Howdy,

The camera returned. Here's how the cantles are braided.
Each of the edges has a set of holes punched through it. I laced opposing leather strips through the holes, forming sets of 'loops' on the front and back sides of the leather, about 1/2" in from the edge. Below the last set of loops on either end, I punched a slightly larger hole, and brought three strips of leather up from the inside, and began braiding them. After two sets of overlapping, I started 'hooking' the outside braid through one of the loops. One of the three strips would pass through the loop on the outside surface, the strip in the middle would rest on the edge, and the remaining strip would pass through the opposing loop on the inside surface.

This shows the outside edge of the hunting sporran, the loops that anchor the braid is covered by the braid itself, but you can see the pattern in the background with the holes for the loops:



Here's the inside edge of the same. Since the strips of leather have a front and a back side, I made sure to turn/adjust/align them as they were passing through the inside loops. It's kinda ugly.



Here's how they look as the strips align over the edge of the cantle on the fur sporrans. For the most part, they lie flat, but this Elk leather was uneven due to my cutting. I had to use brown leather for the bag and the back edge, as I ran out of Black. To account for this, I cut the back panel to be about 1/4" smaller around the top.



Finally, here are the pattens for the different types, with the matching holes for the loops along the edge.



I used brass lacing needles for the strips of leather. It's hard work to pass everything through the loops, and around itself. For the dress sporrans and the hunting sporrans, I left 12" of loose strips on either ind of the edge. Those were braided, then passed through matching holes on the front and back panels to form the hinges.

Cheers,

Kevin.