As for my other leather equipment. including waist belt and holster, I also have some existing gear which it
may be possible to modify to NWMP specifications, failing which I will make it.
The holster used by the Force through to about 1905 was a good size, with a particularly large flap secured by a stud mounted on the holster body which engaged through a hole in the flap - left. above. Unfortunately, but understandably, the British flap holsters currently available as reproductions from various sources all seem to follow the British War Department approved pattern, having a somewhat smaller/shallower flap secured by a strap attached to the holster body, which reached across the lower part of the flap to engage a stud mounted on the flap.
I already have a number of reproduction British military holsters, and will be seeing if one of them can be adapted to the NWMP configuration ... if not, I will make one.
NWMP waistbelts of that era were also rather different from the reproduction British belts which are fairly readily available. The earliest version used a "snake buckle" ...
The Canadian 1899 Oliver Pattern Equipment belt (with a reproduction available from What Price Glory) is actually quite close in appearance -
- and I may try to adapt the one I have for this impression ... although that would require addition of some pistol cartridge loops - a permanent modification I'd rather avoid, although I have been thinking of trying a separate slide-on (or clip-on) set of loops ...
Alternatively, I may make my own belt - either the above snake buckle pattern, or one of the simpler and more conventionally buckled belts seen in one various period photographs ... and surviving as artifacts ... with a few different buckle configurations, although apparently with similar arrangementsm of pistol cartridge loops -
- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -A few other accoutrements I will need:
Revolver lanyards were apparently first issued to NWMP Other Ranks in 1886, made of "cod line ... stained with coffee". If I decide to use a lanyard, it will likely be one of my existing tan/khaki ones, although possibly dyed a bit "browner". The white lanyard used presently is relatively "modern", not appearing until about 1905.
Another indispensible item of kit with 19th century "British" uniforms - which have few, if any, pockets - will be the white haversack used until about 1900. No problem here, since they used the standard British patterns also used by the Canadian Militia, and I of course have reproductions.