[lugerholsterrepair]

Christian, Yes congratulations on this very early beautiful Artillery holster! It has some interesting features such as the lifting strap knot made with a steel rivet.

Albert, I respectfully disagree with your leather analysis. This holster is NOT made of pigskin which is vastly inferior to cowhide.

Pigskin is very open grained, all of the hair follicals are arranged in triplets, guite large and can be seen with no problems on articles made with it. As Ron says above!

Pigskin is quite often used as a liner material as it's surface can be very soft when it is thin. Thicker hides become unusually hard & brittle and crack very easily. You see evidence of this on WW2 Luger holsters that have been made with a pigskin hinge. They will invariably be cracked. The Germans were well aware of this inferiority but they had no choice in WW2 You will also notice that most of the parts on a pig Luger holster that experience any stress will be cowhide such as the closure strap and belt loops.
I know leather if I know anything. This holster is still soft and supple. That reason alone tells me it is cowhide but there are several more.

Tom in his post below brings up a very good point that I meant to mention previously but forgot..The top liner in Christians holster that is badly deterioriated is likely pigskin. This may have been what Albert was referring to...

Jerry Burney