Historic Western Saddles at The Don King Saddle Museum

Rows of historic western saddles at the King Museum in Sheridan, WY — Historic western saddles at the King Saddlery Museum in Sheridan, WY

The Don King Museum

Hidden away in northern Wyoming is a treasure of a museum dedicated to the art of leather work and western saddle making. The Don King Museum in Sheridan, WY is home to one of the best collections of historic western saddles in the US and is a tribute to the art of carving leather.

Started by noted saddle maker and leather artist Don King, the museum is the result of a lifetime of collecting saddles from the past to study both the construction and carving artwork made by saddle makers of the past. The collection goes beyond just saddles and includes western memorabilia, firearms and old leather tools.

The historic western saddles, some of which are over a 100 years old, are an inspiration for a leather craftsman like me. Not only can I see how they made things but also the carving and stamping designs they used back then are a great source of ideas for me as a leather artist. The techniques they used back then can still inspire someone and their own creations a century later. It’s definitely a place that I can spend hours in looking at the works of past western artists.

The museum also includes a section dedicated to Ann and Al Stohlman, pioneers in both the art of leatherwork and in teaching the craft to others. Al Stohlman partnered with the Tandy Leather Company in the 1950’s to bring out many books on leather work as well as tool designs for refining the art of carving leather. His ideas were revolutionary at the time and he and his wife Ann introduced leather carving to a much wider audience. Al Stohlman made an indelible mark on the art and craft of leather work that is still felt to this day. At the museum you can see some of his original creations, artwork that became the books he would publish and even his entire workbench and tools are on display.

As a leather craftsman walking through the museum is an inspiration. I’m not a saddle maker but I know enough to be able to appreciate the craftsmanship that went into these saddles and the different approaches to the artwork on them always gives me new ideas. It also is amazing to think that these works of art were also working cowboy gear that spent many years on the back of a horse in all kinds of weather riding the range. Oh the stories these saddles could tell!

You can find our more about the museum or the saddlery and rope shops by visiting their website www.kingssaddlery.com

Saddle seat and cantle from an old saddle at the Don King Museum, Sheridan, WY — Saddle seat and cantle

Saddle bags from a historic leather saddle at the Don King Museum, Sheridan WY — Saddle bags from a historic western saddle.

Outstanding Custom Leather Belts

Leather Carving, Leather Construction, Leather Stamping

Making Outstanding Custom Leather Belts

Leather belts can be a very personal part of your wardrobe. They can range from a plain but elegant dress belt to something carved and personalized with your name, and anything in between.

Here at C and B Leather, while we can make a plain dress belt for you our specialty is a more personalized and artistic approach. Our custom leather belts are made of Full Grain leather and usually have a design stamped or carved onto the belt. The leather we use is tanned by a specific process that allows us to make carving designs on the surface of the belt that have depth and will show off the artwork extremely well. It’s also leather that will last for many year’s of service.

Many of the belts that you get at departments stores or big box general merchandise stores are made with lower quality leathers. They will be marked as Genuine Leather, which is actually a very low grade of leather. It is also usually just a thin leather outer layer and the bulk of the inside may be a fabric or even cardboard! See my recent blog post about the different kinds of leather that you will find in most retail stores. Genuine Leather doesn’t wear well and it cracks and breaks after only a little while of use. It is an inexpensive product but its also not something that will last.

The Full Grain leather we use has all the strength and durability that leather is known for. Each belt is made to fit your waist. We tailor it to your measurements. After carving or stamping your custom design into the leather, we treat it with multiple finish steps, each applied by hand, to enhance the artwork while conditioning and protecting the leather. This allows your belt to have many years of looking good and serving you well.

Quality Custom Leather Belts are available now!

If you are ready for a quality custom made leather belt, tailored to your waist and that fits your style, we are glad to help. Contact us with your ideas so we can get the process started.

Hand carved leather belt with floral design and silver and turquoise buckle

What does ‘Genuine Leather’ mean?

Business, Leather Construction

What’s up with Genuine Leather?

You will often see the term ‘Genuine Leather’ on items you find a stores, but what does this really mean?

If you go to a department store or other big box retail store, you will often run across leather items like belts or wallets that are stamped with the term ‘Genuine Leather’ but is this really any kind of quality guarantee? Not really. In fact it is one of the lowest grades of the types of leather you can purchase.

