blm/42 P-08 holster leather

Here are some additional thoughts. The early luger holsters were very fine leather with high gloss surfaces. The tanning method appears to have changed around 1937 and the holsters became "white-creamy" on the inner surfaces. It almost looks chalky. The earlier holsters had a darker, rougher leather inner surface. I have a dtu41 black luger holster that is very high gloss with the chalky inner surfaces and have what I believe is a very very late luger holster that lacks maker stamp but is WaA inspected and it is, as lugerholsterrepair states, noticably thicker than earlier luger leather. It is also a flat black finish relative to the thin high gloss surface finish on earlier luger holsters.


As WW2 progressed, manufacturing standards changed to enable methods appropriate for manufacturing under difficult war conditions. Aircraft were made in caves and the tolerances on parts were set so that field assembly under adverse conditions and quick repair using available parts was possible. Instead of form molded hard holsters (essentially a "box" to completely contain a pistol) the new standard was for soft holsters made from cut pieces of thin leather. Each part could be readily repaired in the field with simple materials and parts could be made from lots of soft materials just as the holster could be used for lots of purposes. I can't claim I was there to know this was the logic but it is a theme appearing in many items manufactured by the Germans after 1942 and has been suggested by others.


dave