Guitarists prize handcrafted tools from Putnam County native

Friday, August 12, 2016
Putnam County native Ed Chew produces custom-made tools for musicians through his company titled Wrought Iron Leather and Effects. (Courtesy photo)

Ed Chew, a Putnam County native and DePauw University alumnus, has founded Wrought Iron Leather and Effects, a maker of handcrafted and custom-engineered tools for musicians.

Wrought Iron is a growing company based in the remote North Woods of Wisconsin. The company builds what Chew calls "somewhat eccentrically designed products with a focus on durability," such as guitar straps, effects pedals and suitcase pedal boards.

A guitarist himself, Chew began the business as a hobby crafting guitar straps from the leather remnants of his handmade farrier chaps. Drawing on his studies in circuit theory and analog electronics while at DePauw, he moved on from guitar straps to wiring and housing guitar effects pedals in repurposed, vintage enclosures such as model train transformers, 8 mm movie cameras and silent butlers.

(Courtesy photo)

Now, Chew designs and builds the pedals inside and out, from wiring the circuits to folding the aluminum enclosures. The pedals combine form and function inspired by literature and legends the likes of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and their characters. A video from his successful KickStarter campaign highlights his story and the pedals' designs and sounds.

Chew majored in math at DePauw and planned to enter engineering school after graduation. Instead, he completed a two-year tour with Peace Corps in Nicaragua. There he worked as an agricultural volunteer, developed an interest in horses and farrier work and relied on guitar playing for his own entertainment and breaking the ice with his neighbors.

Engineering plans aside, he continued his agriculture work with horses and oxen at the sustainable farming nonprofit Tillers International, where he met his wife Kris Svenson Chew, and later attended Heartland Horseshoeing School in Lamar, Mo. Kris Chew is the artist for Wrought Iron Leather and Effects' graphic designs and also runs her own therapeutic massage practice.

The couple currently reside in Wisconsin with their two daughters and a menagerie of animals.

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