Genuine Leather is usually made from the lower quality parts of a hide that are removed from higher quality leather hides. Often it is made from the parts shaved off of the back of a leather hide that are then glued together for strength and have a leather texture embossed onto the surface. These are basically rejected parts from higher quality items that are recycled into something useful for the mass consumer market. This kind of leather doesn’t have much strength or the ability to wear well because it doesn’t include the grain surface of the leather from the original hide. The grain surface is where most of leather’s strength resides. Thus items made from ‘Genuine Leather’ won’t hold up well and tend to wear out or break down quickly. It’s only suitable for items where strength and durability are not required.

Other Types of Leather

Top Grain is the next step up and while it’s better, it still has some drawbacks. Top Grain still has the grain surface on the leather but that surface has been ‘corrected’. Leather naturally has slight imperfections on the grain surface. These are usually marks or scars the animal picked up on its hide over it’s lifetime. On Top Grain leather the gain surface is sanded to remove these marks so it looks like a higher quality leather but this removes some of the strength from the leather. To repair the damage to the surface, paints and sealants are sprayed on the surface. Often a grain design will be embossed onto the leather as well. These treatments can make this leather hold its color well and be water resistant, but often lower quality hides are used because the finishing steps mask the imperfections.

Top Grain leather is the kind of leather used in most luxury brand handbags, wallets or briefcases. It wears better than Genuine Leather but that’s partially due to the surface treatments that are added to it. It doesn’t have the strength and resistance to wear that Full Grain leather does because the top of the grain surface has been damaged by the sanding.

Full Grain Leather

Full Grain leather is the highest quality of the types of leather used in making personal items. This leather has the original grain surface of the hide intact which gives it all the strength and wear resistance leather is known for. It may have slight blemishes and imperfections but a skilled maker can work around them in the hide. Full Grain leather is preferred for heavy duty items that need to be rugged and wear resistant. However in a skilled craftsman’s hands the same leather can be used for handbags, wallets, belts and other personal items that will wear very well and last for many years. If you want an item that will be durable and last a long time, this is the leather you want to use. Full Grain leather is usually more expensive because it has to be a higher quality hide to start with. This initial expenses is usually more than offset by the lifetime the finished product will have.

Understanding these differences helps to explain why hand crafted items from a reputable maker like C and B Leather cost more than the mass produced items you find at a department store. The quality of the full grain leather we use is one reason for a higher price, but the experience and skill we bring to your project are also a factor. If you have a personal item you would like custom made out of high quality full grain leather, please contact us to make your idea a reality.

Quality Handmade Leatherwork

Business, Leather Carving, Life of a Maker

The Quality of Consumer Products

Recently I was reading an article on Vox about why consumer products that are made now are not holding up to the quality of just a few years ago. The author of the article makes very good points about why consumer companies from clothing to tech products are driven to reduce quality and make manufacturing easier in order to maintain a certain price. The point of the article is that cost of materials and cost of labor have constantly been increasing (this last year especially so!) and to maintain prices that consumers are used to, the quality of the materials and the way they are assembled has to be sacrificed.

This made me think about the quality of handmade leatherwork like what I make here at C and B Leather. The items that I make are not only intended to last for many years of service, but ideally they can be passed down to the next generation and still be useable.

So much in our culture is looked at now as disposable or as being useful for a period of time but then cast aside as newer and improved versions come about. We don’t expect our clothing, furniture or appliances to last for years. With electronic tech we even will replace something because we want the newer model even if your existing model still works fine.

When I make quality handmade leatherwork I want the finished product to rise above those expectations. I want it to be something that will last for a long time and that you will keep using for a long time. It should also reflect something about you or your personality. It should be something that fits your personality uniquely. It’s going to cost more than the disposable version, but it will also have more VALUE!

There are craftsmen and women making really high quality items all across the U.S. These people make the things they make because they have a true love of their craft. Each item, be it wood working, sculpting, painting or working with leather, is made with love and care. It’s their goal to make something that is a unique expression of themselves as well as the best quality they can make it. It’s also usually a unique expression of the end user. That is what I’m doing with my leather work, I’m striving to make the best quality handmade leatherwork I possibly can, and if I can make it unique to you I will do that too.

