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 does not take place from a deck of a Lazy Boy recliner with a single malt scotch. It requires thousands of miles of travel and a tremendous expense to actually go to the historical sites where these items were worn and used. Just to be allowed to personally examine rigs such as the ones worn by Geronimo, John Wesley Hardin, or Wild Bill Hickok are pretty exciting.
Our next adventure is the making of Shane, the 1953 movie filmed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. First we gathered all available photos of Alan Ladd from the movie. We increased the size of all images and examined every aspect of the gun leather from size to construction. On our team of researchers include people that have collected Indian Tufa cast jewelry and buckles for over 50 years and a foundry that has molded these items for Indians for the same length 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.
In the result of our research shows that the Shane concho was huge. Approximately 2 " tall and 3 wide. The buckle being even larger. Buckle and conchos were "Tufa" cast. This style of Indian construction requires the craftsman to carve their design into a smooth block of Tufa sandstone. And a flat second block secured to the first one. Then molten silver is poured into the mold. Once the metal cools it is removed from the mold and the final product will be flat on the back and rounded in the front. To get the concho or buckle to curve with the body, the Indian creators would hollow out a cotton wood stump, and then place the flat metal over the depression and use a rounded limb as a striker, this is to get the soft silver to take on the arched shape wanted.
Silver conchos and buckles such as these are commonly attached to Western style belts and holsters. Chisholm's Trail concho set and buckle will be the closest to the original not to mention the first crafted in the same way since the original.
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 as well as myself encourage you to visit our website and see for yourself the quality and care we put into our Cowboy gun leather. Don't forget to look at our buckle and jewelry section with both reproduction of western movie buckles as well as historical rigs worn in the American West. Ride for the Brand.
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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
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