Let’s jump back in time about 150 years. A great fire has turned Chicago into a city of ashes. The James Gang had robbed its first train robbery. Cowboys are driving thousands of cattle up from Texas to the railheads in Kansas. And Charles D. Cheaney has opened up his saddle shop in Gainesville, Texas.
Five generations later, Bruce Cheaney, 71, is making saddles with the same attention to detail that his leather stitching ancestors did. Today, Bruce Cheaney is doing much more than making great saddles and leather work. He is introducing new generations of craftsmen to the wonders of leather work. Don’t believe me? Try tuning into https://www.youtube.com/cheaneysaddles, Bruce Cheaney’s YouTube channel, which has more than seventy-eight thousand followers. Even if you know nothing about the craft, Bruce will inspire you to pick up a piece of leather and start to work.
Why is his channel so popular?
“Leather working is a good way to express yourself through your work,” Bruce says with typical humility. It’s more than the appeal of leather work that makes Bruce Cheaney’s online and real-time work so popular. It’s the grace of his manner, his soft North Texas accent, and the obvious skill that he brings to his craft.
“Hello. Bruce Cheaney here in the saddle shop in
