 Local
craftsman Chuck Smith has a passion for leather
By DAN KIDDER & LANA SMITH
Valley Center resident and lifelong leather craftsman
Chuck Smith is known for his flowing Western Floral style of carving.
When Chuck was a teenager growing up in North Hollywood, he considered
himself lucky to be in the company of such famous leather carving
masters as Al Stohlman, Kenny Griffin, Cliff Ketchum, Joey Smith,
Lad Haverty and Al Shelton. He fell in love with Western movies
and gun leather and even delivered newspapers to some of the old
Western movie stars. He would get run out of “Nudies Rodeo
Tailors” when Roy Rogers would visit the store.
“I would watch all those movie cowboys
and I really liked all the leather stuff,” Smith says. “So
I took a class in junior high and decided I wanted to work with
leather.”
His dad bought him his first set of leather tools
when he was about 12 years old. By the time he was in high school,
he was an assistant to the teacher, helping to teach his classmates.
He would have loved to have been a saddle maker because all his
heroes were cowboys, but it wasn’t practical to raise a
family like that in Los Angeles at the time. So he let his love
become a part time hobby until later in his life.
“I did a lot of billfolds and belts at
first,” he says. “I would just work out of the house,
and my dad helped me get started. He bought all the stuff I needed
to get started, and he really encouraged me.”
Smith eventually tooled the Marlboro Man’s
saddle but that was the year they outlawed cigarette billboard
advertising in the States, so he never got to see his work except
on a copy of a video provided by the company.
Those who don’t understand leather carving
consider his work expensive. Most people are used to production
purses and belts. Smith’s one of a kind, hand carved belts
start at $450 and his album covers average about $1,000. He is
world-famous for his “Western Floral” style of carving
on leather. He has also done pattern design work for the Tandy
Leather Company of Fort Worth, TX. In collaboration with Martin
Guitar Company of Nazareth, PA., Eric Clapton commissioned the
leather cover for his special guitar as an art piece. It will
probably never be used in public. This leather cover for the guitar
is probably Chuck’s best work ever. He wanted to do something
extra special for the iconic guitarist, so he listened to Clapton’s
albums constantly to get inspired to create the cover as he thought
the musician would want it.
Smith has shot fast draw, worked as a draftsman
and salesman for the telephone company, designed and manufactured
the Mongoose Bicycle and had a manufacturing company that made
exhaust systems for Harley Davidson. Besides having spent years
doing frame-off restorations for classic Chevrolets and Corvettes,
he is well known for his expertise in classic car fuel injection
and carburetion systems. In 1996, he was presented the Al Stohlman
Award for Achievement in Leather Craft. He was a technical leather
advisor for the movie, “Into the Wild” and has done
segments on leatherwork for the Carol Duvall HGTV Show. He has
many well-known clients, both in the car and leather businesses.
“Chuck loves a challenge and loves doing
custom leather work,” his wife, Lana, says. “He does
not really advertise for work because it seems to find him. I
am always happy for him when he is in his workshop taking a piece
of leather and turning it into a canvas of his artwork. He is
truly content then. Besides leather, Chuck’s other love
is anything that goes fast and makes a lot of noise.”
A strong believer in passing on the art of leather
carving, Smith has taught leather carving seminars from Oklahoma
City to Tokyo, Japan. He was one of the first to promote week-long
seminars for students. Long ago, leather workers were not very
generous in teaching their secrets. Due to his perseverance, Smith
has helped to inspire many of his fellow artists to share their
talents. As a result, the craft has truly become an art form and
even the tools carvers use are better due to the increased level
of competition.
As a self-taught engineer, Smith wasn’t
satisfied with the leather tools that were being sold so, in 1991,
he started his own “OL Smoothie” line of swivel knives
and stamping tools. The average swivel knife at that time cost
about $10. Smith’s knife costs $100. People swore they would
never pay that much until they tried it and then bought it. Smith
believes in quality. It shows in his leatherwork.
Born in Detroit in 1936, before his family headed
West in 1943, Smith and his wife, Lana, moved from Calabasas,
CA, to Valley Center in 2003. He loves living here. He says Valley
Center reminds him of his early days in the forties and fifties
when the San Fernando Valley was full of orange groves and dairy
farms and you could still see the stars in the sky.
“We were looking to move from the San Fernando
Valley, and my wife had lived in Fallbrook, so we decided to move
down to this area,” Smith says. “We wanted to get
away from all the noise, so we love it here. It reminds me of
North Hollywood in the fifties with all the orange groves and
the avocados and everything.”
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