Kingsville Lumber Co Running W Brand No 23 Remake

[JWheeler331]

I was looking through the Packing Iron book yesterday to find something new to make and settled on one of the holsters on page 145. 

It's described as a Mexian Loop Pattern holster from Kingsville Lumber Co in Kingsville, Texas 1925-1940 and carring the Running W brand. It says that the holster was pattern number 23 and sold for 3.00 in the firms catalog Number 23.

I did not line in like the one in the book because this is basically a prototype for me. 

I was originally making it for a 5.5" revolver but had to take some off the bottom so it will only hold a 4.5" or so barreled revolver. 

I searched online to try to find more pics of this in the catalog to see how the other side of the loop attached. At first I thought that it looped around and both sides were fastened by the same two rivets. I am not so sure though because the leather looks too flat to be doubled up in the photo. I decided to put two more rivets behind the pouch. 

I had all stamps that are very close in size design and of course I used my own maker's mark. 

I also ended up putting a welt in the holster which I dont think the original has but ended up needing the extra room. It's a little smaller than I was going for. It would hold a Single Six with 4 5/8" barrel pretty nicely but is a little tight on a Uberti Open Top. 

All in all, I am pleased with my first attempt at this one. 

I think I will adjust my pattern some and try another one in the near future. 

Here are a few pics. 

Few more pics. 

[TexasJack]

Beautiful job on the historical recreation!  That has the look of a holster that would get a lot of use out on a ranch, and it looks like it would hold up well.

[Littlef]

That's great!!  I have "packing iron" too.  I need to start just picking various holsters that I like and try to replicate them.

[dikman]

Nice job at copying it. My guess regarding the loop is that it folds around the pouch to maybe half-way underneath and then is rivetted to the skirt.

[doubleh]

I like it.

[bladegrinder]

I think it looks great!

[PastorBob]

Fantastic job.  Never heard of that book / magazine before.  I will have to look it up.

[JWheeler331]

On 4/23/2023 at 3:15 PM, TexasJack said:

Beautiful job on the historical recreation!  That has the look of a holster that would get a lot of use out on a ranch, and it looks like it would hold up well.

Thank you. Yeah, I would think so. Someone would have loved a holster like this. 

23 hours ago, Littlef said:

That's great!!  I have "packing iron" too.  I need to start just picking various holsters that I like and try to replicate them.

Yeah, such a great book. This is the first one I have directly picked out and tried to make. I have other similar ones in the book that I make but this one I tried to replicate as closely as possible. 

21 hours ago, dikman said:

Nice job at copying it. My guess regarding the loop is that it folds around the pouch to maybe half-way underneath and then is rivetted to the skirt.

That was my thinking also. Its also what I did. At first I thought it was looped around and back to the same rivets but I thought it looked too thin for that so I just riveted mine to the skirt. 

21 hours ago, doubleh said:

I like it.

Thank you. 

[JWheeler331]

19 hours ago, bladegrinder said:

I think it looks great!

Appreciate it. 

9 hours ago, PastorBob said:

Fantastic job.  Never heard of that book / magazine before.  I will have to look it up.

It's like one of the "Bible" books for original 19th century holsters/belts etc. 

Another good one is Cowboys and the Trappings of the Old West. 

Two must haves if you really want to see some original old west holsters.