Quote:
Originally Posted by turnerriver
Red, I know nothing about patents and patent law so I was confused when I first looked up the numbers. It sounds like what you're surmising makes sense. Clark certainly had ideas about springs and holsters. I wish I could talk to some of the old makers and am glad I get the chance to communicate with someone of your caliber-you're getting to be an old maker yourself and the caliber pun was intended.
Regards,
turnerriver
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Edward Clark is the early man, Earl Clark came afterwards; both made significant contributions. The man who got away in your 'holstory' search (I coined this word) was Al Kippen, because he worked for Gould & Goodrich after working with Smith & Wesson Holster, which was Wolfram Holster so he'd have worked with Wally Wolfram, and previously with Bucheimer, and what may have been Heiser-Keyston because he came back to Heiser in one of its forms after co-founding Colorado Saddlery, after working with Heiser until it was sold in 1945, having started at Heiser at what appears to be 1928, so he would have known all the Heiser sons, who themselves learned their holster trade from H.H.H. Himself, and Hermann was there for the first holsters for the first revolvers such as the Walker in 1848!
I speculate that Kippen was the designer behind Heiser's 457 holster for the FBI, even if perhaps it was Myers who may have in fact been first with his version. In 1939 it appears Kippen would have been 26 y/o and in later years he earned many holster patents. I was earning holster patents at that age, so he could well have been innovating that young. Al and I would have crossed paths at some point during the post 1968 years because all his employers were Bianchi competitors, but he was gone from GnG by the time they were one of my many clients in the 90s. Al's successor was Will Perry, whom I did spend time with.