How Did You Get Started In Leatherworking?

buckskin billy · August 21, 2010, 06:30:23 PM

i'm as green as a goblin and as soft as a boiled turnip when it comes to leather working, but i'll share my experence with those who want to read it.
for my 13th birthday i got a 1851 navy and need some way of carrying eveything i thought i needed back then just to shoot it. my mom had got a new purse and the old one she was throwing out i got. it was brown and kind of sorta looked like leather. i cut it apart and made it look like a mountain man shooting pouch, fringe and everything. it was so big and heavy that i took a old leather bow and arrow quiver and made a very crude belt bag out of it.
being poor but having rich taste i realized early on i couldn't afford to play mountain man shoot yankees and cowboy shoot. so i played mountain man for awhile and wanting to be historically correct i had to learn to brain tan and sew.
i went to a cowboy shoot in tyler texas being dressed in my mountain man finest. i won best dressed cowboy and my shooting pard that i went with pointed out that except for my gun leather every thing i was wearing was made by me. so that got me to thinking why can't it all be made by me. so i traded off some of my brain tan for a hide of veg tanned and after dragging butt( the only thing i'm truely good at) i finially made me some gun leather from it. i sold it before the dye was dried and had to build me another set .so now i'm hooked

GunClick Rick · August 21, 2010, 07:31:49 PM

And may i say that AC is a good wood carrver too

Arizona Cattleman · August 21, 2010, 08:30:47 PM

Thanks Rick, your so kind......

AC

panhead pete · August 22, 2010, 08:35:09 PM

Howdy All,

Great posts so far, hope this one doesn't bore you guys?!

I wanted some "Leather paint" to paint a P-40 Warhawk (Flying Tiger) on my leather motorcycle jacket. That was in 1990. After seeing the patterns at the Tandy Store where I bought the leather, I made an oversize set of saddlebags for my Sportster. In 1992 I had to go to Little Rock Air Force Base for 9 months of training and needed the bags to carry my gear. I carved the P-40 nose on the fronts and an alternating "Hell'sAngel" and "Army Air Corps pattern on the sides. I bought a holster book in 1994 and always wanted a cowboy gun. Never took the next step, though.

Fast forward to 2003. Moved from Delaware to Michigan after meeting and marrying a great lady. I decided to buy a Ruger Vaquero and made a buscadero rig with leather I bought from Hidecrafters. I tooled it and glued it. Then I went to a local leather craftsmen, Phillip Hawk to have it machine stitched. He recommended hand stitching and I decided to take lessons with him. Phillip was a great teacher! He talked about the principles of quality and workmanship. Phillip really lifted me about 20 notches above where I was when I started. I have been pretty busy since, although I still need a day job!

Keep Carving, (Incising & Beveling),

Panhead

Wiley Desperado · August 22, 2010, 10:12:34 PM

Very cool thread! Just read the whole thing for the first time.
as a kid in Laredo, Texas in the 1950's I used to enjoy going to the Market Place in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The leather goods stalls were my favorities. I always admired the carved leather goods. Then during my career as a Texas Lawman ( I'm retired) I used to buy gun leather from the convicts in the Texas Prison System. They make some mighty nice gun leather and they do some very good silver smithing also. Looking back I always admired good quality gun leather. Anyway, when I joined SASS in early 03 I bought a gun rig and then decided I needed more gun rigs. Thats when i decided to get into leathercrafting. I went to the Tandy Leather Store in Austin and a fella named John who worked there helped me pick out all the stuff I needed to get started. I made my first check book cover and took it to the store for him to see and he acted like it was some really good leather work, which encouraged me to keep on keeping on and here I am. It's a great hobby, I sell a little stuff now and then but it's mostly a hobby. I enjoy the heck out of this forum and I admire all the great cowboy leather goods made by the talented leather workers here. By the way, I still carry that first check book cover everyday...it really not that good.
Stay safe my friends
Wiley Desperado

JD Alan · August 23, 2010, 10:27:31 AM

Great thread. I just read the whole thing too.

A few years ago a woman at the church I pastor came early to an event with a cool leather bible cover. I asked her about it and she said she made it, and offered to make me one. Realizing how much work it would take I tried to turn her down, but she insisted, so my wife & I went to her home to see some of her work, in order to figure out a design for the bible cover she was making me.

