Hope Lions Hear From Hope”s Leather Craftsman Kenny Rowe

The Hope Lions Club had a real treat on Monday (5-6) when master leather craftsman Kenny Rowe of Hope gave a program on his work.  Rose, who maintains a shop on highway 29 south, got into leather work due to his father, the late “Doc” Rowe.  As a youth, Rowe said he disliked working on leather for his father.  His father was a policeman and got started by making his own belts and holsters and it grew from there.  “Doc” had a shop for many years on Pritchard Street.  Rowe said his dad had to retire from the police department at a relatively early age due to heart issues and when he retired from there, he retired from leather work as well.  Meanwhile, Kenny Rowe spent his teenage years working as a newspaper carrier for the “Hope Star”.  Says Kenny, “I did not have the patience you need when I was a kid to do that stuff.”

Kenny Rowe gravitated back to leather work as an adult.  He brought several pieces of his work to show the Lions including leather pieces he does for law enforcement personnel around the state.  Rowe stressed that learning to work with leather is a long process.  “If I somebody in my shop to start fresh, if they’d never cut a piece of leather in their life on purpose, then it would take years to teach them what we do,” says Rowe.  He notes it’s “not something that you just pick a book up and read it and you can go do it.”  Rowe says working with leather requires learning to use various tools and learning what they do to the leather.  He said there are other several other machines such as sewing machines that the leather worker has to master.

Making knife sheaths for Rowe started when he met knife maker Jerry Fisk at the Jonquil Festival.  Rowe had made some sheaths for people who had heirloom knives, but Fisk got him started making sheaths for new knives.  Rowe even showed a sheath with a design all his own that allows the knife owner to more quickly pull his knife from the sheath without the potential of cutting the piece of leather that holds knife in place.

Rowe showed some pieces of leather he had constructed from various types of leather.  He showed piece made from caiman hide, elephant hide, and alligator. He noted the durability of the elephant leather.  Another service that Rowe offers is reworking saddles.  He noted the saddle work increased during COVID as people were stuck at home and had to amuse themselves away from people.  At that time, people started getting old saddles out of barns and bringing them to Rowe.  He says they often bring them for cleaning, oiling, and conditioning.

The Rowe leather shop turns out lots of different items.  These include belts, billfolds, rifle slings, cellphone cases, holsters, and more.

Making leather requires quite a bit of machinery.  Rowe said his dad had a hand-operated drill, a “treadle” sewing machine that he bought in Oklahoma (and brought back to Hope in the family’s 1962 Chevy!), and another smaller machine.  He now has a hydraulic press called a “clicker”.  This is to cut and stamp leather work.  Another machine is a band-knife splitter.  This allows the craftsman to trim the thickness of leather.  Rowe also said he acquired the machinery from Glen Wade’s shoe-repair shop and Wade worked for Rowe until he retired about 9 months ago.

Rowe described some knife shows he does.  He noted he has quit, at least for the present, going to gun shows because he is so backed up on making holsters and gun accessories at the moment.

Working with Rowe is Monty Malone.  He noted his son had worked with him prior to Malone joining him.  Rowe said they make most anything that can be made out of leather except “footwear and underwear…I won’t make those,” says Rowe.

If you’ve never seen Rowe’s leather shop, make it a point to stop in and see his work.  And you’ll also see a true craftsman at work right here in Hope, Arkansas.