please help with sporran material decisions

[bismish]

Hi again

A million questions, I am an apprentice rather than a book-learner, but without a tutor...

I have been sitting here with my cantle and am at a loss re what to do with the very long posts - they are longer than the edge of the cantle, so will poke into the pouch and will inevitably scratch. Do I just hacksaw off the ends? I have tried to add a photo, not sure if i'm doing it right...

[Tarheel]

I have been sitting here with my cantle and am at a loss re what to do with the very long posts - they are longer than the edge of the cantle, so will poke into the pouch and will inevitably scratch. Do I just hacksaw off the ends?

I see your post and am adding a photo of a sporran from member Benning Boy. The side posts do stick out further than the cantle edge and (in this case) pass through the leather. Other cantles do not have the posts (maybe they are cut off) and the leather is attached with a rivet, or bunched up at the contact point.

Are you talking about the posts on the inside of the cantle? There are methods to deal with those to decrease damage to the leather and hands of the owner. A common solution is nip the posts shorter and make a new bend to attach the sporran body. I hope any of this helps.

[bismish]

I see your post and am adding a photo of a sporran from member Benning Boy. The side posts do stick out further than the cantle edge and (in this case) pass through the leather. Other cantles do not have the posts (maybe they are cut off) and the leather is attached with a rivet, or bunched up at the contact point.

Are you talking about the posts on the inside of the cantle? There are methods to deal with those to decrease damage to the leather and hands of the owner. A common solution is nip the posts shorter and make a new bend to attach the sporran body. I hope any of this helps.

Hi Tarheel

Thanks so much for the photo and explanation you sent - if only the pins I am talking about were so decorative. My photo didn't load - if you imagine the cantle being 6" long, and 2 inches high (the front face - an arc) and about .5 inch wide (the top edge of the metal bends at 90o to form a bit I would call a rim, I guess - it is the very top shiny edge, and points back towards the fella's belly at 90o to the front of the sporran). The screws are on the "wrong" side of the cantle face and poke out beyond the edge - they have bolts on the end so are clearly for fixing the leather to the cantle but its beyond me why they stick out so far, I have looked at dozens of photos and can't figure out what's going on...

I am going to the city next week and will find a kilt shop and plead my case for a squizz at their sporrans - hopefully I will get some idea of construction. I imagine that the commercial sporrans would have similar parts.

I'll keep you posted as I find out more... , once again, I am blown away by the generosity of you and others on this site

cheers

[bismish]

Hi everyone who has offered advice to me.

I didn't get to the kilt shop but duh! we have a local Pipes and Drums! The organiser was very kind, he brought along his three sporrans, including the Club one, which has a cantle arrangement exactly the same as the one I bought. I got to have a good look at the different constructions, 5 minutes and I was away, I just needed to see one in the flesh.

Of course, while I am now confident I can construct one like his, I also have a whole new bunch of questions...

The fur on the formal sporran appeared to have been attached to an already-constructed leather sporran. In a single piece, it covered the face, passed over the front/gusset seam, covered half the width of the gusset, and the edge was hand stitched to the gusset (I think it was also glued). Is this the standard construction?

What I was going to do was make the fur face and fur gusset part of the construction, rather than decoration (which is what I would call the above treatment). Attaching the fur to an already-finished piece may also solve some problems re sewing the fur and getting the fur to curl nicely away from the front seam, but my guts tell me its a short cut. If I'm going to make a sporran I would rather do it properly (the P&D fella said the Club sporrans were "cheap"). But of course if that's the way its done, then that's easier than I thought. . Once again, my problem is that I haven't got many to look at.

Having said that, there is a Scottish Festival here in June, I could examine a few different sporrans then, hopefully I will not run get myself arrested! (They probably wear knickers here, the caber toss is PVC pipe!!!!!). I need to have them finished by early July so I'm a bit reluctant to leave it until then, I will start with the boy's one as that's much simpler.

[Taskr]

[QUOTE=bismish;1340059]The fur on the formal sporran appeared to have been attached to an already-constructed leather sporran. In a single piece, it covered the face, passed over the front/gusset seam, covered half the width of the gusset, and the edge was hand stitched to the gusset (I think it was also glued). Is this the standard construction? [QUOTE]

I wouldn't do it that way. To my eye, the "rounding" of the fur over the seam would look too pouch or purse-like. Here's a great, old, video on a hand-made sporran. The basic elements were an invaluable guide https://vimeo.com/21021027 to my sporran making. I didn't use rubber cement until my third - d'uh me. An excellent adhesive to assist in holding things in place whilst stitching.

[bismish]

[QUOTE=Taskr;1340131][QUOTE=bismish;1340059]The fur on the formal sporran appeared to have been attached to an already-constructed leather sporran. In a single piece, it covered the face, passed over the front/gusset seam, covered half the width of the gusset, and the edge was hand stitched to the gusset (I think it was also glued). Is this the standard construction?

I wouldn't do it that way. To my eye, the "rounding" of the fur over the seam would look too pouch or purse-like. Here's a great, old, video on a hand-made sporran. The basic elements were an invaluable guide https://vimeo.com/21021027 to my sporran making. I didn't use rubber cement until my third - d'uh me. An excellent adhesive to assist in holding things in place whilst stitching.

Thanks Taskr, you've strengthened my opinion, I've gone back to look at images on the internet (amazing how LITTLE detail you can see when you're looking for something very specific), what I originally thought was stitched I realise now could be molded. I've also seen some wrap-around ones - I agree, I think they look "pouchy". I guess it's a matter of taste, too. I have however found a clear image of a definitely-stitched-and-rolled fur sporran so I will go that way.

I love that video, I suspect that lots of sporrans are based on that man's construction/technique! I wonder if he ever thought that's how his work would be remembered? He was truly a master.

think I will do one or more tests to see how the fur seam rolls. I will just state here that part of my desire to get it "right" is the desire to prevent having the p;ss taken out by my stayed-in-Scotland-when-you-f;;;ing-emigrated-to-the-sunshine cousins!!!

Once again, this community is so helpful and kind

I will put up some photos as I go