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  #51  
Old 05-31-2018, 04:34 AM
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Neale Rabensburg has solved some puzzles about the Brill with his knowledge; and here he has illustrated for those of us working on The Book that Brill welts were hand-stitched, which explains how Newton Rabensburg was able to build them with two and three thick welts inside!

rabensburg exhibit 2018 (5).jpg this is Neale's image, of a holster left incomplete at N.J.'s death in '61. Notice the 'fishook' return stitching at the mouth of the welt, and that the welt itself was to be trimmed off later (today such welts are cut exact size, glued in place, and machine stitched)(but two welts is generally considered maximum)(Myres and even Bianchi and Safariland once produced double-welt holsters that were machine stitched).

boykinlp (3).jpg this is a boykinlp image of an N.J. We perhaps will never know why the welts themselves are not simply two individual continuous strips, but instead are a complex layering of skived welts that are interleaved not once but twice within the 'stack'.
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Old 05-31-2018, 10:34 PM
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The skived and interlaid 'welt stack' of that still-in-progress, frozen-in-time Brill by Rabensburg. Image is Neale's, notations are mine:

neale construction (3).jpg

Previously the eagle-eyed Editor (of The Book) had spotted the separation of the layers in the welt stack, in completed 'late' Brills. I disassembled one I received earlier this year and he was, of course, right.

The main welt section being laminated from skived layers we can understand readily enough; Tom Threepersons' own (I have deduced Egland of Douglas AZ) holster has two very thick layers at the open end with one skived of them skived so that the double layer reduces smoothly back to just one along the barrel and then across the muzzle. But the 'late' Brills have three just at the muzzle. Yet not for the length of the barrel itself, even on the auto pistol versions.
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Old 06-01-2018, 03:09 AM
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In my thread titled A Brill For Lucky B I posted a photo of my late model
Brill, probably by Rabensburg, in post #1. I was asked a question about
the welt, which I described (in layman's terms) in post #17.
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Old 06-01-2018, 10:56 PM
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Courtesy of Neale, the rarest Brill in the world -- a Brill belt that is Mexican carved:

neale belt (1).jpg

neale belt (2).jpg

The name stamped into the belt, is Neale's father's (so, N.J.'s son). Neale tells me he wears it from time to time!

The lettering used, is the same as is found on the Brill-type that has no Brill maker's mark; rather, the owner's initials as on Texas Ranger Lee Trimble's.
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Old 06-01-2018, 11:00 PM
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ranger lee trimble q. 1923 rabensburg.jpg The holster of Lee (LaFetra) Elisha Trimble (so, L.E.T. as on the holster cuff). He was a Texas Ranger for a brief period around 1920 and (it seems incorrectly) has been said to have met with Tom Threepersons in 1920 (instead it was surely Ranger Doc White who actually served with Tom at Treasury for six months in 1923). All three of Trimble's names are French, with Elisha pronounced like Elijah.

ranger lee trimble study.jpg A dummied-up image placing the lettering from the belt, onto a cuff that is next to it in the image.
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