If you are ready to invest in quality for yourself, let me know. If you are looking for a custom made leather notebook, a custom belt, wallet or handbag made just for you contact me to get the process started!

Carved Leather wallet with Sunflower design — Minimalist wallet with sunflower design.

Handmade by a craftsman produces quality that cannot be equaled by today’s mass market consumer items.

Thank You for 2022!

Life of a Maker

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

2022 has been another eventful and at times crazy year! There have been many interesting new projects this year and many new customers. I want to say thank you to all our customers this year. We appreciate your business and hope we can make many new and cool things for you next year!

Look for new products next year. I planning on doing more with belts next year. If you’re looking for a custom floral carved belt or something with a more complex geometric design, let us know and keep an eye on the website. We have some interesting designs coming that go beyond just a basketweave design. Also, look for new handbag and wallet designs coming soon! And as always, if you have a leather work idea that you would like custom made for you, let us know.

Also, look for more value added content for both the leather worker and for the leather consumer. We want to make this site more interesting for both our customers and our fellow leather workers, so stay tuned and see what’s coming in 2023!

Once again, thank you to all our customers! It’s your support that allows us to make all the cool things we do here! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It has been wonderful to serve all the customer’s we’ve been fortunate to have this year!

Improving your leather carving skills – One Simple Technique

Leather Carving, Life of a Maker

One question I am frequently asked is how to improve your leather carving skills. People who are just starting out wonder if there is some magic technique that can make your carving stand out. The answer is that there is nothing magical about it. It’s just a matter of practice!

Veg tan leather carving — Floral carving in leather.

It turns out you don’t need to sell your soul to the devil or perform any magical rites. You also don’t need to possess any superhuman strengths or skills. An average person can improve their carving skills and become really good with one simple technique: Focused Practice.

Focused Practice

Focused practice is concentrating on one aspect of your leatherwork and repeating it again and again with the goal of improving your work each time. In this case it’s working on your carving skills and self-critiquing your work each time. This was a tip given to me by one of my mentors, noted saddle maker and Hollywood holster reproduction specialist Dusty Johnson. Dusty was a great guy with years and years of experience and he really helped me out when I was starting off.

He made the suggestion that in order to make my leather carving skills better I should take a particular small carving design and repeatedly carve it. So I make this same suggestion to you: Find a small simple design. In my case I found a Tandy Craftaid (something like this) and carved it repeatedly. Dusty recommended carving it five times and after each attempt, take a step back and take a good look at what you have made. Note the parts that you like about it. Note the things that you don’t like so much. Think about those parts and decide what you can do to improve those. Then try the same design again. After you have finished that one critique it again.

Practice pieces for my leather carving skills improvement. — Practice pieces

The image above shows the fourth and fifth versions of the floral design I carved back then. They look pretty rough to me these days but I carved these over fifteen years ago! At the time these did represent a significant improvement in my leather carving skills, but over the years I’ve put a lot more effort into my skills and it shows.

Improving your leather carving skills

If you try this exercise I guarantee that by the time you finish the fifth piece if you place it next to your first attempt you are going to see some improvement. You will probably see a lot of improvement! Try it again with a different design. The more you do this the more improvement you will see. This is the core of focused practice. Concentrating on one part of your skills and working on them again and again to improve them. And you don’t have to be repeating a practice piece to make this technique work. Every time you carve something in leather, critique it afterwards to see what you liked and didn’t like and try to improve the stuff you didn’t like next time. This sort of honest critique will quickly improve your skills.

Common Types of Leather

Leather Construction, Life of a Maker

There are a lot of different types of leather and many terms that can be confusing even to those who normally work with the stuff. Here is a short list of some of the more common terms you will find on this website or in the industry. This list doesn’t cover all the types and terms used in the industry but it does cover many of the common ones.

Cordovan

Back leather from horses tanned with special processes to make it withstand water and wear well.

Full Grain Leather

The grain side of the leather is not sanded or otherwise treated to hide scars or marks.

Chrome Tanned Leather

Leather that has be tanned with chromium salts. This kind of leather often has a blue-green center and is somewhat water repellant. It is one of the most common types of leather consumers see on a day to day basis. Almost all your clothing leathers are made by this technique.

