Quality Sporrans for less money

[Troglodyte]

I see a lot of sporrans where the leather is covered with tiny hope depressions. The sporran in that listing shows this on its backside.

I assume that texture is made by stamping, or some similar technique. Is the texturing purely aesthetic, or does it provide a tangible benefit to the leather?

This is a printed (or impressed) texture which is to simulate the hair-growth pattern on pigskin (which is visible on many suedes used in shoe and garment manufacture) as 'hogskin' is given in the old catalogues as the body leather for sporrans. As with deerskin and sealskin, there is a good tradition of using pigskin in sporran-making - it was once very common.

The little dimples or holes are where the individual bristles would once have been, but most mass-produced sporrans of the style shown in the listing are made from a form of compressed fibreboard that is covered with a leather-effect surface. Any leather-look finish is purely decorative.

There is little difference between the fibreboard and real leather at fist glance, and most people never realise they are not the same thing. The diference becomes apparant with aging - real leather takes on a pleasing patina with regular handling, while becoming increasingly supple. The fibreboard remains stiff for ever, but resists wear much better and requires no wax or oil treatment.

You can find photographs of commercial sporran-makers' workshops that show stacks of pre-cut blank panels of this fibreboard on the work-benches. It's a good choice for mass-production of a standard pattern, and gives a superb new finish, but vintage patent W. E. Scott of the 1950s - '60s in real leather often have the genuine bristle-growth dimples.

The one shown in the listing by Nicoll Bros' looks like genuine leather, but is probably cowhide with the hogskin effect added.

For the price, this sporran is excellent value (Nicoll Bros' sporrans were the benchmark quality) and it would be worth buying and exchanging the cantle and tassels. Margaret Morrison use the old Nicoll Bros' patterns and tools, and their current range of fancy cantles would fit the Nicolls' sporran.