Chester Hape - Sheridan Wyoming

World Renound Saddlemaker Chester Hape - Photo by Tom Balding
Chester Hape, who is retired but still does leatherwork for pleasure, learned much from Don King. Hape carves the intricate flower pattern that is the hallmark of the Sheridan style, but his designs appear to be continuous, with every vine and leaf and flower connected. "I will break up a vine with another vine," he told us in his studio, "but only with a single vine, so the flow is never broken. I like to loop things through other things, so your eye never stops." Hape, who is known for the precision of his carving, explains that his attraction to leatherwork came as no surprise. "All my family on my mother's side were carpenters and artists. I liked to draw and make things from the time I was little. Growing up around horses and ranches and rodeo, it seemed natural to put that feeling into saddles."

Like Don King, Hape is always ready to remind admirers that his saddles are built to work. He bristles at the notion that saddlemaking is something people do as a hobby. "I call that the Tandy syndrome," he says, referring to the Tandy Leather & Crafts catalogues long popular among home hobbyists. "You have no idea how a saddlemaker has to work for years refining and developing his art. That is why there are so few good ones."

Most of the men who are now known for making Sheridan saddles, in fact, at one time worked with or for Don King. The trophy saddles King made in the 1950s and 1960s for world-champion rodeo cowboys set the standard for the highly refined floral style. Chester Hape explains that King's generosity as a teacher is part of what has made Sheridan such a productive leatherworkers' community. "Here you work on something and you think, 'All the other saddlemakers are going to see this. It better be good!' There is a lot of competition in this town, but it's friendly competition, the kind that makes you better."

Contributed by: Jane and Michael Stern - the authors of Way Out West (1993); Happy Trails: Our Life Story (1994), with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans; and Dog Eat Dog (1997).

Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding

Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Chas Weldon Photo by Chas Weldon

Photo by Chas Weldon Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding Photo by Tom Balding

Photo by Tom Balding

Keith's notes:

The first time I saw Chester Hapes' work, I was blown away. I was with a friend who took me to visit Tom Balding and introduce me to him during the Leather show in Sheridan back in 2000. I dont remember seeing any of Chester's work at the show but there were several pieces on display in Tom Balding's showroom. After becoming acquaintanted with Tom, I asked him on one of my visits if Chester would be open to having a visit from me. Tom called Chester up and ask him Tom said "yeah Keith, he said to come on over" so off I went. It was a treat to visit with Chester in his workshop. I did not get to spend days with him there, only a couple of hours, but during that visit it opened my eyes to ideas of how laying out your flow would go. The couple of years that followed, Tom would send me photos of Chester's work. I really appreciated the generosity that Chester and Tom have shown and I still enjoy study the pictures they sent from time to time. I have posted some of these as a gallery above. When I had my opportunity to work a stint with Chas Weldon and learn some things on Tooling leather and Saddle Making, we would look through old photos of saddles and the tooling designs. Chester's work kept popping up. His work, like Don King, in its own right will be admired and cherished for many many years. Chester is not making saddles anymore "due to the loss of dexterity in his fingers" is the way he puts it. But he still enjoys windsurfing as the weather and his health allows.