An interview with Jeff Luke of Po Boy Gear on his new class, leather working, and more.
This article was transcribed from a video interview with Jeff. You can see the video with more information here
I got started in leatherwork about 12 years ago. Started off doing motorcycle seats, bags and so forth. I had a pretty good run but I just wasn’t passionate about it.Then I kind of fell into the affliction of being a part of the muzzleloading scene. I started buy and building muzzleloaders, and trying to figure out how I could take that leather and make it fit. I started doing bags, knife sheaths, flint wallets and really enjoyed it. I started researching the history of it and so fourth and now about 3 or 4 years later we’re going to be doing a class at the NMLRA Education Building in Friendship, Indiana.
Jeff Luke of Po Boy Gear
We’re going to talk about the history of hunting/shooting bags, talk about the differences between those and say a possibles bag/haversack. Then we’ll go through and build a bag!
It’s basically kind of a no frills bag, kind of bag you might have seen in the 18th century on a frontiersman all across the country here as we were expanding west. We’ll start off with veg tanned leather, some thread, and a little time and patience and we’ll end up with a finished bag.
This first class will be capped at 10 students, we might do a second one depending on the response of this first round and the outcome.
Students don’t need to know anything about leatherworking whatsoever before taking the class. This will be an absolutely basic course for anyone with no knowledge or with a little. I’ll be doing some of the work for you, cutting out the main pieces. We’re going to let the students cut out their own choice of flap.Then we will go through the dying process with a few options of color there as well. We’re hoping that beginners as well as students with some experience can all enjoy the class and learn something new.
If you’d like to see more of my work, you can look me up on facebook. I have a page “PoBoy Gear” where you can catch up with what I’m doing and what keeps me out of trouble.
This is something I’m really looking forward to. I spend a lot of time on leatherwork, trying to refine the craft and improve with every piece I do. I thoroughly enjoy it.
I’d like to thank the NMLRA for what they are doing to promote this hobby, this passion, this history, I think that is an important thing as we move forward and I appreciate all the work they are doing.