Why Pigskin for Holsters?

[Imperial Arms]

I have observed that some (military) holsters from Germany submitted for evaluation/testing have been made of pigskin, including the holsters and magazine pouches for the Mauser Persian LP-08 rigs. In addition, the European style Luger Carbine scabbard was also made of pigskin. What was the reason for using pigskin for holsters and scabbards? Is it stronger and more resistant than cow leather, or is it suited for different environmental conditions because it contains more natural oil?

Maybe Jerry could provide a good answer.

Cheers,
Albert

[G.T.]

Hi Albert, I can't answer why, but I do have an idea as to why not... I have always had a particular interest in pig skin holsters and have a pretty good selection of WW2 pig holsters, with DLU being my favorite. It seems as if there are quite a few nice surviving examples still around... Anyway, as my interest is in this area, I started researching pigskin and found out that until recently it was extremely hard to mass produce pigskin hides from processing plants... I can't remember if it was due to the fragile nature of the raw hide, or problems encountered with the tanning process, but for whatever reason, it was not cost effective, or comparable quality, when compared to cowhide... So basically they just threw it away... Unless they were in drastically short supply of strategic materials, and then the amount of work needed to process became moot... They used whatever they could get their hands on!.. Most pigskin hides processed now are chrome tanned and used in the garment industry. Veg tanned hides of the correct thickness and weight are hard to find, and are mostly used in the crafts and hobbies area, as well as in saddle making.. But usually it is too thin and not suitable for holsters. I think once the pigskin leather is tanned, and is the correct weight, it didn't matter at all to the holster manufacture. It was just leather, just a bit different in strength and thickness. Although I'd like to believe they made efforts to use cowhide for straps and loops, I have seen pigskin used indiscriminately in these areas also... So again, it was just another source of usuable leather... hope this helps... Best to all, til.....lat'r.....GT

[G.T.]

Hi to all,
I forgot to add, that in most leather production shops, all the major parts are cut from a single piece of hide in one shot using a cutting die, (like a big multi-cookie cutter) on a press called a click press... so this would explain the major body parts usually being the same color, weight, type, and texture (most of the time)... The straps, loops, and maybe pouches, etc, all came from scrap, of the hide being cut or any other, if needed, of which there was plenty.
So when you see a holster with a brown back, black front, or black holster with a brown interior, or any other combination of parts and pieces, this was just the result of using mixed parts on a large quantity scale, probably under a stressful time frame..
Someone was cutting out parts on the click press like crazy, and others were sewing them up regardless of how the hides matched up as fast as they could... They probably had a very basic requirement, Black on the front outside, all else is fair game... They could, in all probability, cut out enough parts in a few hours to last a whole shop full of people sewing for a week!! I think EVERYBODY sewed! I'll bet the pace and general quality was impressive! Just my thoughts, but it would explain some of these odd holsters made with over run parts, etc... Best to all, til...lat'r.....GT

[Pete Ebbink]

Here is a PS holster that ran on eBay last week :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280053498756

[G.T.]

Yes, I didn't like the cut of the inside top edge of the bottom piece... still a nice holster... best to all, til...lat'r.....GT

[lugerholsterrepair]

Durn GT! Good answere! Pig skin is like cow hide in that from a mature animal the hide is quite thick. It is skived down to a uniform thickness. It is much inferior to cowhide in many respects and would not be the first choice for a quality product. It is relatively brittle, tears easily and is not very flexible. Most of you who have pigskin holsters can see how hard they become when molded. I think they were the step above cardboard. As GT notes most of the really stressfull parts are made of cowhide. Although i have seen some of these parts made of pig. One must realize pistol holsters were only one of many hundreds if not thousands of leather items needed by the German Military. Leather was a massive industry in Wartime Germany. I often wonder why more use of Horsehide was not employed...Jerry Burney

[Imperial Arms]

That's a good comment Jerry - why not horsehide as well? Is horse leather similar to cow leather and probably better than pigskin? Have you ever tried to make a holster out of horse leather?

If my knowledge is correct, the Germans did eat horse meat during WWI when beef became scarce, so they could have used the skin for leather in order to make holsters.

Thank you for the interesting comments on this topic.

Cheers,
Albert

[G.T.]

Hi Jerry and all, The whole German leather usage and demand during the world wars still amazes me! I can't even begin to imagine all the uses they put it through! Always interesting to hear your thoughts Jerry, Best to all, til....lat'r.....GT

[Aaron]

Did the Persians (Iranians) realize they were receiving leather products derived from pigs? I don't think Muslims would knowingly have touched this material.

[Hugh]

They were probably using the horses to haul around all those cannon, wagons, etc. and they were too valuable to use for leather.

[Imperial Arms]

Aaron, that's a very good point! It is surprising that Mauser ignored/overlooked this detail, and probably the Persians did not know that the holsters were made from pigskin. On the other hand, the Germans love pork, so they probably said 'who cares what the Persians receive from us'!

Cheers,
Albert