While I was writing this, I was having trouble coming up with an introduction for our next interviewee. After all, the saying is true. He is a man that needs no introduction. It is safe to say that Jim Linnell’s work in the leather industry has positively reverberated into the lives of many. From his award-winning artwork to teaching thousands of others across the world, Jim’s encyclopedic knowledge of all things leather and his dedication to promoting the industry is a testament to the fundamental core belief of our publication. We are but students of history. 

He’s a self-described leather geek and after having the opportunity to chat with him, it’s definitely a moniker that is well-earned. 

You’ve spent 55 years right in the middle of the leather crafting industry, but there had to be a time where you weren’t working with a piece of leather right? What was that like and how did you stumble into the wide and wonderful world of leather? 

I was born and raised in Montana and up there you had the opportunity to take industrial arts classes and leatherwork was one of them. That’s where I fell in love with leatherworking in the 7th grade and I bugged my folks until they got me a basic tool kit from Tandy. I found out that it was pretty easy for me and I got pretty good at it. When I got into High School I continued to take those classes probably because they were easy for me. After High School I went to work for a construction company and during the winter months I went to work for a saddle shop. They gave me a chance, so for the next four years I did all the custom work for this shop on the side. That’s what I loved to do. 

The way that turned into a career was that I was in Billings, Montana and happened to pick up the newspaper and saw that Tandy Leather was looking for employees and thought that would be awesome. I went to the Tandy store wearing a hard hat and coveralls and covered in grease and said, ‘I hear you’re looking for some help’ which got a lot of weird looks. I showed him some of my work and I got the job. I left a job where I was making $15/hr on a Friday and went to work making $2.65/hr (minimum wage at the time) on a Monday. That was the beginning of my career at Tandy and led me to teaching a lot of classes. 

After almost four decades at Tandy, I’m sure you had a lot of job titles. Are there any particularly memorable projects that you started or were involved with? 

Certainly the most rewarding thing was reestablishing the Tandy Leather chain. At the time, I was the face of Tandy. I was going to all these leather shows and I was the guy in the Tandy booth and teaching all of these classes. It was very satisfying to have that out there, because without those retail stores out there this craft could have dwindled down to nothing. Having those retail stores is essential to the growth of this craft. The future of this craft will continue.

Knowledge and practice are keystones to learning a skill. What other attributes are good to have as a leather crafter? 

If somebody is wanting to get into leather craft those things certainly are the most important. 

They need to learn those basics and they need to practice those basics. I teach a lot of classes, I’m teaching one here in three hours but the one thing everyone of these people need is to practice and that can be expensive, you know, leather isn’t cheap, it’s not free, but you still need to practice. So one of the things that I tell folks in those beginners classes is that I believe leatherwork is one of the few hobbies you can ever get into that will pay for itself. And by that, I mean if you went over and bought a belt blank from Kevin (Hopkins, owner of Springfield Leather) there it’s going to be a lot cheaper than going over to the store and buying a finished belt and it’s a better piece of the leather.

You could then build belts and, you know, charge 10 bucks over what you paid in materials and somebody would be happy as all get out to get a belt from you at that great price. And you know what? You practice on their nickel. You get somebody paying you to do the thing that you need the most when you’re starting out and that is you gotta practice. 

Because of things like Facebook and the internet I have seen leather work that just blows my imagination. I mean, I’ve seen leather work that I would have never believed or ever had been exposed to without this device called the internet.

So I think in that regard it’s awesome that it’s expanding the awareness of this craft. However, the bad part of it is that there are brand new people that want to learn how to do leather work and so they go searching on YouTube, but the person doesn’t know if they’re getting good instruction or not. They may be getting somebody sharing with them the bad habits that they figured out how to make work. And so now they’re starting out with this bunch of bad habits that they have to try to work through themselves.

Even when I do the video classes, I try my best to explain the why, why I do it the way I do it and so forth, but I can’t see what they’re doing. 

