Project Blog - Historic Sporrans / Brass Cantle Project

[artificer]

Not quite as exciting as the cantles arriving, but I did get some new leathers in the post yesterday afternoon that brightened the otherwise grey winter day.



New kid leathers for the first of the MacLeay Historic Sporrans.

Black for the under body on the hair face, as well as some of the trim, the red kid for the back of the bag. The brown is for a different project.

[Downunder Kilt]

Scott, would that brown be classed as an antique one. It looks very similar in colour to a couple of old 1920/30 briefcases that I have. Anyways I think it looks great

[artificer]

Scott, would that brown be classed as an antique one. It looks very similar in colour to a couple of old 1920/30 briefcases that I have. Anyways I think it looks great

Thanks Mike!

The brown isn't a true 'antiqued' leather, but the glaze is a very dark, transparent brown. It collects on the edges where it can soak in deeper, and into the grain and scars of the leather, which magnifies all the characteristics of the hide.

You'll probably be seeing this one in use in the next week or two.

[MacRobert's Reply]

No, not those bells Quasimodo, but sporran bells. My local highland-wear shopkeeper has donated two cast sporran bells to the project. Only about 15% of the old bells in his box appear to be cast. Most are constructed of sheet metal, have the detail engraved on them and have smaller holes for the chain. Most are also finished in silver but these two are in brass or 'gold'. I suspect he doesn't want to part with the silver or silver-plated ones. However, these two are typical of the cast bells in both the silver and brass finishes and represent common sizes, although a few are larger or smaller. The one on the left is 1.4 inches tall and on the right, 1.8 inches. The moulding on the smaller one appears to be much finer than the larger which is asymmetrical at the bottom (as are the bells on some of the sporrans in the MacLeay portraits: eg John Brown, Archibald Brown, Charles Duncan, Donald Gordon, Neil MacLeod and Archiebald MacDougall).


I will post tomorrow Artificer.

[artificer]

I will post tomorrow Artificer.

M/R, I simply cannot thank you enough for this. They are beautiful, and I think they'll look simply delightful with the soft luster of pewter.

Info sent, and again, thank you so VERY much. I am in your debt.

ith:

As an aside, make sure to stay tuned as I burn myself silly with molten pewter I really do dislike metal casting, but we never get anywhere in life without a little pain, right?

[English Bloke]

Take it easy Scott, you can't bring us the rest of the blog if you do yourself a mischief. It's a gripping read by the way.

Cheers.

[artificer]

The bells arrived in yesterday's post, and they are even nicer than they appear in pictures.

Thank you again, MacRobert's Reply.

One interesting thing to note is that both the bells appear to be cast flat, then rolled into the appropriate shape and brazed.

It's an interesting technique. There are upsides and downsides to it. The casting process is MUCH easier and less time/material consuming than some techniques like lost wax. On the down side, there is much more manual work that goes back into fit, finish, and assembly.

In order to stay as true to the originals as possible, I'll first attempt to cast these out of a flat mould - as soon as it warms up enough to melt/pour outside. :/

[Harold Cannon]

Just checking to see how things are coming along.

[artificer]

Howdy all! Rumours of my demise / imprisonment / etc are quite unfounded. Thanks to all who have enquired privately.

Just going through a "local situation" that's requiring more personal resources than usual (which means less leisure time to spend online).
Between this, normal duties, and my projects, I'm a bit stretched for time. I hope to resume normal X-Marks 'smart-alec' duties in the next few weeks or so. ith:

Just checking to see how things are coming along.

Stay tuned, pix will be coming in the next few days about one branch of the historic sporran project.

[artificer]

Sorry for the 'radio silence' lately. I've been busy in the shop working through the below.



Rear


Open Pocket


The early style construction lends itself to a light, flexible body not found on modern day piper & military style bags.


Based on the illustration of John Stewart (F) by Ken MacLeay.


Rear detailing and stitching based on pix of a number of surviving samples from 1830-50.

I wanted to detail this as a WIP, but time and tides played against me here.

Overall length ~19", Width across the cantle is 6.65" Pocket width is 5", Rear body measures 9.5" tall.

Total weight ~14oz.

A special thanks to 79th Reproductions for the very helpful advice.