Horsehair Sporran Making: How to Attach Hair?

[DotDLL]

I am thinking of making a long, horsehair sporran, and I am researching how one might best prepare and attach the main panel of hair to the sporran. I'd like to try prevent the hair from falling out over time, if at all possible, as I have a few long-hair sporrans that I've acquired elsewhere for which the hair can fall out.

I've seen a few web-forum posts and threads about horsehair sporran construction, including some on XMarks. Here are a few links to such:

• "How are hair sporrans constructed?", http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...tructed-95570/
• "~~UPDATED~~ HOW TO MAKE A HAIR SPORRAN", https://kiltedunited.forumotion.net/...a-hair-sporran
• "Step-by-step construction of a hair sporran-", https://kiltedunited.forumotion.net/...a-hair-sporran

To note, the sporran I'm thinking of making would not contain a pouch, and would likely be a layered-panel with hair, a cantle, loop(s) for a sporran strap, and perhaps a few smaller adornments (tassels, etc.)

My understanding of the process for attaching hair to the sporran seems to be:

1. make many small bundles of hair, each tied on one end with thread
2. sew and glue the each bundle, near their tied part, in multiple rows, to a sporran-shaped piece of canvas
3. attach the canvas to a piece of thick leather backing

For anyone with knowledge of horsehair sporran construction:

1. does the above process sound correct?
2. any tips, particularly in regards to adding durability via construction technique, material, or other?

Any and all advice on, or resources regarding this are welcome!

Cheers!

[OC Richard]

On the various horsehair sporrans I've owned, which I show photos of on that thread you linked to, dating from Victorian times up to now, I haven't noticed evidence of gluing.

The hair appears to be merely stitched in place.

The hair don't come loose- when a sporran looses hair it appears to be because the hair has broken.

And the hair is stitched directly onto the hide body.

On old sporrans the front panel is hair-bearing hide, goat-hide or horse-hide.

So the long horsehair is like somebody adding extensions to their hair-do: you don't stick hair extensions on a bald head, but a head which already has hair growing from it.

I think it reveals how the sporrans evolved. In the 1820s and 1830s the front panel of the sporran was goat. But as the style became for longer and longer hair they eventually reached the limit of goat-hair length and began adding horsehair extensions.

Here's a very old (late 19th to early 20th century) sporran showing the horsehair extensions directly sewn onto the hair-bearing front panel. The construction of this sporran is particularly clear because the hair-bearing hide front has white hair while the added long hair is black. The canvas is an inter-lining, perhaps to give a bit of stiffness to the thing, the hide front panel and leather back panel being rather thin.

The top rank was originally semicircular as seen in the modern sporran below, much of the hair is now missing.



Just recently, seems to me perhaps around the 1970s, they dropped the hair-bearing hide fronts and went to plain leather fronts. But still the horsehair extensions were sewn directly onto the front.

Here's a c1970-2000 MOD Other Ranks sporran, it has no fur front.

It's interesting in that there's what seems to be double-stick tape on the top of the front, I suppose to keep the hair from shifting?

Obviously it's a modern innovation.

The hair is in ranks, this is the top rank, sewn in a semi-circle. Besides the double-stick tape there's no evidence of glue.



You can see there's three curved ranks sewn on top of the double-stick tape



And beneath that three straight horizontal ranks of hair, each stitched onto a piece of leather



About Josh Brown's instructions, anywhere where they can be seen to differ from the long-established methods of the Scottish makers, I personally would follow the latter.

[MichiganKyle]

I have to wonder if you could do punching of the hair like you'd do for costuming (e.g. Chewbacca).

[DotDLL]

Thanks for the details, OC Richard! Your pictures give me good details and clues towards a construction process.

The pictures indicate that the hair can get folded over at their tops, which strikes me as a solid means for attaching them securely, at least vs attaching them straight. I remember seeing this technique in instruction for making modern-style hair extensions, and while I liked its prospects for reliability (hair has to break in order to fall off), I was worried that it might not be possible given how thick horse hair is (compared to human hair). The pictures you posted indicate that it is possible, and that I shouldn't readily discard the idea (which I had been considering for a Version-1.0 sporran).

Another thing the picture seems to indicate is that the hair-body consists of several smaller bundles, which I presume could get made in advance of being attached (to the sporran's main body), and which conceptually sounds easier to stitch-down than trying to work with unbundled hair.

[plaid preacher]

DotDLL - Do take lots of notes and photos. I picked up a vintage sporran a couple of years ago, and need to replace the hair. I'd love to see how you do it.