{"id":5242,"date":"2018-12-07T21:55:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T02:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=5242"},"modified":"2018-12-07T21:57:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T02:57:41","slug":"the-whole-story-on-holstory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/the-whole-story-on-holstory\/","title":{"rendered":"THE WHOLE STORY ON \u201cHOLSTORY\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard \u201cRed\u201d Nichols was lead designer at the Bianchi holster company for many years.\u00a0 I\u2019ve known him for decades: he was often in attendance back in the days when I shot the Bianchi Cup, and I\u2019ll never forget him taking me and some other writers on a fascinating tour of the factory in Temecula, California.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He and collector John Witty have just come out with a fascinating book called \u201cHolstory,\u201d the title being a clever play on \u201chistory of holsters.\u201d\u00a0 Being on top of this topic more than most folks, I was surprised at how much I learned between its strikingly photographed covers.<\/p>\n

For example, I had known of famed early Twentieth Century gunfighter Tom Threepersons and his holster design, but didn\u2019t know the details of all that went into those scabbards, nor the fascinating tale behind the identity confusion that occurred between him and Canadian rodeo champion Tom Three Persons.<\/p>\n

Much of the value of this book is in the richness of detail.\u00a0 The complicated relationship between mid-Twentieth Century New York holster-maker Chic Gaylord, some of whose designs we still use today, and his controversial prot\u00e9g\u00e9 and successor Paris Theodore, for example.\u00a0 I had grown up seeing pictures of the legendary gun expert Elmer Keith doing fast draw exhibitions drawing big twin Smith & Wessons at once from mirror image Berns-Martin breakfront holsters.\u00a0 It turns out that those classic old revolvers were fraternal rather than identical twins: one is a Triple Lock .44 Special, and the other, a .38\/44 Outdoorsman.\u00a0 I had never noticed that the cartridge loops integral to the rig were in two calibers: a row of .38s for the Outdoorsman, and another of .44s for the Triple Lock.\u00a0 This rig not only still exists, but appears on the striking cover of \u201cHolstory.\u201d<\/p>\n

More insider info on this project can be found at the always-interesting Smith-Wesson Forum, here.<\/a> The book can be ordered from here<\/a>.\u00a0 At the latter website, you can find an abundance of well-researched history on related matters, and also examples of Nichols\u2019 own fine holsters that he makes today, some of which I\u2019m proud to own.\u00a0 Lavishly illustrated and published books are expensive. So are laboriously researched tomes on niche topics.\u00a0 This book is both, which is why \u201cHolstory\u201d will cost you a C-note, but research sources in narrow areas of interest commonly cost that much or more, so I think it\u2019s a good value.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still trying to figure out whether to put my copy in my research library, or on my coffee table.<\/p>\n

PS: I am reliably informed that if you order promptly, you should have gift copies of \u201cHolstory\u201d in time for Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard \u201cRed\u201d Nichols was lead designer at the Bianchi holster company for many years.\u00a0 I\u2019ve known him for decades: he was often in attendance back in the days when I shot the Bianchi Cup, and I\u2019ll never forget him taking me and some other writers on a fascinating tour of the factory in Temecula, California. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5243,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5242\/revisions\/5243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}