Suede

Leather cut from the back side of a hide of full grain leather and is often brushed or abraded to give it a velvety surface.

Napa

Usually an aniline dyed calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin. Usually a very soft leather. These types of leather are used when exceptional softness and a luxury feeling are needed.

Nubuck

An aniline dyed leather that has been sanded or buffed on the grain side. Sensitive to dirt and hard to clean.

Elk

Soft and durable leather made from Elk hides.

Deer

Soft and durable leather made from deer hides. Generally does not come from wild animals but instead from animals raised in captivity.

Kangaroo

A durable and soft leather commonly used in braiding items like whips. Also useful in high wear items.

Ostrich

Made from ostrich hides and frequently used in fashion items. The leather has distinctive surface with raised bumps where the feathers used to attach. Sometimes this also refers to leather made from the legs of the ostrich which has a bumpy or almost scaly look.

Rawhide

Untanned leather that is scrapped, soaked and treated with lime to make it stiff and brittle when dry. Used in some leather products for its toughness.

Split Leather

This is the bottom of a full grain hide that has been cut off with a long sharp knife. This can be used to make suede or it can be stained and finished to look like full grain leather as a low cost alternative to a full grain hide.

Vegetable Tanned Leather

This leather is tanned using plant extracts that give it special properties that allow it to be carved or stamped. The process is lengthy and sometimes takes months. This is the kind of leather I use for all the carved or stamped items I make. It’s also the kind used to make western saddles.

Alligator Leather

Leather made from the skins of alligators. Recognizable by the large scales and can be easily mistaken for Crocodile leather.

Crocodile Leather

Very similar to alligator leather except crocodile hides can often have knobby projections from the surface.

Crust Leather

Crust is a term used for leather that has been tanned but has not had dyes or finishes applied.

Angled Leather Basket Stamping Tutorial. It’s Easy!

Creativity, Leather Stamping

When I published my Straight Basket Weave Tutorial I said that I planned on making the same kind of thing for Angled Basket Weave, and this is it. Angled basket stamping is actually what I use almost exclusively when doing leather basket stamping. So if you look at my work this is the technique you will see almost anytime I’m basket stamping a project.

Leather Basket Stamping

If you’re not familiar with the term, angled leather basket stamping means you are stamping your impressions at an angle but the centers of the impressions run at a straight line to the borders of the project. See the picture below for a visual of what I mean.

Leather belt with basket stamp design

On this belt the actual stamp impressions are at an angle but that angle is such that the basket weave design runs parallel to the length of the belt. There are a lot of ideas and techniques out there on how to do this. Sometimes people work out the precise angle the stamp needs to be held at to achieve this effect, they make templates of the angle, etc. Those techniques work but there is actually a very simple way to do this that works for every basket stamp and does NOT require any knowledge of trigonometry or using any special tools! In this case there really is one simple trick to lining the stamps up correctly.

I’ve done this tutorial differently than the last one. This time instead of a photo heavy blog post, I’ve created the tutorial as a PDF file that you can download. You don’t need to sign up for anything, just click the link below to download the file. Take a look at it and I think you’ll see it’s really easy to stamp angled basket weave. Grab a piece of scrap leather and give it a try. You’ll be stamping angled basket weaves like a pro in no time flat!

Download the tutorial here: Angled basket tutorial

As always if you have questions leave a comment here.

Basket Weave Leather Stamping Tutorial

Leather Carving, Leather Construction, Leather Stamping, Life of a Maker

Basket weave leather stamping is really intimidating to many people but it doesn’t have to be difficult. I have been working on a way to explain the techniques I use in my basket stamping (and really any stamping with a basket weave or geometric stamp) and I’ve come up with this tutorial as a starting point. I decided to begin with the simplest form of basket stamping where you are stamping in a straight line across the leather. Later I’ll write up a tutorial on angled basket weave stamping, which is more complicated but what I use most of the time.

Step 1:

Here is the cased leather I’ll be using for this tutorial. It’s a money clip wallet back and I’m going to place a straight line of basket weave stamping down the length of it.

NOTE: I am right handed so all the descriptions and directions are what works for me. If you are left handed most likely you will do everything in the opposite direction from what I’m writing here.

