Making a Cantle

[marvelredneck]

Hello all. I'm attempting to make a full dress sporran, and I want to try and make the cantle myself, but I can't find a good description or picture anywhere, so I would be grateful if anyone could tell me or show me how the spring mechanism works on the cantle, as I don't own a full dress sporran myself (yet).

[artificer]

What you'll find is that most dress cantles DON'T have a working latch mechanism anymore. Most are just a decorative plate with either:

a) a small pocket on the back of the sporran body, or
b) they are built like a hunting sporran and the metal cantle is simply a plate bolted to the front body.

A working "purse mouth" sporran was more of a 17th-early 19thc piece. That said the British Army did make a working brass cantle for Scottish units in the 1950's. If you search for 'brass cantle' or MOD cantle on the forum search, you'll find pix of the mechanism and the hinge.

[Downunder Kilt]

These are 2 "home made" catches on working sporran cantles. Both belong to Xmarks members

These are where you pull on the knob to release the catch









The following 2 are of a 1953 MOD Mk 1 cantle which uses a different method but you still pull up on the knob to release the catch

[Downunder Kilt]

This one is a 1953 MOD Mk 2 cantle with a spring clip that you push down to release



I have some more photos if you want them, just let me know