Our Mission

So, it all started with an old wallet.

It was my grandad's. To be honest, it had seen better days. The corners had worn away, the stitching was tired, and it had that dark colour old leather gets after years of being shoved in and out of a pocket. It must have been over twenty years old, but it was still doing its job.

I remember looking at it and thinking, someone made this. Not in a factory somewhere, but by a pair of hands. Whoever made it was long gone, but their work was still being used every single day.

That stuck with me.

These days we're used to replacing things when they wear out. Belts crack, wallets split, stitching comes undone and before long they're in the bin. My grandad's wallet was the complete opposite. It wasn't pretty anymore, but every scratch and crease was there because it'd been used, not because it'd fallen apart.

For years I admired good leather goods without really knowing much about how they were made. Then, when life finally settled down enough to give me a bit of spare time, I decided to stop wondering and have a go myself.

I cleared a corner of my garden shed, bought a handful of basic tools and started learning.

Looking back, some of those first attempts were awful. My stitching wandered all over the place, I'd cut pieces too small, glued my fingers together more than once and ruined plenty of leather. I still have a couple of those early pieces tucked away somewhere as a reminder of where I started.

Bit by bit things improved. I watched videos, read books, practised whenever I could and kept making mistakes until I made fewer of them.

I'm still learning now. I don't think that'll ever stop, and honestly I wouldn't want it to.

Today everything is made by hand in my little workshop in Norfolk. Every piece is cut, glued, stitched, burnished and finished by me. I use full-grain vegetable-tanned leather because I like the way it feels, the way it smells, and the way it changes over time. I saddle stitch everything by hand because I enjoy doing it and because it's a strong, proven way of making leather goods that are built to last.

Outside of leatherworking I'm a husband, dad of two, a lab manager and a retained firefighter. The workshop is where I disappear in the evenings or at weekends whenever I get the chance. It's my place to switch off, learn something new and make things I'm proud to put my name on.

People sometimes ask if I'd ever want to grow the business into a factory or have other people making my products.

The honest answer is no.

I like knowing that if you buy something from LW Leatherworking, it was made by the same person who answered your email, packed your order and probably drank far too much diet coke while making it.

I'm not trying to build the biggest leather brand in the country.

I just want to make honest leather goods that get used every day, age well, and maybe, if I'm lucky, are still being carried twenty years from now, just like my grandad's old wallet.

Luke