Started in late 2000 by owner Joel Forrest, CJF Saddlery & Upholstery is a custom leatherwork and repair business. CJF Saddlery began by making horse tack and moved into working with upholstery, among many other things, over the years. The business has moved several times in its history, finally landing here in Fruitport two years ago, at 5751 Airline Road.

            Joel has a reputation for excellence in his jobs. Forrest has been called “a saddle and upholstery expert” by the Grand Rapids chapter of the American Sewing Guild. He hasn’t been getting much saddle work lately, because the saddle parts are slow to come in. But he says business has picked up more with boats and custom-made furniture, as well as with smaller things, like belts and knife-sheaths that are still made of leather. He says he gets a lot of those small items. “But the holsters that we used to make that were of leather, those have changed to more Kydex or plastic now,” Forrest said. “So [I] still make ‘em, but that’s a whole different [story].”

            Though he can sew pretty much anything, from inch thick leather down to just regular upholstery fabric, Forrest especially enjoys doing the more unique jobs. “There’s so many different people, so many different jobs,” Forrest declared. “And a lot of times people come in and it’s not even a standard job, it’s a, like, ‘Well, hey, I’ve got an issue with a chair. I love it but I can’t sit in it because I had hip surgery.’ So [I] have to modify it for them, you know. It’s always [these] cool little things. That’s always, always fun. And then there’s the real old stuff that people bring,” Forrest continued. “We’ve done a lot of restoration work for museums and stuff like that. So, people bring in something real old, [like] an heirloom. And if you can’t restore it, [you] can at least duplicate it, so it’s still useable. And they can still keep the original one without making it look like it was all cobbled up. So, yeah. Every job is different, really.”  Forrest also enjoys fixing things for truck companies.

Joel also shared a bit of his history. “I worked a little bit with Ottawa County with the sheriff’s department, then with Lowell with the fire department, and then, after I moved out of Lowell, I left there and have been just doing this [business], full-time.”

            The meaning of Forrest’s business name has changed ever-so-slightly over time. “It was Circle JF,” Forrest said. “When I first started doing horse tack, that was my brand. [It] was a circle with a J and an F in it.” Currently, though, he goes with the CJF instead of Circle JF. “I’ve got a two-year-old and his name’s Camden; so eventually it’ll be ‘Camden Joel Forrest.’ His first and my first and last name.”

Forrest’s dog, Bud, is the greeter at CJF Saddlery. “He’s been here for three years,” Forrest said. When Bud is greeting newcomers, he does his job happily.

            If you’d like to contact CJF Saddlery & Upholstery, you can call Joel Forrest at (616) 893-2441, or go to cjf-saddlery.business.site to get a quote, give a call and get directions.

by Kate and Calvin Holtrop: Published in the Fruitport Area News, 2021, November Issue, page 13