Metal cantle questions

[LKM]

I have worked with leather for years and I am attempting to make a metal cantle. I have noticed that most dress sporrans are thin and don't seem to hold much, and that is not what I am looking for. My leather hunting sporran design is an inch wide on the inside and all the sporran cantle makers I can find have cantles that look to be half an inch or less, and these seem like they would be out of place on what I make as they would cover less then half of what the leather cantles I made. I am considering different options that would not require wielding equipment or special ventilation.

Questions:
Would a metal part on the front with black leather over the side/top part still look like a dress sporran?

Would a cantle made from separate pieces of metal look out of place or not?

Below are rough ideas....

[Taskr]

For the craft and hobby work I've done, where an item is not a core skill and/or I do not possess the required tooling or equipment, I purchase said item to ensure the overall product has the look/feel/quality I was striving for. Im currently designing a dress sporran that will be fabricated at some point - and after I find the metal cantle that will fit the concept since I know I cannot make or ad hoc one. I supposed I might find a metal worker who could fabricate a cantle to my ourpose, though.

[The Wizard of BC]

Actually the whole idea behind a dress sporran is that they don't need to hold much. To dress functions you don't carry or need much more than the minimum.

A big bulky sporran loaded with all your stuff just does not look dressy or formal. Just like street shoes would look out of place when everyone else is in dress pumps with paper thin dancing soles.

The older horsehair formal sporrans don't open at all. They have a small slit pocket in the back big enough for two or three calling cards and that's it. Formal Trews do not have pockets just like formal kilts don't have or need pockets.

[ThistleDown]

Of course, not all metal cantles are 'dress'. Check out our own Artificer (link at the bottom of this page). In particular, look at his re-booting of old MoD sporrans.

[LKM]

I could probably go down to a half inch thick, yet I would still want the sporran to be able to hold at least a wallet and keys. Even with a half inch think it seems that some of the modern sporran cantles could look out of place. If it was not for car keys, a simple pocket, or a few pockets on the back could work. That would make the sporran very close to a wallet that hangs in front in stead of sitting in a pocket.

I have looked at the sporrans Artificer makes. They are nice. It looks like he has wielding equipment to make the old style functional metal cantles. If I had the equipment, wielding experience, and a place I felt had enough ventilation I would have made a few functional metal cantles.

[Taskr]

LKM, you're probably going in the right direction with metal adornment on the front of the sporran rather than looking for the closure system of a full cantle. If you construct it as two equally sized panels connected with a gusset, a rear facing closure (snap or magnetic) won't interfere with the metal artwork on the front.

I have this one from L&M, and it is constructed that way. The gusset is not deep but it easily holds iPhone 6+, keys, and a thin wallet appropriate for the evening (what do you really need at a fancy event; licence (ID), credit card, debit card, some cash). In a DIY, the gusset could be custom to need though I would offer that I need not be fabricated as a carry-everything-as-if-out-for-the-day sporran. Its for formal, not work.

I've recently realized that the metal adornment on this sporran is attached by threaded studs and nuts. Which might mean I could fabricate my own fox fur formal and use the L&M metal. I'd have two sporrans with the same metal to share between them; who wears two sporrans at the same time, right?