[lugerholsterrepair]

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