About me and my leathercraft
Like most gun guys I've owned a foot locker full of gun leather. Unlike most gun guys I've learned to build my own leather. I don't claim designs, I copy what I know works and what I like. I like them because I've used them in the field; and I've watched hundreds, maybe thousands of students, use and abuse them. Bottom line, they work or I wouldn't build them.
I started learning leather craft in 1955 in Vacation Bible School. A year later I built my first holster, a Tandy Kit for a Colt Single Action Army. It looked like an Andy Anderson walk and draw copy. Dee Woolem was a big gun in blank popping and he did an exhibition at our Tandy.
I didn’t know it until after I build that first holster that my Dad had learned leathercrafting from some German civilians during WWII. He was a guard at a huge prison camp so had quite a bit of interaction with captured soldiers and civilians around that camp. So I began to ask him for help and I read every Al Stohlman book I could get my hands on. Stohlman's books are very thorough.
I learned about the late Bruce Nelson’s gun leather from Jeff Cooper. I never met Nelson, but we corresponded and talked by phone. I never discussed gun leather with Bruce, but we did share training and tactical and street survival information with one another. We were both followers of Cooper’s modern technique of the pistol. Cooper frequently mentioned Nelson’s gun leather in his magazine articles and he showed me several Nelson holsters when I met him at his First International Combat Shoot - Las Vegas, NV - February 1973. My favorite Nelson gun leather then and now was and is the Nelson No. 1 Professional. I was wearing Bianchi duty gear, but I was making my own off duty leather - it was Nelson’s work that was stuck in my mind’s eye.
As a law enforcement officer I preferred Bianchi gun leather. John Bianchi shared information about holster making and provided background information about his Auto Draw holster, a hundred thousand dollar research project as I recall. I contacted Bianchi because I was freelance writing for several cop rags and I wrote up John’s Auto Draw for Law Enforcement Handgun Digest. Have you ever noticed a similarity in an Askin Avenger and a Nelson No. 1 Professional? I saw it right away. I asked Bianchi about it and he told me that Bruce Nelson had apprenticed under him. Why, was I not surprised? Have you ever noticed the similarity between a Milt Sparks 55BN and an Askin Avenger? It’s well documented that Nelson gave Milt Sparks permission to copy his holsters and Sparks has always produced top notch gun leather.
I first met Milt Sparks at the Grand Opening of Thunder Ranch Texas (TRT). That was a whirl wind of gun people and gun talent and the ten years I taught at TRT are some of the most memorable in my life; all with good people and good gear. The TRT Pro Shop always had a large inventory of Milt Sparks’ gun leather; and I got to watch it put to the test almost every week during those ten years. Obviously, Milt Sparks (and Tony Kanaly, the present owner of Milt Sparks Holsters) had an influence on my skills too.
Another long time holster maker, and friend, that worked at TRT is Thad “TR” Rybka. TR has been making dead cows into gun leather for a long, long time. I think, longer than anyone now in the business. I have learned and continue to learn from TR. He shares freely of his knowledge. Like Sparks’, Rybka’s gun leather will go the mile.
I have no shame admitting that these artists have had an influence on me and the building of my gun leather. If I have any guilt or second thoughts, it’s that I’m not sure I can match their level of excellence, but I keep working at it.
Thanks for spending time on my webpages. ~ Bill McLennan, San Antonio, TX.