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.

[gearsmithy]

I wanted a cool custom seat for my new bike, but I couldn't afford to have someone make it. So I hit up Tandy and started making stuff for my friends. The irony is that I've enough money into my tools to pay for a custom seat and I'm still making stuff for other people and haven't had time to make anything for myself. :biggrin:

[Romey]

Needing to fix my own tack got me to making it

[Rayban]

Fellow inmates....

[leatheroo]

I was 16 at school and in craft we did one term of cooper work, one term of spinning and weaving and one term of leatherwork. I can still spin wool on my spinning wheel and have continued with the leatherwork. Thankyou to Sacred Heart High School and their teachers.

[Pip]

I made spoons with a crooked knife and they never came with sheaths, I sliced my hand so badly when retreiving my knife from a bag once I decided on making a wet form sheath, then to use up the scraps (I hate waste) I made a bracelet, 45 bracelets, 2 bracers, 2 sheaths, pda case, musket ball bag (the first of many I suspect), 2xpurses, 2x tobacco pouches, 100 or so keyrings, plaited bracelets, One custom phone pouch, napkin ring set, and elven drinks coasters and a lot of small bits of leather (and some larger ones) which have vanished rather quickly to the bin.... I am loving it. I found a guy down the road from me the other day who taught me how to lace, I tried from books but couldn't figure corners too well..... new skills. ha ha.

Heres to you guys and everyone who has helped and inspired

[Pip]

Sorry, to clear up, the spoons don't need sheaths its the knives that do!

[Chris B]

Well I can always remeber my great grandfather doing it. On sundays everybody would always go over to his house and he would be in the basement doing something with leather and I would watch. Although I never got to try before he passed away. I was 6. And I have been interested ever since. So now I figured I will try it and see how it goes. Hopefully i get as good as him.

Chris

[Rayban]

Well I can always remeber my great grandfather doing it. On sundays everybody would always go over to his house and he would be in the basement doing something with leather and I would watch. Although I never got to try before he passed away. I was 6. And I have been interested ever since. So now I figured I will try it and see how it goes. Hopefully i get as good as him.

Chris

Welder, just yesterday my 6 yr. old grandson was over and spent some time in my little shop inspecting just about everything he could pick up. Had to keep a close eye on him cuzz there's lot's of stuff with sharp points/razor edges laying around.

I hear he's getting a guitar for Christmas....a strap may be in order huh?

RG

[K-Man]

My start was a bit unorthodox. My EX-wife decided to buy one of Tandy's multi-tool/kit boxes (the one's that have multiple tools and multiple kits in one box) as a Christmas gift. Subsequently I learned she had written a worthless check for the purchase. (That's why she's an EX.) Long story, short is I obviously had to make good on the check. And part of the deal at the time with the purchase was that there were 6 free classes included. So I figured since I was stuck with this box of tools and kits, I might as well take the classes. And the rest is history, as they say.....

[Skipknives]

I started making knives in1999 so I've been trying to learn leather work for my sheaths.

[gunfighter48]

I got into Cowboy Action Shooting about 12 years ago. This is a target shooting sport and a BIG part of it is dressing the part of a cowboy or TV cowboy. This includes a double holster rig and belt, shotgun ammo belt, knife sheafs, etc. I wanted a set of holster from El Paso Saddlery but couldn't afford the price as I had just spent $2300 on guns and reloading equipment. I lived in Spokane, WA at the time and there was a Leather Factory store in town. So I dropped in one day and ask what I needed to make a couple of holsters. The folkes were very helpful and knowledgable. They got me started (and didn't take advantage of a newby) and I've enjoyed leather working ever since. For a kid that grew up in the 50s with all the cap guns, bb guns, etc. there's no better sport than playing cowboys with real guns!!!!!!!!! I had to give it up about 5 years ago because of back problems and I do miss it but still like leather working.

Edited December 7, 2007 by gunfighter48

[Warren]

I had a leather working kit as a kid but never got the hang of it. The kit is long since gone. Last year while recovering from back surgery I was going crazy from boredom. Having always been active sitting around not doing anything was driving me crazy. I had some guys that I worked with at the fire dept. who had done some leather repairs for me. I would watch them and think "Hey I can do that". So one day I went to the leather shop by my house and looked around. I had in mind to make a holster I had seen in a magazine. The article told you how to make the holster and I was bound and determined to try. I bought the supplies and a hand stitching kit and went home. I made some key fobs, phone holsters,etc. and worked on learning how to do stuff. I found this forum a couple of months ago and the rest is history. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experiences!

[Washroad]

When I was in college back in the late '60s, my brother came by one day with a unique watchband. I looked at it and asked him how much he paid for it. He said it was something like $10! (OK, in the '60s and going to college, it was quite a bit of dinero, I mean, when a job was only paying you $1.25 hour before taxes....). I looked at it and thought I could probably make them as well. I went to a Tandy shop in Anaheim (long since gone) and purchased a bunch of leather scraps and some hardware. I wasn't into tooling, just sorta making straps and riveting them together.

I made a few and they sold! right away. I kept making them and people started asking me for belts. Back then, we used to wear belts that were about 3" wide (along with our bell-bottom pants!). Back to Tandy, bought more stuff, made belts and they sold. This did a lot to finance me in college for awhile until I got tired of being broke most of the time. I dropped out of college after 2 years 'cause I thought getting a job and chasing women would be much more fun! So, I did, built me a fastass '56 Chevy and started street racing for money on weekends. Leather kinda went on the side....

I kept what tools I had. Every once-in-a-while someone would hit me up to make or repair something and I had the stuff to do it. This went on for several years, all through the first marriage....lost my tools in a divorce (along with several other things)...

I met my wife Gail in '87, I asked her to dance, we were at the Crazy Horse Saloon in Santa Ana (where all the Orange County cowboys hung out! ), we moved in together several months later, moved from Anaheim to Truckee up in the high Sierra mountains. During a trip down the hill to Reno we saw a Tandy shop. We went in and I was looking around. Gail bought me a bunch of stuff, tools, leather, hardware, what a gal!!! I married her in 2000! Not going to let this one get away!

So, I started doing it again.

Then, found this website a few months ago!

Now I read this forum almost everyday and learn a lot, enjoy the company, drink a lot of coffee and steal a donut whenever I can!

[Maxone22]

Whenever someone ask how/where did you learn leatherwork I like to give my "captain ron" answer - Rehab.

Those that can't help themselves will ask, "for what?" I answer "Which time?"

The bad part was that we weren't allowed sharp objects. Or any paints, dyes, glue, or finishers. Now that I think about it, maybe I didn't learn it rehab. Thats where I learned poker.

None of that is true. I picked up the hobby when I saw a complete kit for sale at a secondhand store. Wasn't near as cheap as I thought.

I like those that hear that line and reply with "that explains a few things"

[Big O]

I had a pistol, a Springfield XD45 Tactical with a 5" barrel. Couldn't find a leather holster for it. Found plenty of holsters for the shorter-barrelled .45s, a few for the 9mm and .40 Tacticals, and a whole bunch for the shorter-barrelled 9mm and .40 versions......just not for that particular combo.

So, I decided to make my own, and started researching it. I bought a piece of leather that was way too big, and decided to make more holsters. Friends saw the holsters and asked about them and, before long, they each told a friend, who told a friend, who told a friend.........and before long, I was buying more leather......