Project Blog - Historic Sporrans / Brass Cantle Project

[Downunder Kilt]

Brilliant Scott. Hopefully the commissioner is a fellow XMarker as I am most interested to see the locking mechanism on this beauty. Another magnificent creation mate.

[Ryan Ross]

Yep, that's the Real Deal alright. Brilliant work, Scott.

[NeightRG]

15oz with a quite sturdy cowhide and several internal pockets. Switching to Elk or pigskin would shave an ounce or two.

Less than a pound? Not nearly as much as I guessed by looking at it.

[artificer]

Beautiful! No one could tell at a glance that it wasn't an antique cantle, but it's destined to be an heirloom. Thanks for sharing another outstanding piece.

SM

That's my hope. "Sporrans your Grandchildren will fight over" Maybe that will be my new catch phrase.

Brilliant Scott. Hopefully the commissioner is a fellow XMarker as I am most interested to see the locking mechanism on this beauty. Another magnificent creation mate.

As far as I know he's not a member here. I'll send you a pic of the mechanism. It's a fairly standard pull release.

Yep, that's the Real Deal alright. Brilliant work, Scott.

Thank you, good sir!

Less than a pound? Not nearly as much as I guessed by looking at it.

I think it's the rectilinear shape that gives it a touch more visual weight than the arced "Culloden" style brass cantle sporrans. The metal is similar in gauge to the ex-MoD cantles, with a touch extra thickness on the front and rear faces, exactly the same on the rim.

In fact, I just weighed my ex-MoD sporran, and there is only 2oz difference. Since the leather on my MoD bag is about half the thickness on this one (and this one has internal pockets), the cantles are probably only ~1oz different in weight on their own.

I've got some quite exciting things coming down the pipe soon, so stay tuned for more brass cantle sporran (and perhaps other, more precious metals...) and more MacLeay sporran-y goodness.

ith:

[English Bloke]

That's a beaut Scott! Any chance of a peek inside??

[MacRobert's Reply]

That really is an outstanding sporran Scott. The journey was most definitely worth the destination! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[artificer]

That's a beaut Scott! Any chance of a peek inside??

Email sent.

That really is an outstanding sporran Scott. The journey was most definitely worth the destination! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thank you. BTW: Another tool I'm planning to invest in is a melting pot for casting pewter (once the ventilation is in place). The tassel bell/cones WILL be remade.

ith:

[SlackerDrummer]

As they say in the South, I am eat up with envy. That's some good stuff comin' outta your shop there, Scott.

[Ryan Ross]

Man, Scott- You've got some kind of impressive opperation going on, up there!

It sounds like you'll be set to start making just about any kind of leather hardware you could think of, in pewter, pretty soon. And that'll be NUTS!

I tell you, my friend- You'll go down in the history books. Not kidding.

[artificer]

As they say in the South, I am eat up with envy. That's some good stuff comin' outta your shop there, Scott.

thank you!

Man, Scott- You've got some kind of impressive opperation going on, up there!

It sounds like you'll be set to start making just about any kind of leather hardware you could think of, in pewter, pretty soon. And that'll be NUTS!

I tell you, my friend- You'll go down in the history books. Not kidding.

I've got pewter on the way right now, in fact.

As for going down in history - I'd like that, but I'm not placing any bets. The makers of the original bags were forgotten the first time around.

I was cleaning up some folders and discovered that I hadn't posted any pix of the piece I made for Matt. However, he had such nice pictures in his review HERE that most of mine would be redundant. There is one that I'd like to share -a nice detail shot of the cantle and tassels, inspired by the portrait of John Robertson by Kenneth MacLeay.



The pinking isn't original to Robertson's, but was requested.

The original artwork:


One interesting thing about Robertson's sporran- As I was scaling the drawing I was astounded by how teeny-tiny the cones on it's tassels were. To date I cannot figure out how that much bound horse hair could be fitted into such tiny ends. Nor have I seen actual cones/bells approaching anywhere near that small. Yes, I do fixate on some strange things

ith: