The homemade sporran adventure...

[Mike S]

What weight/grade do you recomend Mike?

Glad to hear it's 100% leather, I guess my Dad was cheap when he bought his (We're talking 1960's vintage in my case)! As far as the gusset sides, you could use a 2 to 4 oz lining leather, pigskin, suede, buckskin etc. depending on what's available to you and the final finish you are going for. Any supple, lighter weight leather will do, however since you have a smooth finish on the front and back pieces, you should shoot for something with the scarf skin still intact i.e. vegetable tanned lining leather and not a split, napped, suede finish. Since the pieces you have cut from the case are already stained and finished, it might require a bit of experimentation with the stain and final leather treatment/sheen finish to get a good match. I'd experiment with some scraps of your chosen leather before committing to the finish on the final item.

With this type of Sporran design, it is best to sew the gusset with the outer face against the finished side of the front, then turn it back over the edge toward the rear of the sporran to sew to the back. This will give the rounded, neat looking lip around the front edge and is one of the reasons the gusset piece must be soft and thin enough to do so neatly.

As a fellow silversmith, I know you'll already have many of the skills and craftsmanship to jump right into this without any difficulty. However if you want any help along the way, feel free to let me know as I've made a lot of sporrans over the years.