I start out by making a faint line across the middle of the leather. This will be my guide line for the first row of stamps. Note that I made this line very bold for this picture. Normally I would try to make this a faint mark but in this case the stamp will always be placed over the line so no part of the guideline will be left once I’ve stamped the whole piece.

I’ve also marked the border on the piece because later I will need to make sure I don’t stamp past the border lines.

Step 2:

Basket stamp on leather

I start by placing the basket stamp with one side right on the line and with the back edge right up against the border. Take your time and line this up carefully. This first row is the base for all the stamping on the rest of the project and any problems here will lead to more problems across the rest of the project.

Step 3:

Here is the first stamp impression. Note the legs of the basket stamp are right on the line I marked on the leather. You want to keep the stamp aligned straight with the guide line as much as possible.

Step 4:

Time for the next stamp impression. Move the tool so you are making an impression with the other side of the stamp on the guideline as shown in the picture. The next impression will still be along the guideline but with the back leg of the basket stamp overlapping the first impression. The leg of the second impression should drop in perfectly to the leg of the first impression. As long as the side of the stamp is lined up along the guide line, you will keep your stamps going in a straight line.

Here is main secret to how I stamp and keep the whole project straight and uniform. Note the black arrow in the picture pointing at where the back of the stamp is sitting. There is a slight gap between the back of the stamp and the center bar in the first stamp impression. This is very intentional and it’s about the width of the leg of the stamp. This extra space is a bit of play we will keep between all of the impressions. As things get a bit off or crooked, this amount of play will allow us to adjust and keep things from getting far off. If we stamped the impression right against the center bar there would be no room for error in the stamps around it and eventually you would end up with stamps crowding each other and the overall project would be crooked.

Step 5:

Here is the second impression. It’s on the other side of the guide line but still has its legs lined up with the guideline. Again, take you time making each of these first impressions and make sure they line up. The time and patience you show here at the start will pay off in the end.

Step 6:

Now it’s time to repeat back on the other side of the line. Again place the legs of the stamp in the last impression and make sure you have the same small gap between the back leg of the stamp and the center bar of the last impression. It’s important to try and be as consistent with each impression as possible and to try and keep that slight gap the same for each impression. Again your patience will be rewarded.

Also note that while I’m stamping this first row this is basically my view. I’m always looking from the side to see how well it lines up with the guide line. Once I finish this first row I’ll change how I look at the leather but for now I want to focus on making sure each impression lines up along the line and has the right spacing.

Step 6A:

First three impressions made. About a few hundred to go.

Step 7:

This view shows more stamps running along the line as I continue to work my way across the piece of leather. Again, keep the legs of the stamp on the guideline and try to make the space consistent between each impression.

Step 8:

This pictures shows how even when you are trying to carefully line things up slight accidents will still happen. The black arrow is pointing to where the previous impression was slightly off the line and you can see it is not quite lining up with the next impression. We are all human so slight errors like this are UNAVOIDABLE. This slight error causes the row next to it to be slightly off. As you expand the stamping the errors like this compound which is why we tend to start off nicely but end up with our basket stamping being all over the place by the time we finish. It’s that slight gap between the back of the stamp and the center bar that allows us the freedom to correct this kind of problem as we go along.

Step 9:

Once we reach the other side most of the time the stamp isn’t going to line up with the border. In this case I tip the tool on end so I’m just making a partial impression. I line up the legs just as before but tilt it up slightly so that when I strike the tool I only make an impression inside my border.

The second picture here shows the tilt from the side and I’ve exaggerated how much I tip it, but you do need to tip it more than you think. If you don’t you’ll end up accidentally making faint marks on the other side of the border.

Step 9A:

Here’s the impression of the tipped stamp. Don’t worry that there is a pretty large gap between the partial stamp impression and the border. We’ll fill that in with a border stamp later.

Step 10:

Now that I have my baseline across the project, I start stamping the area to one side of it. To do this I’m going to reverse the direction I’m adding new stamps. I now will be stamping from right to left (I’m right handed but you are left handed you will most likely reverse this) I start by lining up the legs of stamp inside the two stamps that are already on the leather. Note that I’ve rotated the project about 90 degrees and this is how I view the project in these two views. This way I can most clearly see where the stamp sits in the existing impressions.

