Antique Brass Cantle Sporran Restoration Project

[NeightRG]

That's a pretty nice, original looking design... Excited to see it come to fruition.

Off topic, but the first material choice might make some people uneasy if they're not too well acquainted with livestock or leather terms

[artificer]

Thanks guys!

That's a pretty nice, original looking design... Excited to see it come to fruition.

Off topic, but the first material choice might make some people uneasy if they're not too well acquainted with livestock or leather terms

It's actually inspired by an old Victorian bag.

As for the terminology, I'm not TOO worried. A quick wiki or google search will sort most people out.

Progress!
All templates have been made, parts are cut (26 of them) and pieces requiring it are tooled. Once they're dried from tooling everything will be dyed with a custom oil dye.


ith:

[artificer]

There were several steps I missed in the middle here, but it's difficult to take pictures when your hands are covered in dye, glue, or wax.

Progress!
Front


Side

One thing I did differently than I normally would is to add a cover-piece to the edge on the side. Normally I'd simply roll the top and stitch, but I really thought the pinking and broguing would look nice carried around the side, especially as there is no visible stitching on the face.

Detail


Based on the sand casting and some of the other details I had the opinion that this cantle is c~1800. I sent out a few messages to those in the know and they felt my estimate was accurate. Such an exciting piece to be able to work on.

ith:

[RAF]

Scott, nicely done! So this is kidskin? Beautiful. The pores remind me of pigskin.

[davidlpope]

Scott,

Wow....You have gotten really good at this...

Beautiful work!

[Downunder Kilt]

Excellent Scott. That design portion on the body of the bag is an exquisite touch. Congratulations Master sporran maker

[artificer]

Scott, nicely done! So this is kidskin? Beautiful. The pores remind me of pigskin.

Thank you.
It IS kid, but it does look like pigskin. Part of that is the way I dyed it. I wanted the dye to puddle in the pores to give them more definition.

Scott,

Wow....You have gotten really good at this...

Beautiful work!

Excellent Scott. That design portion on the body of the bag is an exquisite touch. Congratulations Master sporran maker

Thanks guys!

I managed to straighten out the front-to-back twisting on the cantle, and to push out the area on the front face where it had been depressed into the body.

The one area I fell a bit short on was straightening out the right side body (where it was bent in toward the center). I managed to correct a bit of the off-set, but I didn't want to over-stress the hinge arms and risk damage, since the area had already been damaged before.

The other option would have been to cut out the screw-rivet and re-align everything, but that would have meant breaking BOTH hinge rivets, and I don't like to undo something original.

It was a real treat to work on.

ith:

[piperdbh]

That's really a beautiful sporran. Is that cantle very heavy, or is it thin enough to not weigh much?

[artificer]

That's really a beautiful sporran. Is that cantle very heavy, or is it thin enough to not weigh much?

The whole piece comes in just over 12oz. The material isn't thin, but the cantle is on the smaller side- 5.25"w x 2.5" tall x .6875" thick. Roughly 87% of the scale of a slightly more modern cantle (~6"w).

ith:

[ShaunMaxwell]

Wow! I wasn't sure about all that pinking when I saw your original drawing, but the finished product is stunning. It's always fun to see your WIPs and how the project unfolds. Thanks for sharing yet another beautiful piece.

SM