Fun fact about boning holsters -- it's not!

[rednichols]

I have suspected for quite some time, that Chic Gaylord, who is credited with the high definition hand-molding that we call 'boning', in his 1958-ish catalog was not describing molding at all.

Here's the line from the backside of his catalog, listing 13 points of superiority for his products:

11. Only commercial "boned" holsters.

Having read through other things by/about Chic, it suggested he was speaking of slicking the flesh side of the holster, which is on the inside of it (generally, not his 8Ball).

Yesterday I was completing a newspaper search online about Chic and ran across this from a very large NYC article:



Theory confirmed! So if we makers have been misleading you all about what that process, of moulding the holster with a hand tool, is called; we'll need another term. For awhile now I've been using 'hand moulded' though I reckon 'detail moulded' or 'high definition hand moulding' would be even more precise.

Notice also he does not mould his holsters for retention, as some contemporary makers have claimed notably the Sparks people (misconstruing the purpose of the same moulding in hot Kydex holsters). Instead "the snugger the fit the faster the gun comes out".

 

[rednichols]

Chic's first appearance as 'Chic Gaylord' 'holster maker' (he was a showbusiness agent prior; perhaps that's how he hooked up with Paris Theodore, whose wife was a showbiz person) -- I didn't bother looking throughout the country for Charles P. Gaylord Jr. -- was in 1953. His last appearance was in 1967, the exact point at which Seventrees took over his market. It was a pretty humble mention, too, of a his shop being 'somewhere' in NYC. He used at least four different street numbers on 45th St.

This image from the largest article suggests that he used a moulding press, if that's what is at his right and a bit further over perhaps a shallow pan of water:



The forum's upload system has made this image very small; but my version is large and the pistols on the bench are mostly High Standards, his known favorites. And not replicas at all, as stated in the caption.