More than a thousand copies of the three editions have been sold around the world, at U$100 each, since the First Ed appeared late in 2018. Above, the Third Edition features the only Berns-Martin shoulder holster made for the Walther PPK of James Bond fame, emulating the 1950s horizontal style invented by Chic Gaylord but rejected by Ian Fleming for Bond. Above, the Second Edition features the only original holster of Texas lawman Tom Threepersons, whose 1920s holster spawned

A recent, excellent image on eBay of a vintage Seventrees SSS model for the 1911 pistols, inspired me to compare it with my TCAT ('To Catch a Thief', a Cary Grant film that made a big impression on me as a teen). The latter holster was inspired by the former but it is not a copy, with both having their own points of excellence. A forum post, though, made me realise that it's quite hopeless to think consumers can become educated enough to buy the very best holster for themsel

To build the book required ten years of research online, and 50 years of first-hand experience in the gunleather industry. But it wasn't realistic to try to fit all the tiny details into the book itself. Oh, sure, there was space, but I couldn't let it get bogged down with words when the full color images are what set this book apart from all others on the subject. Above, Sam Myres' original steel stamps from his El Paso years; so, after his founding years in Sweetwater. N

A recent thread on a holster forum reminds me, that some folks fight, for the right, to carry AIWB. Often there will be a challenge, "name me one time someone has killed himself that way". "Dead man walking", I call it. Well, here are MANY TIMES . And lots more of them when you Google the simple phrase 'shot in groin' although you'll also turn up stories about third parties shooting folks there. Here's one that's just arrived November 2024 (I see I haven't kept the date

My daughter was a newborn when Sesame Street appeared and she would recite that line in her car seat. Here I'm inspired to use it because the topic is: the so-called 'FBI Tilt' cited on the Kramer Holsters website - and holsters are the 'conjunction' between pistol and gunman. I've already shown you that this carry angle is not ten degrees! So let's graphically show off the angles you think COULD be ideal, using a clip-on Myres holster that is from his earliest gunleather

For years I operated on the theory that Paris Theodore's designer was not him, but instead a another New Yorker named Bob Angell. I know almost nothing about the latter man, but the knowledge that he was hired away from Chic Gaylord by Paris in '66 is now a matter of record: Paris' recently released auto- biography; posthumous of course because he died long ago. Above, said to be Seventrees' shop. Notice the horsehide 'strips' they're called, in background. Is Angell one

After my three adult children, of course: the Bianchi No. 9R-2 shoulder holster. Although, full disclosure, because I'm a Trump voter they don't speak to me! Merry Christmas? Below, the early 9R-0 by JB, at right the 9R-1 here still pat pend. The scale will fool the eye because the 9R-0 is for the S&W 2-1/2" K frame that is itself larger than the 9R-1 for the S&W 2" J frame: The 9R-2, for which mid-70s I blended the best of the Berns-Martin inverted shoulder holster calle

I now repost my famous Unsafe at any Speed headline while noting that their copy of the Bucheimer-Clark holster will finally be in Holstory's third edition -- in the form of a consumer warning. I would have taken it down long ago but the maker refuses to update his holster. It just doesn't get any better for Ardolino's "dealer" (I used the term advisedly because she is his grand daughter Mary). Here's her feedbacks through today, reflecting her efforts to sell the should

I've finally made the time to scan through Paris' book, which is written in the first person as an autobiography would be; although published now substantially after his death in 2006 . There are a few bits and bobs in it of interest to a holstorian including how he came to be in the holster biz. But when I reached the chapter in which he lists his various murders of men and women 'in the line of duty', including one of woman during a sex act with her, I reached over and dr

Below, 'what is a spring': "something that is not inside a Lawman shoulder holster" Cancel culture, anyone? Below, Lawman Leather's 'dealer' (actually the grand-daughter of the founder) CANCELLED my order for a second Dirty Harry Shoulder Holster! AND HERE'S THE LATEST ON EBAY FEEDBACK FOR LAWMAN'S 'EBAY DEALER' WHO IS, INSTEAD, ARDOLINO'S GRAND-DAUGHTER! That final one is from me, you'll notice, and her other buyers have treated her no better: Below is a page destined for

Those words were first written by a young woman who asked around the Lawman Leather shop, assuming that my missive to her father's company was from some no-account 'captive' gun writer for the industry press; an enthusiast who din't kno 'nothin'. I had mentioned I was the producer of "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century. Not good enough! It seemed. "Never heard of you", she said. Which puts me in mind of this terrific scene from "Some Like It Hot" , a 1959 fi

At his death Elmer left a lot of guns and gunleather in his estate, including a shoulder holster I made for him at Bianchi in the '70s. Dunno why he would've kept it. Elmer is someone that holstorians take most seriously because of his role in the development of the Berns-Martin 'Speed' holster in 1930, when Elmer and John Berns had a look at Elmer's forward draw holster by E.E. Clark and decided they could do better! Clark disagreed! And the first surviving Speed holster

I'm restoring four blog posts about Rogers and Safariland Kydex into a single post. They're not gunleather but they are relevant because Rogers single-handedly destroyed demand for large scale production of gunleather -- beginning with his technology's takeover of businessman Neale Perkins' Safariland product line. Neale is a businessman not a holster enthusiast so he saw no harm in the switch for purist reasons, any more than Remington did by introducing the Nylon 66 rifle