sporran rebuild

[mayberry]

So I bought an old fur sporran on ebay for 6 pounds, plus shipping. It turned out to be in very rough shape. Sealskin, with a nickel cantle and a brown leather back, it was in the style (c. 1880s?) where there is only a small flap in the back opening to a very restricted "envelope" that cannot hold much more than your theatre ticket. I neglected to take "before" picture, but the fur was motheaten and worn; the leather was dry and fragile; and the cantle was scratched, bent, and unpolished.

In the grand spirit of "This old sword has been in the family for 3 hundred years, and has had three new blades and two new handles!", I took the whole thing apart and rescued what I could (only the cantle, the back, and the stiffener under the fur). I attached a new flap with snap, new fur (something I found in a bin of scraps-no idea what animal), conditioned and dyed the leather black, replaced the leather "cap" on the front, and made new tassles. I also decided to try to increase the carrying capacity by adding a gusset between the front and back pieces. This wasn't completyely successful- I should have made the gusset wider, since the extra inch or so I gave myself doesn't really make it much more useful.

In any case, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I relied for details on some of the other DIY threads here, so I thought I'd reciprocate by posting my story and pics. I'm sorry I don't have the time to produce individual captions for the shots, but I think it's pretty self-explanatory. If not, I'm happy to annswer questions.
Cheers,
John

[pdcorlis]

Uh oh - no photos showing John...

[mayberry]

[JolyStNicholas]

Sporran rebuilt<> NO PICTURES!! Anxious to see how it turned out!

[mayberry]

Well, I thought I attached the photos, but apparently not.
I'll try again later, when I have time to muddle around some more, but in the meantime, all the photos are on Flickr. You may have to open a Yahoo account to view, but it's relatively painless. Check out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3374278...n/photostream/

Cheers,
John

[Joseph McLaren]

It looks fantastic John, congratulations! For very little money you've got a really handsome, unique sporran, plus the satisfaction of a job well done.

[TNKiltedWolf]

Good on you sir!! That is well done, and what an interesting construction! Thanks for putting up the pictures!