Years ago my father gave me a 3” blade folding knife he made with surgical stainless and deer antler scales. A friend had made the leather sheath for it with my initials on the cover. The knife was awesome, and I still have it today but I was intrigued at how the leather was so intricately formed to the shape of the knife. Eventually in my 20s I picked up a couple tools, books and some scrap leather and made a couple of pouches and a sheath. Nothing much to write home about. Even found an old leather smith in Sarasota that was willing to show me a couple of tricks to working with leather.

I’ve always been fascinated by the way things go together. The creation, fabrication and finale product is a bit of a life cycle onto its own. Take Harley and Davidson for example. They were two young guys that needed a motor for their row boat. So they found some plans for a motor and used sand casting to build and create the parts. They completed the motor and soon realized that it would work on bicycle frames. In 1903 after some fine tuning they sold their first production bikes.

So finally, in my 50s, after many years of the distractions of full time tech jobs and getting ready to finish my Deputy career I was cleaning out a closet and found my old leather and tools. Of course this gave me some ideas. As a Deputy, I have way more free time. So I started play with the leather again.  The techniques that the old leather smith taught me were still there. So I bought a couple new tools and set out to create something.

First cuff I ever made.

Hmmm… what to do… I used some of the old leather that was still good (don’t pack leather tightly in a closed box) to make a couple of cuffs. They came out nicely so I bought some new leather and made a cuff with a basket weave pattern.

That looked really cool so I got the great idea to make a basket weave belt to match my duty gear. A 36” belt is a lot different than a 7” cuff, just saying! But from that I kinda got the bug.

A little practice and a few months later she had a girls’ softball team asking for about 20 bracelets. This has now spread to making necklaces and earrings.  By now we don’t eat at the table anymore. We sit at the bar top because between us we have a plethora of tools and projects. Our next big project will be a 5 x 7 foot workbench. I found plans on the … well you know.

So go out and look for the lost skills. They are hard to find because you don’t know they are missing. They can be fascinating. There is a group of people that keep the Viking life style alive. From the clothing tools and reenactments everything is remembered. They even build the long boats using  the same tools and techniques that the Vikings used so many years ago.

Here’s a thought to take with you.  If you see an old guy ask him what he used to do for a living. You might learn something fascinating. Although your time is running out. The old guys with the old school skill sets are disappearing.

We hope you have enjoyed our story and found some inspiration in it. As we conclude this narrative, we encourage you to reflect on its messages and consider how they resonate with your own experiences. Now go have fun.

My wife was mostly supportive (oh great he’s buying more tools!). Well one day she found a metal bracelet that she liked the saying on. It was on an Etsy store, she showed me and said “why can’t I make something like that. So I got on the interwebs and found some info about metal stamping. We found her some tools (see what I did there) and she was off and running.

Now we make a few dollars with our little hobbies and maybe when I retire we can set up in all the craft and period fair circuits.