The Toolbelt Masters
With gumption, insight, and brilliant use of social media, a few guys in Virginia built a business making what could be the world’s finest tool belts.
Dear Friends,
As part of our mission to “create a world built to last,” our stories often highlight the skill, time, and intense dedication it takes to learn and eventually master a craft. But what does it take for an artisan to make a living from their work?
Throughout June, we'll be exploring how to build a successful, artisan-based business. There’s no simple recipe; each artisan’s journey is distinct, as is their definition of “success.” But however one defines it, it almost certainly involves a blend of creativity, persistence, business acumen, and luck.
In the coming weeks, we'll be offering a selection of inspiring stories and insightful interviews with artisans who have carved out their own paths to build thriving businesses, large and small. Today, we’re spotlighting a great story from our archives, featuring some folks who, like many entrepreneurs before them, designed and created a product to solve a problem they understood well—and then bootstrapped that product into a company: Diamondback Tool Belts.
We hope you’ll enjoy reading ”The Toolbelt Masters,” written by Lorraine Sanders.
Thank you for reading and sharing our stories, for supporting our work with a paid subscription if you can, and for being part of the Craftsmanship community. We couldn’t do this without you.
Sincerely,
The Craftsmanship Team
Coming Soon…
This Friday: “The Jewelry Archaeologist”
Hugo Kohl started out as a goldsmith. He didn’t plan to rescue an entire era of early American jewelry manufacturing from extinction; he just happened upon a curious find while on vacation. But through years of painstaking and often fruitless detective work, that’s exactly what he did.
ICYMI…
In our latest Secrets of Mastery episode, you’ll hear from Dr. Doug Tallamy, entomologist, author, professor at the University of Delaware, and co-founder of Homegrown National Park. Tallamy has a great passion for insects, of course—and a revolutionary idea for homeowners: Tear out your lawn and plant native species instead.
Listen to: Rewilding Your Yard, with Dr. Doug Tallamy
“The Secrets of Mastery” is a series of brief, intimate conversations with artisans, innovators, and other pioneers about what it takes to master their craft, and why handmade matters. It’s available only for our paid subscribers here on Substack.
If you haven’t done so already, you can upgrade your subscription now for just $6/month, or $60/year, and get access to all of our premium content, including the entire Secrets of Mastery series. Thank you for supporting independent journalism!
What do Queen Elizabeth II, Oprah, Bill Gates, and Patrick Stewart have in common?
“Few pursuits are more obliquely named than ‘dissectology.’ The term calls to mind luckless amphibians, etherized in high school laboratory trays. But dissectology is a passion shared by such gentle luminaries as Queen Elizabeth II, Oprah, Bill Gates, and Patrick Stewart—none of whom would willingly harm a frog.
Dissectologists do not require pins, a scalpel, or forceps. What they need is a sharp eye, and the ability to see large patterns in small bits—for a dissectologist is a person who loves solving jigsaw puzzles. And this -ology would include, presumably, those who craft and create them…”
Read: “The Puzzling Craft of Dissectology,” by .
Craftsmanship Magazine focuses on master artisans and innovators whose work informs our quest: to create a world built to last.