Genuine Goat Hair Query

**creagdhubh** · 30th April 13, 01:50 PM

Greetings,

I am curious if the rabble (Artificer maybe?) knows where one could purchase genuine goat hair in both black and white? I am in the early stages of having a bespoke evening sporran made and am rather keen on having the body and tassels of the sporran made of real goat hair - preferably stretched to around 17-18 inches in overall length (this, the sporran maker can do if needed). You tend to see a lot of goat hair sporrans on today's market that are entirely too short in their overall hair-length, but that's purely my opinion. Thanks!

Kind regards,

**davidlpope** · 30th April 13, 01:58 PM

Kyle,

Are you looking for smooth, silky goat hair or curly Angora goat hair?

David

**unixken** · 30th April 13, 03:20 PM

I would suggest contacting any goat farms in the southern Ohio, northern Kentucky area. For example:

http://getyourgoats.com/ohio.htm (Google "goat farms ohio")

**creagdhubh** · 30th April 13, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by davidlpope

Kyle,

Are you looking for smooth, silky goat hair or curly Angora goat hair?

David

Smooth and silky, David. A bit reminiscent of the Victorian-era sporrans.

**artificer** · 30th April 13, 05:43 PM

Hey Kyle,

I think the longest goat hair that I've ever seen is around 7-8".

I don't honestly know how they can 'stretch' the hair, it's very fine.

ith:

**ThistleDown** · 30th April 13, 06:31 PM

Kyle, I had a long goat hair sporran until the late fifties when it did a walk-about. I'll see if I can find a pre-digital pic of it. It didn't have a silver badge on board and the cantle was fairly plain sterling, with a few dimples but as I recall this is not unlike the one I had at least for length and the two plain bells.

Mine was from a Landrace raised in Wexford in the 20s. I suspect this sort of thing is very dear these days, but I'm sure a diligent search will come up with a tanned hair-on hide. I know there is a long hair breed native to Sweden you might source and, I guess, there must still be some in Ireland.

One complaint I think I might have had about it was that I couldn't keep my fingers out of the silkiness

...but I have the same problem with the beaver Scott made me, too

**Downunder Kilt** · 30th April 13, 07:01 PM

Thanks Rex, I now have ham sandwich pieces all over my monitor

**creagdhubh** · 30th April 13, 07:14 PM

Thanks, Rex. Wow! That is a beautiful sporran! Too bad it's not in your possession any longer. Scott, Bugpiper on eBay has three goat hair sporrans currently for sale. They all average 17 inches in length, and he states that was the longest he could "stretch" the hair. Not sure what that particular process entails, but they do look rather smart. I'll keep my search going strong.

One of Bugpiper's sporrans.
image.jpg

**ThistleDown** · 30th April 13, 07:27 PM

Oh that one was never mine, Kyle. Just a bit similar to mine in length and tassel.

As for the hair, goat is a bit curly by nature (I'm being very carefu' here after Mike's pick-up in my last post), but if you sort of pull the hairs one by one away from the skin until the skin sort of puckers up that's the measurement (pucker to tip) the bugpiper is giving you. (there must be a more delicate way of explaining the method of measuring wavy or curly hair -- help!)

**creagdhubh** · 2nd May 13, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by ThistleDown

Oh that one was never mine, Kyle. Just a bit similar to mine in length and tassel.

I see.

Originally Posted by ThistleDown

As for the hair, goat is a bit curly by nature (I'm being very carefu' here after Mike's pick-up in my last post), but if you sort of pull the hairs one by one away from the skin until the skin sort of puckers up that's the measurement (pucker to tip) the bugpiper is giving you. (there must be a more delicate way of explaining the method of measuring wavy or curly hair -- help!)

Hmmm....that sounds interesting. I kind of thought that's what Bugpiper meant when he states the word "stretch."