Any sources for sporran cantles? or taking down the chrome shine.

[gwynng]

I have a couple of sporrans, one of which I love a really nice black deer or elk hide, rugged, well made; the other is well...shiny. It is like a bazillion other sporrans out there called "dress" sporrans. It is that same typical with a pressed-metal-dipped-in-too-shiny-chrome cantle. They are all pretty much the same arc with about 3-4 design variations on them, but all fairly bright and well SHINY. I don't want to throw any disparaging remarks out there about the look because I know you all probably have one that is similar, but I am not a shiny kind of guy. I love the elk hide, but it is a little too casual for dress.

SO...is there a resource for good sporran cantles that don't cost as much as a 5 yard kilt? I keep looking but run up against the same few pseudo Celtic designs. (HEY MASS PRODUCING SPORRAN MAKERS WHO ARE LISTENING, OFFER US A MATTE OR BRUSHED NICKLE OPTION)

Or is there any experience out there with someone who has successfully "aged" or otherwise changed their shiny chrome cantle to a surface that is more subdued/tasteful?

Thanks,
G

[Tobus]

I don't know any tips for aging or distressing a shiny chrome/nickel cantle to look less shiny. However, there are lots of sporran cantles out there on the market that aren't shiny.

Clan Art has some that are "antiqued", or made with a grainy surface so they don't come across as shiny.

Or you could buy an el-cheapo sporran off eBay and put a new bag on the cantle (this one is black).

[Thomas H]

Take it apart and Sand Blast it or make one out of Aluminum , then it will be something you made.
Or have someone from the forum make you a cantle , There are alot of people on here that could do it.
I would do it out of Aluminum . brushed or sand blasted .

[Germankilter]

Antiquing? Steel wool comes to mind. It would certainly give you a less shiny look and possibly a two time look with the low spots being shiny and the high spot less. Also you could paint it and do the same thing. I just bought a sporron that is two tone black in the low spots and shiny in the high spots, hoping it loos as good as it does on the website.

[David Thorpe]

Getting rid of the shine is easy. Make sure it is squeaky clean. Paint it with acrylic artist color Mars black *the high spots don't matter but the low ones need to be covered. Allow to dry thoroughly. Buff with 4-0 steel wool, starting lightly and getting firmer until you have left only the black you want. This works with most metal items - cantles, cap badges, kilt pins, silver buttons, etc., etc...

[brewerpaul]

I had a shinny chrome dress sporran and chrome buckle that I did a remake on. Used Liquid Leaf, found in craft stores, and an acrylic spray over to antique it. Here are a couple of before and after photos. Im not a fan of chrome, except on old cars, so Im quite happy with the final product.

Chrome and shine sporran from Heritage of Scotland



I didnt have a photo of the buckle all shinny but here is the finished product of both sporran and buckle.



I used a mix of silver and gold to give it almost a pewter look. I found some chain to match and redid the sporran chain belt. This combo Ill wear.

[gwynng]

All interesting ideas. I have plenty of paint, acrylic, oil, enamel etc. so the idea of pushing paint down into the crevasses and rubbing out the high parts is interesting. I think that I would try oil since it has a decent level of adhesion to metal (some old oils were done on copper), but the drying time is such that I could take my sweet time rubbing it in and out again. I can always go over with the steel wool too. Thanks. I knew there was some wisdom out there.

[Friday]

Many years past I used permanent black India ink to blacken the low spots in a belt buckle. Fill the low spots with India ink. Allow to dry and then polish the high spots.

[Lord Eoin]

I have used "cold blue" as used on firearms to darken some chrome finishes.

[gwynng]

SUCCESS! I looked over the various solutions offered and sort of amalgamated them to apply to the cantle. Here are the results.



What I did was pretty simple:
1. Disassembled the cantle from the sporran - tiny little nuts back there (no smart comments, guys) so needed to use the needle nose pliers
2. Rubbed a thin coat of black enamel sign painters paint all over the design on the cantle. Used an old brush and rubbed it into the detail from all angles. The little tiny bottles of model paint would work too.
3. QUICKLY took paper towels to wipe off the excess from the high spots. Usually enamel is kind of slow drying: at least a half hour or so before it gets too dry to manipulate. But the hot day and thin coat seemed like it was going to set and get sticky pretty fast, so did the rubbing right away. Made sure there were no black enamel fingerprints left behind.
4. Put in high on a shelf and walked away. My tendency is like a small child's, to want to test the dryness every five minutes, so I practically hid the cantle from myself so I would leave any fingerprints in the sticky paint. 18 hours later, dry and very much more to my liking.

All in all I am happy with the results. It is still a shiny cantle, but now it has a little patina. At least it doesn't look like it was made from aluminum foil now. Does it look like fine sterling silver, no, but you can see the design better and the overall effect is much better to my taste. More subdued and older looking. And the bonus is that the enamel wont rub off on anything when you wear it.

This was a really easy fix and you can see the result while it is still wet. So if you don't like the look, you could work quickly with a toothbrush and paint thinner to return it to the original state.