And since I retired, I think I put up something like 135 different videos now, but none of those are as good as an in-person class. That’s still the best way to learn if people have a chance to do that.

In what ways can other leather crafters help promote and grow the industry? 

That’s a great question. First of all, I think everybody who has been blessed and enjoys this craft has a responsibility to pass that on. Every one of us are leather workers today because somebody, somewhere has influenced us.

We saw something that someone made. Somebody took the time to explain a few basic things to us. And I think everybody who has enjoyed this craft, has a responsibility to do the same and it doesn’t have to be in some big formal class where you have hundreds of people or anything like that. It can be one-on-one with a grandchild or one-on-one with a relative or a friend. That is how it’s passed on. I asked people and they say ‘oh no, I’m not a teacher, I can’t teach.’ Well, all teaching is is sharing what you know. 

I didn’t know I was a teacher until people said, ‘how do you do that?’ Well, let me show you. Here’s how I do it. That’s teaching and anybody can do that. 

After being so involved in the retail aspect of the industry, how has it grown over the years and what do you think the future holds? 

I think the future is great. On display in my shop I have leather on display from Al Stohlman, Ken Griffin, Bill Gomer, so I have a ton of leatherwork here to look at and I get inspired every time I go out to my shop. Every one of those pieces are still continuing to teach people. What does that have to do with the future? Well, we don’t have to start from scratch. We don’t have to go out and figure out how to make our own tools or make our own patterns, we have the tools available to use. 

We get to start where they left off, and that’s my goal for the future. I want to make sure that there is nothing left in the library of me that I haven’t shared, so that future generations can take whatever I’ve done and then take it to the next level. And I think that’s what any teacher aspires to do. To have their students do a better job than they ever could.

Do you have a tool or a certain leather item that holds significant importance to you? A favorite carving or pattern?

No, it’s hard to say that. If you saw the collection that’s here you’d realize how hard it is to say that one’s my favorite because every one is unique and you know I guess the ones that are most special to me are the ones that people gave me. 

Somebody just recently sent me a piece of leather work by Ken Griffin, and that was done probably around 1949. It was the leather work was done on the very first Tandy Leather catalog.

I can look at it and I have that piece of leather here. I can touch it. I run my hands over it. It is a piece of leather that was there at the beginning of what we do today.

Heritage is such a valuable part of our craft and you’ve been deeply involved in researching and sharing that with the community via the Leaders in Leather area of your website. What part of the heritage would you like more crafters to learn and know about? 

Some of them might be only aware of it because of what they’ve discovered on the internet. But this goes back farther than that. When I was over in Spain, I was talking about what we do here in the US, but they were doing a lot of leather work over there long before we ever got a hint about it here and then they came over to this country and brought their horse culture.

And along with that horse culture, came all of the tack builders and the people that needed to maintain that tack. So [leatherworking] has been handed down a long way and I think that’s important that we don’t lose that heritage because when we do, we lose some of the richness of the craft. We lose some of the depth of that heritage. 

The work you have done in promoting and teaching the craft is tremendous. Myself and others I know have greatly benefitted from your lessons. It’s not surprising that you won the Al Stohlman award. What was it like winning the award? 

It was more than stunning. Ann Stohlman happened to be there the year I won the Stohlman Award in 2002. She actually hung that medal around my neck. To have Ann Stohlman hang that medal on my neck was a pivotal moment. If there is such a thing as a lifetime achievement award, that was it. It’s humbling to be put into those categories and have my name mentioned with others that have won that award. 

Okay, so this is the one question I ask everyone, what is your worst piece of advice? 

The worst piece of advice would be to give up. The word give up should never be in someone’s vocabulary if they are wanting to learn this craft. 

I’m better at giving good advice and one thing I tell people is go and find someone’s work that you respect and learn from it. Learn everything you can from that mentor until you have a good solid foundation. Also, the most important class that will ever be taught is a beginner’s class.