectfully. In the […]

People talk about what makes a biker. Or more to the point they talk about what a biker isn’t. Most of this jaw-flappin’ is for the sake of divisiveness. People love to categorize, they like to exclude. they like to rate, they like to compare and contrast. We are all guilty of it… we draw the lines in the […]

seeing as how we are in a recession, depression, downturn, doldrums, lull, economic downturn and basic malaise. I thought in response I would test an “economy of verbiage”, as it is known i like to run my…keyboard. So here ya go, if this new format works for ya, let me know. it sures makes it […]

This just came in over the steveb worldwide international and domestic news wire.  TPJ Customs, supporter and friend of the steveb, leather network, has dominated a “judged class” (wtf class it is, I have no clue) at the Easyriders Show in Pomona. My boy Bryan just kills!!  Now, please excuse the handwritten nature of the documented proof of this win.I know it looks […]

Not much info here: The year 1942, these guys were  US sailors and they gave this pic to Mom. I’ve seen these 2 in other photos, so I am assuming they were best friends, and hung together.. thick as thieves… they are  kids really, but the story’s I bet they could have told

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4EH1Ny7_5s[/youtube]Read in Cyril’s blog today that Jerry Graves had died. What a shame – this was one young, talented and innovative bike builder that had a unique over the top wild style., a wild personal look and a fun super detailed flair.  All of the bikes that i saw that Graves built were wild…take this […]

Freewheel’d a skull over a cuppa joe recently No scrap goes-a-wastin’ in the shop 4″ square called out for attention Tough to freestyle with the swivel knife, it’s a fighter Fun stuff, i prevailed – crude, but then…perfect Feels good to turn scraps to trash   ha – in an effort to trim word count…should i write […]