Show Us Yer Stuff #3 - Closed Thread Now For REFERENCE

[Johnny McCrae]

Howdy Skeeter,

Beautiful! The carving and workmanship are outstanding.

Thank you for sharing this fine piece of Leatherwork with us.

[Lucky R. K.]

Skeeter, that is really nice.

Lucky

[Cliff Fendley]

Skeeter, your carving is outstanding.

[Boothill Bob]

Just love it skeeter, its beautiful

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Skeeter, beautiful work all around pard, love the carving and tooling, and the double stitching really adds to it, thanks for the look see.

    tEN wOLVES  

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Truly beautiful, Skeet. Outstanding work. +1 on what TW said.

[Skeeter Lewis]

Thanks, pards. Much appreciated.
I've always admired the double stitching on the Roosevelt holster so I finally jumped in at the deep end and had a go.
I think I've got the tooling pattern as near as possible to the original.
The configuration of the Collins holster is distinct from Meanea's. The leather rises higher over the cylinder and the bulge between the loops is lower down, closer to the end of the ejector rod.

[Cliff Fendley]

Other observations I've noticed. The Meanea holsters I've seen are also more pointy, tapered, getting smaller down at the toe plug and the bottom loop is smaller. Meanea holsters have a partial welt at the top behind the trigger guard too. You can see it in the second pic.

This is my 7 1/2 inch version of a Meanea. I took measurements from an original and got is as close as possible.

[Johnny McCrae]

Howdy Cliff,

Very nice! The workmanship is oustanding. A genuine pleasure to look at.

Many thanks for sharing it with us.

[KidTerico]

Cliff thats some darn nice leather work your showing. Thanks KT

[GunClick Rick]

Meant to comment on that awhile ago and forgot,not feelin so good,sinus infection from hell ,four days now.LORDY!


Bueatiful work as usual Cliff ,you da toe man!!

[Skeeter Lewis]

Beautiful neat, exact work. The stamping is spot-on.

[Skeeter Lewis]

Further to the differences between Collins and Meanea, I'd say that the leather rises higher over the cylinder, the bulge between the loops is lower, the waist is slimmer and the end is slimmer in the Collins than in the Meanea. Here's a photo of a Collins holster which has had its skirt cut away by some ill-advised person. The virtue of it is that we can see the shape of the holster very clearly.

This is the same configuration as in the Roosevelt holster.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Really nice,

Skeeter

[Cliff Fendley]

That Collins holster looks closer to the early Gallatin mexican loops. I can't help but think it was Frank Meanea that designed it though. Or someone working for them as this style didn't start taking shape until Meanea was a partner with Gallatin.

The bulge moved up and the Cheyenne holster took on the shape we are most familiar with in the 80's when the were being stamped with Meanea's own mark. Gallatin sold his remaining interest to Meanea in the early 80's, by that time Meanea had been in charge of the Cheyenne saddlery for a few years.

[KidTerico]

Gift for a friend. No belt. KT

[Skeeter Lewis]

The image above shows the classic Collins configuration which stayed pretty constant over the years
As you can see, it's the same shape as the Roosevelt.
Who created this style first, Meanea or Collins? Maybe it was joint development.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

  Beautiful work KT, I like the carving /color, your friend will be very happy to own this one, thanks for sharing.


        tEN wOLVES

  Skeeter thanks for sharing with us pard, nice examples ...

          tEN

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Oh, drool, cliff! That one looks good enough to eat. Beautiful work. I didn't know Meanea put partial welts in. Very fine example.

KT, that one is very cool. You're going to make someone happy. The finish sets off the design nicely. Thanks for sharing.

[Cliff Fendley]

Thanks everyone.

Marshal, yes the partial welt on Meanea's holsters give a little pocket for the trigger guard to sit in. Francis Meanea was top notch maker in form and function.

After seeing this on original Meanea holsters and realizing how nice it is I've also been putting that partial welt on a lot of my other holsters for the past few years.

If it's a Meanea style it definitely gets the partial welt and toe plug.