I don’t switch tanneries for fun. I use Wickett & Craig because the leather works for holsters and wallets — and because the story behind it is real.
They’ve been vegetable-tanning since 1867. Today they’re in Curwensville, Pennsylvania, and they’re one of the last specialty veg tanneries still running in the U.S. The process is slow on purpose: hides spend time in yards with natural tannins (including bark extracts like Mimosa and Quebracho), then get finished over weeks — not hours. Wickett & Craig’s own line is that the leather doesn’t just endure; it gets better with age. That’s been true on every belt I’ve worn their leather on.
On the sustainability side, I’m careful not to overclaim what I haven’t audited myself. What they say publicly, and what matters to me as a buyer: the hides are a byproduct of the beef industry (they’re not raising cattle for leather alone), the tannins come from plant sources, and they treat their process water on-site — with solids from that treatment used on local farm fields as fertilizer. That’s a better story than mystery imported chrome leather with no name on the tag.
For Wolf Creek, naming the tannery isn’t snobbery. It’s so you know what you’re buying — and so the holster you get next year feels like the one you got this year.
— Noah
Cross Plains, Tennessee