Chisholms Trail Old West Leather is a company owned and directed by Alan and Donna Soellner. Our company is fully dedicated to recreation of your favorite famous western movies and actual gear worn by famous outlaws and lawmen.
This quest of recreation is not an action done by someone laid back in their lazy boy recliner with a malt scotch. But someone who will go thousands of miles to visit the historical places in which these items were used and worn. Being personally able to see the pieces of art worn by the legends such as Geronimo, John Wesley Hardin and Wild Bill Hickok was pretty exciting.
Our next great venture is the recreation of "Shane," a 1953 movie filmed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The first process of this was to gather all photos of Alan Ladd from the movie as possible. Enlarging the size of these photos we were able to examine every aspect of the gun leather and construction. In our collection of researchers that include people that have collected Idian "Tufa" cast jewelry and buckles for more than 50 years and a foundry that has molded these items for Indians for the same amount of time.
We have also found a new friend that was at the filming of the movie and who was kind enough to provide us with hundreds of photos taken during the making of the movie. We will be going to Jackson Hole shortly to view the location in which the movie was shot.
The result of our study has revealed that the Shane concho is huge. It is approximately 2 " tall and 3 wide. The buckle is even larger. Both the buckle and conchos were Tufa cast. This kind of Indian construction requires the craftsman to carve his design into a smooth block of Tufa sandstone. A flat second block is secured to the first one. Molten silver is poured into the mold. After the metal cools it is separated and the final product will be flat on the back and rounded in the front. To get the concho or buckle to curve to the body, the Indians would hollow out a cotton wood stump, place the flat metal over the depression and use a rounded limb as a striker to get the soft silver to take on the arched shape desired.
These silver conchos and buckles were very commonly attached to Western belts and western holsters. The Chisholms Trail concho set and buckle will the closest one to the original ever made and the first one ever cast in the same method.
A collection of all the Shane holster and belt buckle photos, including those that we got exclusively, is then placed in our architectural AutoCAD program. Then will be opened up a holster photo and provide us with a flat pattern in which to recreate the original.
The western style Shane holster is already on our site under the Historical button. Trust me when I say it wears comfortably and is lightning to draw from. An Indian stuntman named Rod Redwing, in the 1950's and fast draw coach for Hollywood designed this rig. Rod said that he actually purchased the conchos and buckle from an Indian selling jewelry along the trail.
Donna and I encourage you to visit our web site and see for yourself our constantly increasing line of Cowboy gun leather. Don't forget to look over our Buckle and Jewelry button with both reproduction western movie buckles and many others from historical rigs worn in the American West. Ride for the brand.
More Information:
So head on down and check out our classic rigs, not to mention our buckles and jewelry down at Chisholm's Trail Leather a checkout our
western gun holsters
Categories
