Fur sporrans

[Rusty]

I am a newby at xmarks so please be patient with me as I don't know if this issue has been raised in the past. I have a Racoon Skin and a skunk skin that I would like to turn into sporrans. Has anyone had any experience with making animal face sporrans. Or does anyone know where I can have them custom made in the states without donating an arm and a leg ?

[Piper]

Hi Rusty,
Being a rendezvouser/reenactor who's a bit cheap, I make a lot of my own gear. I've made some fur sporrans, but not full face ones. I have made some other types of bags using the animal's face for a flap, a skunk pipe/tobacco bag and a raccoon shooting bag.
The construction is fairly simple. If you can get a look at a full face sporran you should be able to figure it out easily enough. I'd advise you to line the pelt with a lightweight, soft leather. Something around the 2 oz. range like buckskin. The skin of the fur pelt is sometimes on the thin side, although the skunk hide I used was pretty tough.
If you want to add eyes, they can be bought online through a taxidermy supply. Good luck

[auld argonian]

I'm looking in vain for the link to a page that has a basic layout and desription of how to make your own sporran...i know that it's been posted here before...it was a pdf of a plan for historic re-enactors...if anyone can recall it before i find it in this huge pile of stuff both paper and digital, please help.

It was very basic but it was a start...I think that someone mentioned the trick of going to a resale shop and finding a cheap used leather coat or jacket and "harvesting the leather from that as an alternative to paying bongo bucks for fresleathr from a supplier.

Best

AA

[Southern Breeze]

This is the one thats been posted before:

http://www.nwta.com/patterns/pdfs/291sporr.pdf

I hope it's the one your looking for.

[auld argonian]

This is the one thats been posted before:

http://www.nwta.com/patterns/pdfs/291sporr.pdf

I hope it's the one your looking for.

Thanks...that was the one! I was actually going to raid the Goodwill store later this week for a brown cast-off leather to experiment with.

Best

AA

[Tartan Hiker]

That's the diagram I used to put this sporran together.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=16628

[KiltedKnight]

Yeah, right...a leather jacket from the Goodwill store for less that fresh leather from a supplier. If you find any that fit that description let me know, I had to join Tandy Leather company to get leather cheaper than Goodwill.

Chris.

[Southern Breeze]

That's the diagram I used to put this sporran together.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=16628

I was thinking that was made using that pattern.It looks good.

[auld argonian]

Yeah, right...a leather jacket from the Goodwill store for less that fresh leather from a supplier. If you find any that fit that description let me know, I had to join Tandy Leather company to get leather cheaper than Goodwill.

Chris.

Maybe there's yet another advantage to living in Chicago...there are an awful lot of used leathers in the resale stores. Last time I looked at the Salvation Army store the leather jackets and coats filled a whole rack...a lot of them were beat to hell but for this purpose the areas that had long pieces of leather like the back didn't look like they had as much wear...prices ran from 5 or 6 bucks for the really beat up to twenty for the ones that were in decent shape...the beat up ones having, as I said, useable expanses on the backs. Seems like a better possibility for someone who might knock up only one or two sporrans than having to buy a whole skin from a supplier.

Maybe the folks in LA don't go through as many leathers as they do here...or mayvbe they just get buried in their leathers so they don't end up in the resale storres.

Best

AA

[Rusty]

This is the one thats been posted before:

http://www.nwta.com/patterns/pdfs/291sporr.pdf

I hope it's the one your looking for.

Southern Breeze, thanks for the pointer. The diagram is a step in the right direction. Now I have a mission to hit the thrift stores looking for leather. I don't know about the eyeballs though, I found some commercially made face sporrans. The eyes look kinda goofy