The Bucheimer Companies by Era

A good friend of mine has a lengthy thread on smith-wessonforum.com about the Bucheimer companies' fitment numbers, in the forum's gunleather subforum. He has performed a public service because there are three companies involved -- E. E. Clark, then it's successor that was Bucheimer-Clark, and finally the parent company of the latter that was J.M. Bucheimer. All have been closed down since circa 1990 and a modern company that lays claims to the marks does not use them in commerce.

A little history helps sort out the makers and their marks.

Clark Holster was the first of them in the holster biz, though officially J.M.B. is the older company. E.E. Clark started out in gunleather for LEOs in 1919 while J.M.B. was still called G.R. Buchheimer (yes, two 'h's), GRB being largely a maker of luggage (luggage handle patents) and pet collars, etc.

The familiar name "J.M. Bucheimer" appeared just as WW2 began I suppose because Germans were suddenly unpopular? Anyway, J.M. himself dropped the double 'h' of his father and grandfather and a gunleather line began to appear in his catalogues in 1950 or thereabouts.

So at this point, 1950, we have Clark Holster carrying on after the death of E.E. Clark himself a few years earlier, under the sons; and J.M.B. is on a separate growth arc back East.

In '59 the sons of both founders joined forces to create Bucheimer-Clark in California as J.M.B.'s western subsidiary. This seemed to work and the Tandy Corp's interest was stimulated; Tandy bought out the Bucheimer companies in 1970 or so. Both stayed in their respective states (MD and CA) but B-C as a CA corp was formally dissolved and the name became Tandy's DBA in Texas where Tandy was headquartered.

THEN the brands began to thoroughly confuse the marketplace by changing logos almost at will, and it is with their logos that we (you and I) can determine when their products were made. And by extension, having the logo on our holster helps us locate the catalogues of their eras. And inside those catalogues, are the fitments.

So, I guess my point is that, if you don't begin with the logo stamped on your holster then you'll have masses of difficulty in locating the right catalogue. Because 1919 to 1989 when the last of them closed in bankruptcy is a VERY long time span.

The leathers used by the two companies are very different. J.M.B. used what was better suited to G.R.B.'s dog collars, which was a sanded and painted leather that Lawman still uses today. In such leather the grain is 'corrected' by sanding, then the colour is not natural but painted on. While B-C stuck with the natural leathers and competitors in California such as Bianchi and Safariland did the same; natural, uncorrected grain is less economical to work with for many reasons but it yields a far superior bit of gunleather. All Western saddlery is made with it, since the 19th century into today (even my nearby saddler uses American side leather with an aniline finish, then oils for colour as do the first-quality gunleather maker.s

At some point I might try to work out a table for you all, to sort out the jumble of fitment numbers of the three companies; but for now I'm only going to sort the maker's marks out by era. It's a start.

In the beginning, there was Clark Holster. 1919-1959

As maker's marks go, Clark Holster's is dead easy because there was only one. The patent markings don't help much because he not only continued to use the 'pat pend' version long after the patent was issued, but also used it on holsters that the patent didn't apply to (it was a shoulder holster harness patent). Fitments are tailored with .38 being a medium frame such as a K frame, 44 or even 45 being a large frame such as an N frame, 32 being a small frame such as the J frame. Beware of those marked for a 45 in 5-1/2" barrel length, it's for the big DA revolver popular with the LAPD and not the SA of the Rangers.

Around 1950 the J.M.B. gunleather that we know today appeared.

The Frederick mark appeared in 1953 in addition to the Towson mark (Towson is to the north of Baltimore and Frederick several hours' drive to the West). Eventually Towson was closed down (have the date around here somewhere) leaving only a Bucheimer Made mark.

Above and below I couldn't tell you which of these was first but I suspect it was the "designed by John Maurice" version.

Then there was successor company to Clark Holster: Bucheimer-Clark 1959-1969.

With this company one wants to know that they moved within California 1969 or so, and the first logo was this one in Los Angeles:

Circa 1962 the J.M.B. mark changed:

Bucheimer-Clark's became this after a move to Valencia, NW of Los Angeles. 1969-1979:

In 1974 J.M.B.'s mark changed to this one and it is on its gunleather. Catalogues and packaging and ads showed the Tandy Corp ownership but not on the gunleather.

Then it all went to Hell, when Tandy jettisoned the Bucheimers in 1980:

First these, that at first glance are the same -- but they're not. Not only is the name different, one for each brand (and both in MD with the CA operation closed), but the 'B' has one less line in the "reticle" of the B-C version.

The companies were sold in 1983 and the mark became this one for JMB; 1983-1989.

By which time manufacturing had likely ceased since 1985 (the final catalogue):

Will this skeleton of Bucheimer marks be enough to support an attempt to flesh out these companies' fitment markings? Maybe . . .

To read more about it all in my book titled "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century

-- the Second Edition", click on the new link at top of page.