Here is another key trick I use to keep things straight and neat. In the closeup picture you can see I’ve lined the stamp up with equal amounts of extra space on either side of the stamp. This is where having that small gap between the stamps pays off. From now on whenever you make an impression always try to keep the extra space on either side of the stamp equal, or stated another way keep the stamp centered between the two existing impressions. Also try to keep the stamp running in a straight line with the existing impressions. If you do these two things each time you stamp a new impression, it will help average out any slight errors we’ve made already and keep the stamp impressions form crowding each other. Paying attention to these two key details will go a long way to improving your basket stamping.

Step 11:

This shows several impressions I’ve made as I follow along my existing row of stamps, working from right to left. On each one I try to center the stamp between the two existing stamps and keep the stamp aligned with the existing stamps. This stamping will go faster than the initial row.

Step 12:

I’ve reached the end of the line again and again the stamp is running over the border. Just like before I tilt the stamp so I only make a partial impression. The second picture shows I only get an impression of the legs of the basket weave, but that leg impression is what I’ll use to line up the next row.

Step 13:

Here’s where we are at this point. We stamped a straight line across the project from left to right and then stamped one row of stamps back across from right to left. For the next row I’ll go back to the right and stamp another new row, tilting the stamp up at each end as necessary. I’ll keep doing that until I have filled up that side of the project and it looks something like…

Step 14:

Here I’ve added all the full rows I can on one side of the project and I’m bumping up against the border. For each stamp I’ve followed my process of making sure each new impression is centered between the two existing stamps and I check to make sure I’m keeping the stamp aligned straight with the existing rows. Fortunately it has come out pretty even with the border.

Step 15:

Now I am working on stamping as close to the border as possible by tilting the stamp towards me and making partial impressions. I still make sure to place the stamp centered between the two existing impressions and keep the stamp straight with the other impressions. I just want to be careful to leave as few marks as possible in the border area.

This closeup shows the partial stamp impressions and if you look carefully you’ll see I left a slight impression of one of the legs in the border. You can get rid of this by using a modeling spoon to gently rub the mark out.

Step 16:

Now I flip the whole project around and repeat the process on the other side. Again I start on the right and add impressions moving toward the left.

Just like before I center the stamp between the two impressions and keep the side of the stamp aligned straight with the existing impressions.

Step 17:

The other side is filled with impressions just like we did on the other side.

Step 18:

This time the whole stamp impressions came out pretty close to the border. I could probably get by without stamping any more but I’m going to go ahead and stamp partial impressions along the border by tilting the tool. I always try to get my stamps as close to the border as possible.

Step 18:

The basket stamping part is finished. Now to finish things up I bevel the border all around the edges of the basket stamped area.

Step 19:

Finally, pick a border stamp and stamp it around all the edges.

That is all the steps I go through, Yes there are a lot of details to keep track of and at first things go pretty slowly but after a little practice doing these steps becomes routine and it goes much quicker and

Jazz Up Your Wardrobe with Leather Money Clips!

Creativity, Leather Carving, Leather Stamping

Money Clips are an old idea. Historians say that the original idea for the money clip dates back to 323 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia where a clip was used to keep track of notes that described amounts of grain. These notes could be traded as a form of currency based in grain. The idea for holding the notes with a clip of some kind spread to other cultures and we’ve had variations on the money clip idea ever since.

The kind of money clip I specialize in is a kind of hybrid money clip and wallet combination. The clip for holding the bank notes is attached to a minimalist leather wallet that can hold several credit cards and an ID. But just because the wallet is minimalist doesn’t mean that it can’t have style or flair! Money clips like this can be made to show off any personality or style. From Celtic knots to sports teams, monograms or fantasy themes, money clips like this can be customized to almost any interest.

Carved leather money clip wallet with Celtic knot design — Money clip with Celtic knot design

Custom Leather Money Clips

I make many kinds of leather money clips and I’m happy to customize them to whatever fits your interests. From special artwork to monograms to inlays, I strive to bring a customer’s imagination into reality.

Leather money clip with oak leaf carving designs.

Not only can the artwork be made to your specification, but I can customize the money clip with your choice of interior or exterior pockets. Interior pockets can be decorated too, and even special sizes are an option. Just let me know what you are interested in.

If you have a special gift in mind for someone I can make that gift a reality. Custom designs based on your ideas are our specialty! Contact us to start making your special gift.