Holster Test...

[hqbmw]

As many of you are aware, Jerry Burney and I are great friends. I once showed up at his home with a 1915 Arty holster in desperate need of his expertise. It had a back hacked out to have a belt fed through it and no stock-block. I asked my friend to do the repairs to which he replied "Do it you own damn self." Thus was born "Self-Service."

Doing it myself was something I had been nagging Jerry to teach my stubby- arthritic- riddled little paws to perform; and perform they did. Under his correct adult supervision, I was to turn the ugly duckling into a swan! Indeed, learning was the bonus to restoring.

I urge you all to at least disassemble an authentic holster carefully enough to learn what Jerry taught me in those 3 (full) days it took me to restore mine. The small nuances that have little to do with looks are the keys to really spotting fakes. Pay close attention to the actual stitching. You will find a place below the magazine pouch that EVERY holster has an end/restart of the stitching. At many places the stitches are started and double stitched for sometimes two and three stitches along. Many areas have stitches that overlap and most straight lines aren't. The stitching, however, is always charactoristicaly, the same high quality.

I can't tell here all I learned , but do take close inspections of the tiny details of the quality holsters made for Lugers and you will quickly educate yourself. You have no idea how difficult and time/labor intensive Jerry's expert and economical repair is. Ask me and my aching-painful paws how I actually did my own work!! I now have a holster with every stitch replaced by me and with a complete new back and not one person to whom I have shown could identify the repair I did to it. Thanks to Jerry (and Ellie) who put up with me.