Interesting sporran

[artificer]

Get it all nice and clean and then clear coat it.

Thanks for that, any suggestions for a good clear coat? I tried once with an aerosol varnish but it dried before the droplets could coalesce and it took me ages to get it off again! Maybe it was too warm a day.

Good varnish for metal is VERY temperature and humidity dependent. In all honesty varnish is more trouble than it's worth on the MoD cantles, as it's designed so that the bags are removable for easy polishing of the brass.

Over the last few years I've had to strip the varnish off of a half dozen of these, and it's a nightmare.

Leave the brass to mellow a bit and polish when it darkens up too much for your taste. It'll save you the problem of stripping off the finish after tarnish eventually spreads underneath it.

ith:

[Tobus]

I agree with artificer. Lacquering brass is a bad idea. It's very difficult to get it looking right, and then it's a nightmare to maintain. If you get any nicks or dings in the lacquer (or whatever finish you end up putting on there; lacquer is the old-school method), you'll end up with a mess. The scratches and dings in the lacquer will keep the cantle from looking good, and you may end up with tarnish at the dinged spots that you can't polish back out.

It's better to just clean it up, polish it, and keep it as bare brass. When I pull mine out the night before I'm going to wear it, it takes me less than 5 minutes to shine it back up with Brasso. Every few years it probably needs to be taken off the bag for a good cleaning, but other than that, just shining up the visible parts is fine, and doesn't take long at all. It'll look a hundred times better than a lacquered one.

[TheOfficialBren]

How would a copper (or similar colour) look?

Thank you for the tips about brass. Very useful, not just for Highland dress.

I'd like a cantled sporran eventually. When that day comes (Nathan and Mike) don't outbid me . I want to get in on the fun, too.

[Downunder Kilt]

There was actually a MKII cantle , still with the original blancoed bag, that finshed on ebay about 3 hours after the one in the OP's post. It went for GBP79.00, a very reasonable price.
Ebay GBP79.00.jpg

[Nathan]

There was actually a MKII cantle , still with the original blancoed bag, that finshed on ebay about 3 hours after the one in the OP's post. It went for GBP79.00, a very reasonable price.
Ebay GBP79.00.jpg

I keep missing choice auctions. I'm searching sporran daily and scrolling through pages and pages, but didn't see that one at all. I saw a Montrose Doublet on xmarks that sold recently that I didn't see either. want to share your search techniques?

[Downunder Kilt]

Surely Nathan, I usually hit the UK ebay site once a day and just punch in sporran. Hit the newly listed option and scroll the first couple of pages. Usually on a day to day basis there is no more than 100 new entries. I find it usually takes about 5 minutes once you get your eye keyed in as to what to look for as you scoll down the list. The one above was merely listed as a regimental sporran. If I spot any in the future I'll shoot you off a quick pm if you like.

[Kalok Sundancer]

I agree with artificer. Lacquering brass is a bad idea. It's very difficult to get it looking right, and then it's a nightmare to maintain. If you get any nicks or dings in the lacquer (or whatever finish you end up putting on there; lacquer is the old-school method), you'll end up with a mess. The scratches and dings in the lacquer will keep the cantle from looking good, and you may end up with tarnish at the dinged spots that you can't polish back out.

It's better to just clean it up, polish it, and keep it as bare brass. When I pull mine out the night before I'm going to wear it, it takes me less than 5 minutes to shine it back up with Brasso. Every few years it probably needs to be taken off the bag for a good cleaning, but other than that, just shining up the visible parts is fine, and doesn't take long at all. It'll look a hundred times better than a lacquered one.

Unless you want to live cleaning it, lacquering brass and copper is your only choice to keeping it shiny and clean looking when it's exposed to the elements.

Personally, I don't like to spend my free-time cleaning and shining.

[WillowEstate]

Thanks for the advice, Artificer and Tobus, I'll keep polishing then! Probably if I wore it a bit more often it wouldn't tarnish as much.