Restored Post 57: Read Your Holster Like a Book

57 read it like a book

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Your holster is an open book when you know its lingo, and the PDF above tells you how to become very good at telling a new (El Paso Saddlery) from an old (El Paso Saddlery).

Much of that centers around how gunleather and saddlery is stitched: by hand or by machine. Below a WW1 factory that was Graton & Knight building gunleather for the entry of America into that war 1917. When one looks carefully one will see both hand sewing of certain parts of these holsters (the men in the foreground) and machine sewing (the row of machines at right). Fiercely expensive, these machines, and didn't enter commercial use by saddlers like Myres until that very same time despite first being invented in the 1880s. He had two, the first of which burned down his Sweetwater shop that was very much smaller than G&K's below. G&K went on to become a major player in the youth cowboy and cowgirl capgun holster sets of the 1950s under the brand Grako Kid, competing with the 800 pound gorilla that was Keyston Bros which owned Heiser by then.

The big player in military gunleather of the 19th century was E. Gaylord. Employing 450 men the Gaylord hand sewed all its Civil War gunleather by necessity. Gaylord was a Republican and declined to supply the Democrat South as not being the legitimate government of the USA. Know how he felt!

Read more in my book titled "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century -- the Second Edition" that is available at www.holstory.com and printed for you/shipped to you in USA.