REEDSVILLE — It’s as if you can still smell the fumes of automobile engines. As if the attendant bell will ding at any second as a driver stops for gas.

Inside, tradesmen are still working with their hands, doing what they loved and longed for.

The old Sunoco Service Station along Route 522 South, McVeytown, still breathes with life.

The fumes of horsepower have been replaced with fresh hides, hung in preparation for making leather products.

The 1920s service station is the home of Gritwell, which sells hand-crafted leather goods and clothing, which was established in 2015. Owners say its “seeds and inspiration were planted generations ago.”

A black and white family picture reveals past generations of family members standing in front of the gas station. If that picture could talk the grease-stained overalls and calloused hands would tell many stories. Much the same as the leather hides and tools of today’s trade.

The dust-covered work bench has crafted quality leather products not matched by the mass production of corporate America. Operating in a small town offers a simpler way of live.

Setting up shop in a basement where Gritwell was founded, the owner knew it would take the grit to pursue a dream that was so close yet so far away.

Gritwell opened shop in a 1920s service station in McVeytown, about a mile from the old family-owned station.

Their designs and products are inspired by early morning drives through the valley and small-town storefronts. The owner used inspiration from their original roots for today’s handmade leather goods.

Handmade isn’t only about the product itself. It’s the entire process: inspiration, design and concept refinement. This process and a meticulous focus on each detail is what makes Gritwell’s product whole – the constant is consistency and quality.

In a competitive industry that craftsmanship has enabled Gritwell to thrive. To the point that the business expanded by moving the retail aspect of its business to a new 1,000-foot storefront in Reedsville this month. The manufacturing part of the business remained in McVeytown.

Space — two bays at the service station — was at a premium and with the business wanting to expand their upholstery side, which was the original product that was sold there, expansion was the best solution.

“We’re taking the retail out of the workshop,” Gritwell’s Joshua Miller said. “It will be half upholstery and half leather goods.”

The leather goods have become successful, so quickly that “a lot of people coming here for leather goods don’t realize about the upholstery,” Danielle Pecht explained. “They bring their high-end classic cars, and they don’t know about our hand-crafted leather goods.”

They admit full restoration of automotive interiors is a dying trade. “You don’t see it too much anymore,” Miller said.

The hand-crafted aspect of their production process is also rare.

“We do want that quality and hand-made aspect of our business,” Miller said. “Our products are made to last, and we want our customers to know and appreciate that.

“We show and emphasize that in every way possible,” he added. “Even in the way we talk to customers. We have products in our retail location that have had years of use to show how they age. We want customers to know they’re getting something quality for the cost.”

Their process is still as rugged as the economy.

“Nothing goes through a mass production process,” Miller said. “Up until cutting out our leather goods with a single razor blade. Our hands are still making it.”

That is Gritwell.

“People are buying into an experience,” Pecht said. “It’s not something that you come across often. You have to buy into the lifestyle.”

The cow hides hang in both workshop and the new retail space purposefully, so customers get the full experience, and to see where each product starts.

“It’s all made right here, which is why we have the hides hanging,” Miller said. “They’re hand-picked from the tanneries. It’s about the experience coming into the workshop. You enter and instantly love this smell.”

That time-period feel is one advantage that Gritwell has over online competitors.

However, walking into Gritwell’s retail space compared to another retail shop is vastly different.

“We want them to enjoy the entire experience,” Miller said. From seeing the hides hanging and craftsmen at work to seeing the leather goods for sale and making a purchase.

Gritwell has tried thoughtfully to protect that aspect of their business when planning the Reedsville storefront.

“Just going there and opening was not an option,” Miller said. “Part of the experience was coming in here. We had to ask ourselves, ‘How do you grow and not lose that.'”

The answer was finding the perfect location, an old hardware store from the late 1800s to early 1900s. “It has serious historic value,” Miller said. “It’s a blue-collar shop.

“When you go from a service station to a hardware store, what better way to carry over that vibe,” he added.

Gritwell expects to make some small goods on site — even into the storefront window to “keep the experience,” Miller said. “It will be more refined than the current shop is.”

Despite that refinement, they’ve kept features from the original hardware store. They hope the move from the highway will also generate more foot traffic.

“There’s parking, so people can stop and walk in,” Pecht said. “We want to take Gritwell to the next step. We’re hoping to add value to the community.”