Rawhide holster and two more open top Uberti's

Status
Not open for further replies.

CraigC

Sixgun Nut
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
23,702
Location
West Tennessee
The other day I was smoking a cigar and looking through magazines when I had this idea to put a rawhide cuff on a sixgun holster. I've learned to keep a sketchpad nearby so I can commit my ideas to paper, lest I forget them ten minutes later. This is the result. I used a piece of my drum dyed brown leather, later dipped in walnut dye. The deer rawhide soaked in walnut dye for a few hours to get good saturation. Tin cones and fringe with a combination of modern Czech beads with antique French and Italian beads.

023b_2.jpg

024b_2.jpg

Found this well done cartridge conversion on Gunbroker. Built from a Uberti percussion gun with a gated conversion cylinder and relined barrel for use with standard .358" bullets. Cylinder is short so I'll need to use .38Colt brass. Note the conversion ring is color cased. I have a Kirst ejector to install on it.
036b.jpg

Watching a YouTube channel "plowboysghost" got me hot for a Navy gripped 5½" 1871-1872 Open Top, so I ordered a Cimarron in .44Colt. Already swapped the grips for factory faux ivory and darkened the grip frame with cold blue. Put new springs in it while I was in there but it needs a little smoothing. It's got some interesting case colors but that's not rust on the loading gate. The old stump really makes a better backdrop for pics.

030b.jpg
 
Craig,

Beautiful holster, but a shiny new revolver is the last thing I expected to see in it. Perhaps something that shows a bit more age?

Kevin
 
Not a fan of that holster but still is good work. Is that a sleeve of thinner leather you put over the top half of the holster and tied on?
Different and not my cup of tea.
 
I just make stuff. Get pissed, throw it away. Try again.

It’s not a great system. :)[/QUOTE]

BUT, it is THE system. Write/Edit/Re-write/Edit/Re-write/Edit...

The long conversations with Jesus are just part of it.

Keep up the good work bruddah!
 
Craig,

Beautiful holster, but a shiny new revolver is the last thing I expected to see in it. Perhaps something that shows a bit more age?

Kevin

The gun that's in the holster looks aged to me. The shiny one in the next picture is a different revolver. And I like the holster. Looks like a field expedient repair to me, something a warrior might have done to damaged battlefield pickup.
 
This is the gun that's in the holster. That type of holster is exactly one of the reasons why I aged the 1860. I think it's weird to make a holster that looks 100yrs old, only to picture it with a shiny new sixgun.

005b_3.jpg


Is that a sleeve of thinner leather you put over the top half of the holster and tied on?
That's the rawhide. It's "glued & screwed". ;)
 
Having never worked with rawhide, when wet, it’s flexible and malleable. Then dries to somewhere between beef jerky and concrete.

so all the work, stitching etc, is all done wet and then it shrinks a little and hardens. Correct?
Bingo! It's really fascinating stuff. Some folks call it nature's kydex. Except you wet it to work it instead of applying heat. The only real downside is that you really need to seal it afterwards with something like polyurethane or it can absorb moisture. I use a semi-gloss poly to coat the rawhide and the stitching at the top of the throat.
 
The gun that's in the holster looks aged to me. The shiny one in the next picture is a different revolver. And I like the holster. Looks like a field expedient repair to me, something a warrior might have done to damaged battlefield pickup.


I see that now. Somehow when I first viewed it, the grips did not look aged at all and I glossed over the marks on the frame.


Probably a lack of coffee.

Kevin
 
I see that now. Somehow when I first viewed it, the grips did not look aged at all and I glossed over the marks on the frame.


Probably a lack of coffee.

Kevin
I blame everything on lack of coffee. ;)

I'm debating doing some tung oil over the dents and dings. Not sure yet.
 
That’s wild. I dig it. I think the front lower portion where the rawhide meets the tanned leather is the only strange part. But as is it’s super cool. Looks like a period hack together fix or something. Nice work.
 
For some reason to me it looks more natural and interesting to use the raw edge of the hide for the edges that don't get stitched. The gnarlier the better, sometimes they have hair remnants.

006b_5.jpg

IMG_1574b.jpg

Whereas if it's a cut edge like this it looks more contrived. Make sense?

IMG_9182b.jpg
 
For some reason to me it looks more natural and interesting to use the raw edge of the hide for the edges that don't get stitched. The gnarlier the better, sometimes they have hair remnants.

View attachment 1094818

View attachment 1094819

Whereas if it's a cut edge like this it looks more contrived. Make sense?

View attachment 1094820

That looks good because it all matches. The holster in the original post is half old and aged and matches the pistol, and the other (lower) half looks like it's brand new. That's the part that is bothering me. Age the lower half to more match the rawhide and I think I could really like it.
 
That looks good because it all matches. The holster in the original post is half old and aged and matches the pistol, and the other (lower) half looks like it's brand new. That's the part that is bothering me. Age the lower half to more match the rawhide and I think I could really like it.

He could sent the whole package to me for a year or so. I’ll help antique it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top