Picked up this Brill style holster at the Payson, AZ Gun Show this weekend. Seems to fit a K-frame Smith & Wesson with 4" barrel.

Attached Images

K-Frame Brill.jpg (176.4 KB, 73 views)

__________________
Living a dream - S&WCA #2364

Very nice piece. Good find. Probably have to wait for Red Nichols to chime in with his learned opinion.

Cool! Shape is very Threepersons. What does the welt and cuff attatchment on the back look like? Belt tunnel looks to be for a wide gun belt as apposed to a trouser belt. Looks to be good quality.

All stitching looks like the Brill design. No Maker mark of any kind and yes the belt tunnel is wide on this one.

__________________
Living a dream - S&WCA #2364

Bloody Red :-).

We know it is not 'authentic' for two reasons, without even seeing the backside of the fender (though would be nice to see it).

1. The cuff was never moved to create a wider tunnel; instead it was kept wrapped around the frame below the trigger guard, and the FOLD of the holster was raised. The effect of this was to drop the holster lower. Here's are two Rabensburgs, one wide and one narrow (these images belong to others):

boykinlp (4).jpg

brill belt (1).jpg

2. The backstitching at the top of the welt, at least in the origin period, did not use the 'classic' style that we expect today, where the return stitches parallel the original seam by a half dozen or more. That's because these welts were hand stitched. Didn't seem to matter which maker it was (Sessums, Myres, etc.).

The backside of the holster will show more clues: the ends of the cuffs were stitched variously by makers. Like today's Threepersons-style holsters, each maker chose a sort of 'signature' method for doing this stitching. With these, and other clues, so far I have only identified 18 period makers of Brillalikes: 12 marked by their makers, 6 not.

__________________
Red Nichols The Holstorian

Thanks Red. Always a wealth of information and interesting read.

__________________
Living a dream - S&WCA #2364