Does anyone have more on this holster maker?

Kenneth H. Cox - Border Patrol holster



N.Y.C. cop Paul B. Weston writing in 1960:

Kenneth H. Cox of Knoxville, Tennessee, is a police-oriented holster maker who has designed several rugged holsters for police use. Cox brags. “I’ve over 5000 holsters in use by various police officers, state police, count, and sheriff’s deputies and have never had to replace one. In fact, when you buy one of my holsters you do not have to buy another unless you change guns because they never wear out!”

...I queried Cox on this point and he told me that down in the hill country of Tennessee, he has defied troopers to hitch up mules and pull his holsters apart. “My holsters are sewn with No. 7 Irish flax cord. That’s the same weight, but a better grade, as the flax cord used in seaming shoe soles and you know how tough it is to tear up the seam on the sole of a shoe. It has to be cut, because it just don’t [sic] tear. I put a special welt at the seam of my holsters: it’s a 5-ply. 10-ounce leather structure that is lock-stitched on a heavy duty Landis harness stitcher. My holsters hold together.”

Writer Weston was also a friend of and wrote about Chic Gaylord.

A new one to me. I'd say, from the description, that he had a lot worth bragging about: 7 cord linen thread is huge when compared with the 5 cord used by other makers of the era; though I've no experience with flax (we all used linen). It was Chic who was the first to use nylon which is literally unbreakable though as easily cut as linen (ideally one 'cuts' the loose thread from a holster using a pointed soldering itron: cuts it and seals the end into the hole in one operation; linen has to be cut and then stuffed back into the hole with an awl).

That bit about the welt being 5 layers of 10 ounce is in the spirit of Brills with three while the rest of us were happy to use 1. That would be awesomely strong. The Landis is a fine saddlery machine used by many in the trade (along with Campbells, Randalls, Union Locks and Cyclones) even today; though little makers like myself use the newer compound feed machines simply for availability and lower cost.

As I've surely mentioned ad nauseum, the multi-ply welt of thick leathers is what made the original Threepersons holsters work; and somehow that structure, and its tightness up against the frame of the pistol, fell away and was forgotten -- until now :-). NO maker does this now.

But the maker I've not heard of, nor was he a saddler because he does not appear in OCS&S.

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Red Nichols The Holstorian

rednichols- Flax is just the plant that linen is made from. In other words, same-same, but you are exactly correct that 7 cord is relatively huge, even in saddle work.

My, that is real good looking holster and the description is just as good. Heck for stout and purty.