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. 

[Rednichols]

"Packing Iron" is generally excellent but one of its editors agreed it is not a history book; but instead is a photo essay.  In particular the book omits the Kluge scabbard that we all know better as the Brill, which was made by Charles Kluge for A.W. Brill after Brill bought out the Kluge Bros saddlery in 1912.  Unmarked holsters that are literally identical to Brills were called Kluge scabbards in their time and were created at that saddlery at the request of Ranger Capt. Hughes in 1904 when he was assigned to Austin with his troops and he was ordered to conceal their weaponry when his men were in town.

The Kluge/Brill scabbards were created directly from the King Ranch holster, which was the Kingsville Lumber holster.  The KR saddlery was late 19th century and the KR holster was the first to use a welt in the main seam; the KL holster was merely a variant and it was also sold as the Santa Gertrudes holster; all were owned by the Ranch itself.  From the Brill came the Threepersons, and Charlie Askins was correct to summarize the latter as 'raised high on the belt with all excess leather trimmed away, and the trigger guard resting on the welt stack to fully expose the trigger'.

Correctly made the cuff of a KR holster encircles the holster pocket at the main fold and it then folded back to be riveted to the fender that lies behind the holster pocket.  A KR will also have a single welt inside the main seam; but look again:  the trigger guard of the revolver is partially inside the holster, resting on the welt inside the seam, and rides quite low, and is of very thick leather, and the fender is very, very wide.  All in the them of the holsters at the turn of the 20th century.  A Brill has all that trimmed away to a minimum, and a Threepersons then has the fender and cuff completely removed to leave only a tab stitched to the holster pocket to form the belt loop.

The cuff and fender assembly of a Brill forms the lowermost edges of the belt loop tunnel, for a narrow trousers belt; and the entire holster is made of very thin leather because it is a concealment holster.  The KR was a trail holster and had a wide tunnel for the 'scout' belts of the era that were cartridge belts of 3" width, made from folded chap leather that was 6" wide before folding.  These are never glued but are stitched only along the edge opposite the stitched edge, so that belt could holster money and papers inside it.

Images are the KR/KL/SG version, the Kluge version, the late Brill version (post 1930) (rest of my files become too large for the post on this site).  I once owned Tom's original holster and it carried Tom's Colts quite low on the belt unlike Sam Myres version which was, of a things, engineered by the Brills who were Sam's friends and adhered to the Brill engineering that folded the belt loop at the very top of the welt stack.

 

[Littlef]

well done!! you did an awesome job replicating it.  Packing Iron is such a great book.

[Haraldsson]

I bought the book a couple of months ago because I was looking for a good drawing of the Meanea flower on the cover. I need to get poking around in there!! That half-circle mexican loop on p144 is awesome!

Now, your remake... Very well done! Love the burr rivets! Very well done, indeed!