Unusual Heiser

[S&W ucla]

Picked up this nice one for 4.5" 22 auto. Haven't cleaned it up yet, but have never seen a button like this one. Looks original, exact same size as big pre-war HHH button. Extremely fine checkering. Floral carved, leather lined, laced, with sewn in toe. Anyone ever seen one like this? Thanks.

 

[andy52]

I bought a Heiser about a month ago and it has the same type of snap when I posted the picture one of the expert holster members here said that it was a steel snap used during WWII do to brass shortages.

 

[andy52]

Now that I look closer at your button I don't think it's the same as mine, yours looks almost woven.

 

[turnerriver]

There are a couple of possibilities for your button. Naturally I ran into every other kind of snap there is before finding the one I wanted in the stacks but here it is.

Congratulations on the model 1722-as you noted, it has deluxe features such as lining and sewn bottom plug. Which brings me to the first possility. This may be a button used on high end holsters. The example I show is on a floral carved lined and laced holster.

Heiser apparently ran out of the brass and enamel 3 H snaps sometime around the start of WW II. The brown enamel snaps appeared in a catalog about this time. As Andy notes, there are zinc or similar metal snaps that were used as well, I believe because of the shortage of brass.
I also noted some smooth large brass snaps that were on much earlier holsters including a couple from before 1920. One had engraved initials. So any of these plain snaps might be special orders, specified by a customer who didn’t want a Heiser labeled snap. There are unusual or different snaps used throughout the range of holsters I have in my collection so different reasons for them make sense. I’m pretty sure that the early brass and enamel snaps gave way to the brown Heiser Denver snaps due to economics-“ We’re running out of these, they’re expensive and we can save money with a new snap, and by the way the war is here/almost over/we have a new owner or some other reason”.
Thanks for posting it.
Regards,
turnerriver

 

[S&W ucla]

Thanks for the responses. That would make sense as I've seen a few plain holsters with the smooth brass large button. I would hate to have to do the checkering, lol.