Craftsmen Supply is located at 1605 North 23rd St., one block south of Seventh Avenue. While they cater to woodworkers, they have a general offering of tools and other general hardware that you would typically have to travel to Brandon or South Tampa to get. If you’ve ever been in the middle of a project in Ybor and discovered that you were missing a bolt, screw or particular tool you will appreciate the value of this store to our community.
Before moving to Ybor City in 2017, Craftsmen was a TrueValue Hardware Store on Busch Boulevard, in Temple Terrace. In the 70’s they had an employee named Paul Schmitt who used to take wood home from the store, put it into a mold and park his mom’s car on top of it to make skate boards. He went on to become one of the founding fathers of the skateboard manufacturing industry. If you’re interested in reading more about Paul this is a pretty good article: https://www.surfertoday.com/skateboarding/paul-schmitt-the-professor-and-scientist-of-skateboarding.
Craftsmen Supply is open 6 days a week from 9am to 4pm.