Her husband, who I knew only slightly, brought out a couple of holsters she had made for him. Looking for some common ground, I mentioned that I was a member of the local range. So was he and that got us talking, including the fact that he had goten involved in Cowboy Action Shooting, something I was already interested in. He invited me out to an orientation they were holding that coming Saturday.

Well, one shoot and I was hooked. I bought a rig online, but it needed some modifications right away. I asked Jay if she would do it. (for pay) She suggested I do it and she would show me how. Now I was hooked on two things; CAS and leatherwork. About a year later I was posting on the SASS wire when Dalton told me about this forum. Thanks again Dalton, it's been very informative and a blast! JD

Drayton Calhoun · August 29, 2010, 01:29:52 PM

Kind of chicken or the egg thing with me. I bought a Navy Arms .44 Model 60 Reb back in 1980, needed a holster so I made one out of some scrap leather a friend had. Shortly thereafter I went back into the U.S. Navy and went to a school at NATTC Memphis. They happened to have a leather shop, soon most of my free cash wound up being spent there. Fell in love with the craft and been doing it ever since. Thing is, kept buying percussion revolvers so, I needed more holsters, or was it the other way around...?

LoneRider · August 31, 2010, 04:53:42 AM

OK, when I first learned about this thing called "Cowboy Shooting" I spent ALL my money on guns! Had nothing left for leather! Then I had one of those Light Bulbs come on

My Father was in old "B and "C" westerns in the 40's and 50's and when he died none of the other children (13 in all), he was married 9 times

wanted any of his old Cowboy stuff! I took all of it. Photos, buckles, shirts, hats and one old Buscadero rig, carved w/brass spots. NO GUNS!!! $:-\$ And it had really nice Silver/Gold buckles on belt and small ones on both holsters.
I still had his holsters!
Used it for 2 shoots before the billet broke dropping the guns to the ground! Old and dried out. Still have it!!
Had a friend who dabbled in holster making, learned the basics from him. Soon afterward my business fell apart and I moved to East Texas where there was No Jobs to be had! SO, I decided to do what I enjoyed doing...Leather work.
For the last 9 years I've paid most of the bills making CAS Gun Leather. As Will said earlier in this thread, sometimes I see rigs I made years ago that I don't want to admit I made them

Every rig I make is just a little bit better than the last one....Practice-Practice-Practice!!!

Dalton Masterson · August 31, 2010, 09:08:56 AM

Lonerider, thats the way I feel. Each one I make is practice for the next one....
DM

SGT John Chapman · September 09, 2010, 07:51:19 AM

I was once told, "Kid you have more time than money",.....and it all goes on from there,...no I'm not the best at anything I do, but I do good enough to be happy with what I do.....

Messerist · September 10, 2010, 09:25:43 PM

I started making knives when I was in the Army. I use to just buy blades and handle material and make knives for guys in the barracks. Well they had to have a sheath for their knife so I ordered a Tandy Leather catalog, bought some supplies and Al Stohlman's book. Been doing it now for 25 years purely part-time and nothing of the caliber of the masters who dwell here.

Irish Dave · September 20, 2010, 05:20:18 PM

Well, for me it started in 1973. My business partner and I just opened a music store in a mini-strip mall type building in our hometown. Within a few months, a couple of guys opened up a hippie-type leather shop in the space next door. We got to know each other and eventually worked out a trade: I'd teach him to play guitar and he'd teach me to work leather.

Bought some tools and eventually started making my own hippie" stuff (...yeah, I know). That lasted until I outgrew that period (or maybe just outlasted it). By the late '70s I had acquired lots of tools from various sources, but was no longer working much leather.

By the late '80s, however, I developed an interest in (and enough wallet for) old west guns. I soon found however, that I couldn't find any makers creating true period-style leather goods that would be appropriate for my new acquisitions. So I broke out the tools and started trying my hand at gunleather. It was pretty crappy at first and some of those early holsters still give me a chuckle. Anyway, I stayed with it and have been making Old West leather in as accurate a style as I can research ever since.

And that's about it.