What got you started in this hobby/addiction?

[kevinhopkins]

This is the short version

I was sort of a hippie in a rock band in the 70's... Needed a guitar strap, so went to Tandy and got sold a qt of neat lac, a strip of 10 oz alum tanned latigo, and about a hundred dollars worth of all the wrong stuff. Made a strap tho, and our rhythm player decided he wanted one. Then the music store that we traded with wanted to try selling my straps, so I kind of got into it. Next it was wallets, bags, lots of figure carving, clocks, sheaths, belts, holsters, and anything else that anyone wanted. Dad hung up anything I'd make in his restaurant. (the only one in town) Stuff flew! Got busted for drugs, decided a new life was in order, decided to try leather work. I learned that it's one thing to do leather work for money, but it's another matter to do it for a living!!!! Got down to my last 10 bucks, went to tandy for a few supplies, and saw a sign on the door that said "Asst Mgr" wanted. I applied that afternoon, and got the job that evening. 6 months later Tandy offered me the Battle Creek Michigan store, which I turned down, and 3 months later they offered me the Rochester Mn. store, which I accepted. Spent 2 yrs there, then went to Fargo ND, (of all places) for 5 yrs, then came to Springfield Mo in 1983. Started a small leathe working company out of our home in 85 called Hardwork Leather. Made just about anything possible for the tourist industry located in Branson Mo. Tandy decided to close the store chain in 99, so I offered to buy our location from them, and they agreed. We purchased the loction from the landlord, and now have 5 units (about 10,000 ft) in a strip ctr on Glenstone st. We moved all our equipment to the store, and called it Springfield Leather Co, and are enjoying our 10th year. I learned just enough about sewing machines, clickers, splitters, skivers, strap cutters, and a bunch of other strange machinery to be dangerous. Dealt in used sewing machines for a number of years. (then came to my senses) Went from 5 employees to having 24. Still can't hardly get my head around it.... The thing I like most about this place is that we get new leather at least 3 or 4 times a week! It's like a continual leather party around here! Most of the employees have been here a while, and it seems like they've all become folks that would almost rather work for leather than for money! (almost....not quite) But basically, there's a love of leather here.

And for what its worth, between Bo Riddle and myself, (mostly Bo) there's a lot of leatherwork experience that's here for the asking. We certainly don't know it all, but there's a good chance we know someone who can provide the info that you might need.

Kevin Hopkins

Springfield Leather Co

[Suze]

well my answer really is quite simple and one word

Johanna

Yep - the Leather Lady herself

that and she has ALL the cool toys to play with so I don't have to spend a young fortune on tools......

[AgronZoti]

I’m a silversmith, one day I came up with an idea for some buckles and needed belts. Bought a strap cutter and some leather… then one day my niese talked about a designer bag she wanted that cost 2000 dollars, I said I would make one that was better for her. That was 4 years ago, and I haven’t been doing anything ells sins then.

[Kevin]

Trav,

I don't know that I could tell the whole story without a whole lot of things being out of order, or just forgotten and remembered later.

If there's anything that particularly piques your interest, I will gladly elaborate.

Was that a chicken?

Kevin

[Hilly]

My addiction started with the purchase of a 1965 Mustang fastback. Immaculate! Black with a red interior. I had been doing some auto upholstery work on the side, and when I got this Mustang, I decided that I just HAD to do a custom interior for MY special car. Something nobody else had done before, so I thought that I might just do figure carvings of Mustang horses, and use them as inlays in some custom leather seats. I also though some carved and laced visors would be cool. Maybe a few little details elsewhere in the car...

I mentioned this idea over on upholster.com, where I had been hanging out, and one of the folks over there gave me a link to L.W. so I could learn more about leatherwork.

I've been hooked ever since, and never did get my interior made! I've been sidetracked on one project after the next since then, and thoroughly enjoying every minute! I'm still chicken to try my hand a figure carving, but I'm collecting the tools to try it.

Some day I will get that interior done, and my little car will be the coolest on the planet!

[TomSwede]

Some ten years ago I bought a small leatherbracer with machine pressed embossing and thought it'd be possible to do just that by hand and prolly better looking too so surfed around the net and saw all the westernsaddles and belts and such and even some of the tools. Couldn't find any tools in Sweden at that point so I used a hobbyknife and a piece of metal I found in my toolbox to carve and stamp with. Came out pretty cool I thought at that point , lol. Anyways it was a bracer and all my friends thought they wanted carved bracers too and then I met a guy who sells stuff at markets. He bought a copy of my first bracer and also directed me to a store in Sweden with the proper tools to buy and since then I have done..eh..hm prolly about 80-100 bracers and the other stuff I made is posted here.

I did have a break for about three years due to neckpains from leatherwork.

Tom

[kanddleatherwork]

i started this obsession 20 years ago as a job in a saddlery in northern ireland.

i just love the work that much i started doing it at home as well.

i got a basic tandy tooling kit about 9 years ago and did a few toolings

a wallet and a key pouch.

havnt done much tooling since but got back in to it again

as there isnt much work here i hope to turn it in to a business.

[CowboyDon]

My story is pretty simple - I wanted to always have the coolest wallet - for some reason its

cool to have someone tell you "Thats one cool wallet you have there" lol

I could never find a wallet that struck me - so I ended up at the old Tandy Store in Medallion

some 30 years ago, and to this day I have always carried a wallet that would generally get some

good comments. As of late I am getting more into floral carvings and learning to properly use

the new eco flow products. Times are good.

[iwannabeacowboy]

How do you keep this short?

In Nov 08 I started with seeing a guy at work selling flasks and knife sheaths. I thought it looked interesting, and I needed something to fill my time. I was tired of sitting at the computer 4-5 hours a day. We rent so there's no maintenance to do. My wife is disabled so were kind of homebound. Looked up Leather Tools on line and found the Tandy Leather Factory in Elgin. Bought some books and way to many tools thinking the more I bought the better I'd be. Wrong! After ruining some leather I stopped and started reading. Mostly Al Stohlman. What a difference once I learned how to use the tools I'd bought. Now most of my time is spent in the converted 2nd bedroom to the "playroom". My wife wanted to learn with me, so I built 2 workbenches, She has helped some by sewing on some projects. I still spend to much $ stocking the playroom, and practice by making leather birthday presents. Everyone gets leather now. This really is an addiction, but a very enjoyable one. There's so many things I want to try making. And I do have to thank all the people for sharing their knowledge and experience. There's a huge amount of information by reading the past posts, and the pictures of their work.

At 55, I guess you can teach an old dog some new tricks. I wish I would have found out about leather working 30/40 years ago.

Charlie

[anester05]

My Grandfather worked on leather before his arthritis got to bad for him to keep tooling. I made a couple of belts with him when I was younger around 12 or so. Well I came across his old tools and decided to start working with leather again. Thats about it.

Edited August 21, 2009 by anester05