Jack,
I didn't even think about the shop not having a machine to set the larger BD! (Duh!). The only possible scenarios I can come up with (during the short time that both Heiser and the shop ran out of BB's) are:
1. Heiser set the keeper snaps and made them a little larger such that they accepted ~99% of the handles.
2. The shop bought a manual snap attachment device for these larger BD's as well as the other type metal snaps we've seen from this era:
I don't think a manual snap attachment device would cost much, but it could not be used efficiently for mass production (which is something Heiser needed). Heiser could send one set of the matching snaps to the shop when the sheaths were shipped. I favor this scenario.
Yes, Bo's memory was suspect at the time he went over things with Bob. I have pointed that out several times on the other forum.
Bill: Thanks, but I just went to ebay auctions for Heiser products and stole that photo (Agreed they are beautiful sheaths).
Following is a link to the chronology of Heiser's logos:
http://www.vintagegunleather.com/com..._history3.html
Note: We know that the standard Heiser logo we are familiar with was stamped on Randall sheaths after 1955.
Thanks for the photo comparison and confirmation that the BD's on the sheath in question are different than the BD's we are used to.
Best,