Title of a gospel song, and mentions David's "alleged" slaying of Goliath. We weren't there for the battle so who can argue one way or the other today?
Above, from Bob Arganbright who still writes on the subject today including at least one PR piece on my book "Holstory" (P.S. third edition being written now). The featured holster set above is a very unique take on the Threepersons style, by trick shooter and saddler A.H. Hardy (men in those days were distinguished by their initials, but we do know his full name).
Anyway, here are some very good articles from the late 20th century, about gunleather. There wasn't the research and therefore the knowledge, then, that we have now, thanks at least to the 'net (and crazies like me who use it to learn about gunleather) so there are some "ain't necessarily so"s in them.
For example, Myres and Heiser and certainly Lawrence, didn't make gunleather for the Frontier West or in the 19th century at all. 1910s for Heiser, 1920s for Myres, 1930s for Lawrence. Civilian gunleather was almost literally 'caused' by the Model T, which put most saddlers out of business by 1930.
And there are so many 'debunking the fast draw' including by Ed McGivern, that someone needs to write a 'debunking the debunking of the fast draw', because I expect the early Mexican Loop was 'fast enough' when the full grip and hammer spur were fully exposed and the belt worn low enough as Tom Threepersons did, around the hips not the waist. The Ojala holster is very much a Threepersons including Tom's own, which hung straight down -- it was 'cocking in the holster' that set an Ojala apart from the Old West.
Above left, by Bohlin, at centre by Ojala, and at right Tom Threeepersons' original. Ignoring the stitchline that draws the eye to it, the overall holster body shapes are remarkably similar with Tom's own in a private collection beginning 1934 and Ojala's appearing 1957, the copied by the likes of Anderson and Bianchi. Notice even the low cut mouth that Andy is credited for is already present on the much earlier holster of Tom's; and that Tom's hung straight down as did the later Ojala with a bit of a drop shank in both.
Notice that respected author Bob Arganbright has written several of them. These are called 'roundups' in which every maker the author knows of gets a mention, on behalf of the publisher who has hopes for advertising from those makers as a result. Believe me, I know that if a maker doesn't get a mention, they bitch directly to you! Not much to worry about today, though, these makers are all dead but a handful (by which I mean, fewer than 6)!
Above, when lawmen like Tom wanted their holsters to hang love, they simply shoved their gunbelt lower around their hips! No need to change holsters, and others like Texas Rangers carried the style high at their waists, for concealment. No, the Rangers were not permitted to have their weaponry exposed while in cities.
Gunleather for civilians was entirely a 20th century 'thang', and for evidence one can look CAREFULLY at the book "Packing Iron" that physically separates military gunleather of the 19th century (first half of the book) from civilian gunleather (last half) -- ALL of the latter having 20th century dates! "Not a history book", I was told by a contributing editor to the tome.
Enjoy them. With a grain of salt :-).
To read more about it all in my book titled "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century
-- the Second Edition", click on the new link at top of page.
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