My Turn! (Rob Roy Sporran)

[budd4766]

Sweet!! My one issue with it is the braiding on the edges. If you're going for an historical look, that is not appropriate, as it's an American Western thing. However... if you had planned on wearing it with your American Heritage kilt anyway, then it's great! I just look at things with an eye towards historical accuracy. But man, that's some nice work there!! I haven't made tassels yet myself. I don't personally like them, so they have yet to make it into any of my personal work. But as there are a lot of people who do like them, can I as how you did them? They look great!

I see you're point, and am aware of the historical inaccuracies in the sporran...but it was never my intention of being historical....or accurate.. I just cut the pattern out, and used the edge braiding to cover the edges...since burnishing edges is one part of leather work I'd rather not do. (Lazy, again)..

The tassels were easy. I cut a rectangle about 2" x 3", measured down about 3/4" and sliced the fringe to be about 1/8" wide each.

The long ties are strips of latigo (for the color difference, and, again, what I had laying around the shop). Tied a knot in the latigo, wrapped the tassels around the strips just above the knot and glued them with leatherweld. Held them with a plastic clip 'til it dried.

Then, I took some dark brown lace and wrapped them around the rolled tassel tops several times and viola!

They came out pretty stiff after the dye/finish dries, so when I get home again, I plan to oil them a bit to try "relaxing" them. If I'd made them out of upholstery leather, they would've been limp enough, but, I didn't.

[Nighthawk]

I see you're point, and am aware of the historical inaccuracies in the sporran...but it was never my intention of being historical....or accurate.. I just cut the pattern out, and used the edge braiding to cover the edges...since burnishing edges is one part of leather work I'd rather not do. (Lazy, again)..

Being an historical reenactor, I tend to notice that kind of thing. We all see the world through our own sets of glasses, I suppose!

Thanks for the details on the construction!

[Tobus]

I just cut the pattern out, and used the edge braiding to cover the edges...since burnishing edges is one part of leather work I'd rather not do. (Lazy, again)..

You think edge lacing is easier than burnishing?! Either you've got a really slick method of doing edge lacing that I haven't discovered yet, or you're spending way too much time doing the burnishing!

I love the look of edge lacing, but it's just a time-consuming and boring task. What's your secret?

[artificer]

You think edge lacing is easier than burnishing?! Either you've got a really slick method of doing edge lacing that I haven't discovered yet, or you're spending way too much time doing the burnishing!

I love the look of edge lacing, but it's just a time-consuming and boring task. What's your secret?

I'm with budd4766, lacing is, for me, much faster than glue-stitch-sand- burnish-wax-burnish-wax-polish-dye.

That is the process I use to burnish two edges into one smooth, curved edge.

[budd4766]

You think edge lacing is easier than burnishing?! Either you've got a really slick method of doing edge lacing that I haven't discovered yet, or you're spending way too much time doing the burnishing!

I love the look of edge lacing, but it's just a time-consuming and boring task. What's your secret?

Well, I'm sort of bias to edge braiding. I got started in leather work as a braider, so I'm always partial to that look.

I do burnish edges, and have had a few come out looking pretty good, if I do say so myself, (and I do!). I bought the new wood edge slicker Tandy just came out with, and it works great, but, I just like doing edge braiding. It's sort of therapeutic, if that makes sense.

Plus, it looks a lot more complicated than it really is, so it impresses the customers..

[budd4766]

I started out doing cell phone cases like this:

[Nighthawk]

You think edge lacing is easier than burnishing?! Either you've got a really slick method of doing edge lacing that I haven't discovered yet, or you're spending way too much time doing the burnishing!

I love the look of edge lacing, but it's just a time-consuming and boring task. What's your secret?

I kinda thought the same thing! I use one of these:



I attach it to a drill and get the leather wet, or in the case of doubled edges on bags use gum trag, then burnish, edge kote, wax, burnish again, and done. It takes maybe 10 minutes to do a belt that way.

[Tobus]

I'm with budd4766, lacing is, for me, much faster than glue-stitch-sand- burnish-wax-burnish-wax-polish-dye.

Ah, that makes sense. If you're including hand-stitching in the process, yes, I suppose edge braiding does seem a lot easier.

[Mikilt]

You came out with a pretty nice sporran there. On a side note, however, I don't think that this would be called a Rob Roy style sporran. To my understanding, Rob Roy sporrans are sporrans with a rather large soft/flexible bag (typically of moose, deer, elk, etc), a drawstring type closure at the top that lets you cinch it tight, and small flap to cover the top opening.

Are there any actual Rob Roy sporran plans out there? I have never seen/examined a Rob Roy sporran up close and having a plan or template would be really helpful in making one.

[budd4766]

Are there any actual Rob Roy sporran plans out there? I have never seen/examined a Rob Roy sporran up close and having a plan or template would be really helpful in making one.

Here's the one I based my sporran on. It probably would work better if you used more flexible "upholstery" type leather, but I made mine out of veg-tan tooling leather and a pig skin liner. Personal preference. Anyway, this pattern has been floating around a while, and is pretty easy to do. Enjoy! AND POST PICS!!!

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