Project Blog - Historic Sporrans / Brass Cantle Project

[artificer]

Hi All,

The following is the blog documenting the start of a two-pronged project for me.

These projects are directly related, but will develop at different speeds due to the nature of one of them.

The first half of this project is my Historic Sporran development. These are sporrans I'm patterning on the watercolour paintings of Kenneth MacLeay, commissioned for Queen Victoria.

These sporrans will be modeled directly off of those worn by various individuals, and each individual 'type' will retain the name of the man pictured wearing it.

Below are a few small starter sketches indicating a 'first sweep' sampling of the sporrans worn. These are primarily the leather cantled sporrans, as the metal cantles project is a longer term one, and the economic restraints of metal casting in micro-batches will be an issue.


While at first glance a number of them seem nearly identical, there are subtle differences in cantle shape, or sometimes minor differences in the geometry of the curves (wider, shallower top), even though the basic shape is the same.

The second half of my historic sporrans blog will hopefully cover, from inception to final burnishing and installation, the development of some metal cantles.

I've been incredibly frustrated by the lack of historic metal (brass) cantles available on the market. There basically aren't any. The few I've seen have either been ex-MOD cantles or have gone for such insane prices on eBay (Thistledown and Downunder Kilt brought one to light that recently went for 690GBP/$1100US!)

Luckily, a metal smith friend and I have developed a working arrangement, I'm rebuilding all the leather in the harnesses for his suit of full-plate armour, and he's helping me develop the masters and (hopefully) sand cast brass cantles.

Below are the 2nd stage working drawings:


My plan is to cast a standard 'round' top cantle, and a more angular cantle. IF the box (for moulding) will allow, I may attempt either a very ornate Victorian cantle (which would be silver plated) or may further develop one of the MacLeay sporrans which would require a metal cantle, and most likely silver plating as well.

This is a long term blog, and will probably not see the near-daily updates of some of my WIP threads in the recent past.

Also, I'm looking for someone with VERY specific knowledge to act as a consultant on the project. Please PM me or email me at artificer(replace-with-at-symbol)earthlink.net if you feel yourself qualified and we can discuss arrangements.

As always, constructive commentary/critique is welcome.
ith: