Wooden Holster Mold...
 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=4078

Regards,

Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />

I don't know Pete, looks awful new to me?

On the other hand, if you go into many "antique" stores, the funiture has been completly cleaned up, i.e. sanded and varnished etc., and they look new also.

But that looks like something newly made?

Ed

Pete, Ed, I took a good look at this and I have to agree with Ed. Looks like new.Not only that but it looks to be spliced and made from two different pieces of wood. I have molded many a holster in my repair business and believe me , when you drape soggy wet leather onto a mold and leave it there to dry for a day or two, the combination of mold, wetness and leather is enough to stand out and make a big difference to the mold.
One, if this is truely and original mold for an Artillery it has never been used.
Two, without taking accurate mesaurements it would be impossible to say if it would mold a proper usable Artillery holster body.
Three, it is marked on the back with a spurious 1942 which has nothing to do with Artillery's as they were of a different era. If, indeed, this is an attempt at authenticity, it is a World War ahead.
I have researched for years hoping to discover the method for molding and making German Luger holsters and there is a strong indication that wooden molds were employed. In fact, one of these surfaces on eBay from time to time, either for a Luger or P-38. I all cases I have been aware of they turn out to be fakes in my opinion.
If a mold were to surface with the right patination and perhaps waffenamps I would consider it authentic. You must realize, as many holsters must be made from any one mold, it would swell, crack and split before too long.
These must have been approved by some central German agency and marked accordingly like all other German tools or parts. They were an important part of the Military Supply and it could have been no other way. Holster molds were probably not made by the cottage industry that made holsters but centrally supplied from a major wood manufacturer to German Military specifications and distributed to Saddlers accross Germany.
Literally millions of holsters were made, requiring molds and patterns, not only Lugers but a myriad of others. So little of this material has survived that I suspect something catostrophic happened to most of it.Immediately after WW1 the economics were such that the German people were freezing and starving. I suspect many of these molds made it into the Hausfraus cooking stove for want of firewood. Just a wild guess but I know those times were tough and who thought they would need these things when the war was lost? Jerry Burney

Is it possibly a mold for repros? They may have taken it down too far,(got the dimensions wrong) and have decided to pass it off as original.

Ron

Looks like junk to me... too new for what they are saying is the origin... Starting bid of $50.00 plus $25.00 shipping? that's $75.00 for a piece of firewood? No Thanks IMNSHO...

Actually...I was thinking it was a modern-day "shoe tree"...to help a LP-08 holster from going flat in storage...

If I were to try to make one, the time and materials in hardwoods, laminations, shaping, routing. etc. may well be worth the asking price...?

Regards,

Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />

Pete,
That makes more sense. The 1942 could be there to ID it to the holster it was made for.

Ron

&lt;RANT MODE ON&gt; <img border="0" alt="[soapbox]" title="" src="graemlins/soapbox.gif" />

This vendor's items are a complete fraud IMNSHO... <img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" />

This final item being offered so obviously new :rolleyes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2236116777

Don't be taken in by this modern "fabrication" stuff... the word "reproduction" would even be an insult in this case. Reproduction implies that it is a close copy of an original... Sorry... not here....

This stock is brand new wood with a hasty finish over it... hoping to make a killing by duping the stupid american collector novices--- what a blatant attempt at FRAUD...

I wouldn't buy anything this seller offered as genuine.

Look at these holsters he is offering as genuine... there is no way these could be genuine unless they were hermetically stored in a vacuum for 60 plus years... they are all brand new with brand new stamps on them...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2235095996

&lt;RANT MODE OFF&gt; ... there I feel better now... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />