Alternative Cantle Materials?

[Bugbear]

Other than silver, from what materials may a dress sporran's cantle be made? Assuming chrome and nickle are too shiny.

Thank you.

[Chas]

Hi Ted,

I think the problem is calling it a 'dress sporran'. My understanding is that a dress sporran should have a silver, or silver looking, cantle.

If on the otherhand we are talking about a dressier sporran, then I don't see any reason why a wooden cantle would not work. If it was done well by a good craftsman, a matching Sgian Dubh handle and sporran cantle set would, I think, look quite smart.

There might be those who would say that it was not good enough for a formal evening event, but a hand-carved, exotic wood cantle sould be good enough for a formal/semi-formal day event

Regards

Chas

[george7]

The Scotland Kilt Company offers some dress sporrans with enamel filled into the details. It takes the shine down just a tad.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

The alternatives to silver, silver plate, or nickle, would be brass, gold plate, or gold. I don't think wood would ever look quite right, and because of its brittle nature, one would run the risk of having it split, or fracture. I've seen a few dress sporrans with leather cantles, but the only one that really seemed to pull it off was decorated with a cast silver coat of arms, complete with supporters, and some amazing silver tack decoration. The best option, in my opinion, if you are looking to avoid the "shiny metal" look is a critter with full a mask-- muskrat, otter, and badger being the traditional choices. Even at that, I'd be tempted to have a silver shield engraved with my arms, crest, or monogram tacked on the critter's head just to liven things up a bit.

[The Barry]

You can also get dress sporrans in antiqued metal, which is silver in color, but less shiny. I think it makes for a nice look.

[McFarkus]

I have a Ferguson Britt fur sporran in Canadian beaver from Matt Newsome that has a leather cantle. It's truly beautiful and I consider it a dress sporran. Here's a link:

http://giftshop.scottishtartans.org/..._fbgallery.htm

[george7]

A geek sporran might be in order... carbon fiber cantle with some sort of high-tech fabric in place of fur.

[Bugbear]

I work with ceramics. I could design a cantle in clay then have it cast in a metal. The other artists I work with usually have their sculptures cast in bronz or brass. The brass could always be silver plated, of course.

I have a sporran with a chromed cantle to work from as a model, but the designs I'm after would not be found on a stock cantle.

I just wanted to see what all is doable. I could make a glazed ceramic cantle and possibly put silver inlays on it, but that would probably be a little too weird.

I could also attach silver pieces or elements of a design, as tack work, to a thick piece of leather in the shape of a cantle or something along that line.

[lucienrau]

A geek sporran might be in order... carbon fiber cantle with some sort of high-tech fabric in place of fur.

I'm with you there. I'm not a fan of fur and all of the other options that I've seen that aren't fur or leather are extremely causal and not dressy enough to go with anything more than a t-shirt or sweater.

[Bugbear]

No, this will be fur. I'm looking into the options for that. I can do the leather work as long as it does not involve embossing and tooling like that.