What got any of us started with leather?

[Cora]

Johanna's story got me thinking. What got any of us started with leather? For me it was when I was about 8. The neighbor had a pony that he said I could ride but he didn't have a bridle for it, only a bit. So I tied the bit to a piece of baling twine and off I went. The other kids in the area started to make fun of my baler twine bridle so I asked my father if he could buy me one, of course the answer was no he wasn't going to pay for my horsey nonsense. A few days later he came home from work, he worked at a tannery, and handed me some scrap leather and told me if I wanted a bridle I could make it myself. So I looked at a friends bridle and put together a very crude but functional one, thats when I got bit buy the leather bug.

Cora

[abn]

Several years back, I was inspired to try knifemaking after reading a couple of articles and books on the subject. Over the course of a year or so, I tried with varying degrees of success to make small sheath knives using old files, etc. I never did seem to get the knack of it -- everything I made was better suited as a railroad tie than a fine cutting instrument, and I didn't like wearing the eye and ear protection and respirator and gloves and such. Plus, I made a real mess out of the garage with all the fine dust.

I made a couple of knife/sheath combos, and eventually gave up knifemaking as "not for me," especially given the ready and seeming endless availability of really nice factory and custom knives made by folks who have the natural talent I obviously lacked. Strangely enough, even though I was pretty disgusted at anything I produced in metal, the sheaths turned out half-nice. Plus, I enjoyed working with leather. So, at the urging of family members, I started working out some designs for common accessories like wallets, belts, key fobs, and all the other "bread and butter", typical leathercraft items.

Folks seem to like what I make for them, and I enjoy doing it, so I'm still at it...

Great topic. I'd love to hear what inspired other members of this forum.

Alex

[Luke Hatley]

Back in the 60's i really wanted a Leather Visor, but with a wife

and a newborn ,$19.00 for a leather ... no way to spend my money.

Some one told me about a leathercraft store, it was Tandy.

Went there bought a visor kit, one tool (#616) bottle of dye,

made a lot of visors. then wrist bands,then belts.

The Mgr. HARRY BANDY (GOD REST HIS SOUL) taught me how to lace.

and that started me doing bilfolds....... and the rest is history..

and never had any regrets about doing it , or wanting to do any thing

else.Execpt take care of my family, work to retirement .

and have fun and be happy..... ask Regis or Mike G....

[Opagon]

I did a little braiding as a kid, simple 3 and 4 plaits, mostly just to pass the time while my Mom would braid up key rings and other small items for gifts. (Always in very colorful suede) Time went on and I forgot about braiding. What really got me back into braiding was trying to find tack with braiding that didnt look like it was going to fall apart. I couldnt afford the good stuff and after looking over some knots and such, thought to myself, "I can do that." I bought some spools of Calf and converted a nail for a fid and went to work. After many swear words and poked fingers I figured out some turks and now with my calluses built up, lots of practice and better tools I am finally making the tack that I wished I could have bought years ago.

[Regis]

Some long forgotten fun in BoyScouts in mid 50's revived a couple years ago. Dabbled a little with some basic tools and then found this forum. ClayB jumped right in and took pitty on my horrible elephant carving and taught me to begin carving & tooling correctly "long distance". ClayB and Luke as well as many others here have been and continue to make leather most enjoyable for me. I'm 63 but, just a pup amoung many masters here at leatherworker.net

Helping the scouts will pay off,,,,even if it takes 50 years.

[Mike Craw]

I got started in 1981 while assigned as a Special Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department in Philadelphia. I had been carrying a handgun on and off duty for eight years at that point, as a local and then a Federal officer. I could never find a holster that I really liked. It didn't hold the weapon in close enough to conceal, or it sat at the wrong angle, or something. I walked into a Tandy leather store in Cherry Hill, NJ and asked the man how many lessions I'd have to take to learn how to build a decent holster. He said, "Well, there's a book on that shelf over there for five bucks that will teach you all the basics."

About a half hour later, I had some leather, a hand stitching kit, and that wonderful book, and Mr. Al Stolhman and I went home to get started. From that following weekend, through my retirement in 2001, and to this day I never wore another commercially made holster. I still have that first holster. It's ugly and embarrassing, but I still have it and the original book that taught me how to make it.

Mike

[JohnD]

My Brother-in-law owns a custom motorcycle shop. I help out with some free labor at times and also have acces to the shop to work on my own bike. When we would go to shows I would always be impressed with the tooled seats and such and talked about eventually making a seat for myself.

He was building a bike for a customer on a tight budget. To keep costs down he planned to make the seat himself. We went to Tandy and bought the necessary stuff and when we got back he went straight to work. He quickly got frustrated yelling something about leather not being like metal and asked if I would give it a try. The first seat took me a full day, but the finished product wasn't up to par. The second one made the cut ( although, I was afraid to dye it for fear of ruining it, so he did the dye) The customer was stoked.

The shop offered a production seat and my Brother in law was having problems with the guy who had been doing them, so he asked me to try one of them. I brought the seat pan home and went to work. I thought the first one came out great, but after going over what he wanted me to do different, he had me tear it apart and do it over. From that I now do the production seats and a side bag he will be offering. He has another guy, Jay from Truckalope Leather (IMHO, he is one of the best I've ever seen), do the custom tooling.

I've done several projects for other people, belts, purses, guitar straps and such. I haven't had alot of time for it over the past few months, but I'm starting to get back to it lately. I really enjoy doing it and plan to do alot more. My brother in law said the whole thing was a plan to get me working leather so that he could have an in house leather guy.

Here's the one started me out:

[Srigs]

I was dis-satified with "off the rack" gun holster leather for a carry gun I had. One of the forums I belong to got a group together to learn how to make holsters at the Bloomington Tandy store. It really opened my eyes to the fact that I could make my own holsters and works well with my back ground in wood working, sculpture and engineering.

I put together some different holsters and posted them on our local forum and on defensivecarry.com. When I did, many "real" holster makers provided good feedback via posts and PMs (Nate from UBG and Bruce Gibson to name a few). From this, I slowly improved my holsters until people asked, "Can you make one for me?" Now I'm 9 months in and the quality is very good, good customer reviews and now looking to get a stitching machine because my punching and hand stitching can only produce so many holsters with my part time effort.

Now my self and another local forum member have been doing classes for forum members who want to give it a try! It is nice to pass on the knowledge.

[Daggrim]

In 2004 I decided to go visit a friend who draws portraits at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. I wanted to dress up, so I decided to make something as close as I could get to a Viking helmet. Since metalworking is way beyond my experience, I got an old felt hat from a thrift store and went to work turning it into a faux leather helmet. I cut the brim off and used it to make a face guard. Then I painted everything with epoxy and superglued the parts together. I used upholstery tacks for rivets, and wood stain for the color. Funky!

I was blown away when people actually thought it was leather! So...I decided to try making one out of real leather...uh, still funky. But three years later, I'm making them and selling them at Renfaires, and they're not funky anymore. I'm told.

Daggrim

[ClayB]

When I was about 10, my grandfather gave me a belt he carved for my birthday. I thought it was really neat. Then a few year later in junior high school, I went to a brand new school. We were supposed to have a mechanical drawing class, but the drawing tables hadn't come in yet. They decided to buy some begineer leather kits from Tandy to keep us busy. I got hooked at that time and have been carving leather ever since.