Seal Market

[Downunder Kilt]

From my own standpoint I like the look (colour, lustre etc) of seal skin (I do in fact own 2 sealskin sporrans) I got the first one when I got my first kilt as my intial purchase was for a formal dinner. My understanding, at the time, was that evening/formal dress sporrans were traditionally sealskin.


What appears inexplicable to me is that one country bans the use of sealskin for all but the indigenous persons, yet another obviously promotes trade and activately seeks out new markets for the same creature (and it all happens on the same continent)
OFF

[Dale Seago]

Are sporrans from cow leather, rabbit pelts and the like not good enough? Maybe it's a tradition-based thing?

My own first thought was that, the selkies having been mostly hunted out, regular seals were the next-best reminder of the good old days.

However, I also found this -- see post #35, on this page: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...72/index4.html

[GG]

Is it THAT important to you to have a real sealskin sporran? I'm totally serious, here. I'm asking an honest question, because I don't quite understand it.

Are sporrans from cow leather, rabbit pelts and the like not good enough? Maybe it's a tradition-based thing?

I'm 100% with you Alan in this.

Greg

[AKScott]

I kind of agree with Alan too.

I live in Fairbanks, AK. The cloud cover cleared out last night, temps are down from +5F yesterday to -20F already tonight and dropping like a stone. If it stays clear we could see -50F for a high on Friday. I didn't own any fur until I moved way far north and I get that fur is a hot button for a lot of folks.

At -30F and below, I don't go out without all my fox pieces. I am comfortable in goretex and synthetic fibers down to about -10F or so, from there it is a judgement call as the mercury keeps dropping.

The great thing about seal, from my perspective, is it is the warmest fur of all. Lots of those animals have 150,000 (yes, one hundred fifty thousand) hairs per square inch of hide. That stuff is warmer than beaver fur. Among non-protected species beaver is the warmest, but seal is the ne plus ultra.

{I can't find an internet reference for the hair count. I originally read it on a display placard inside the Museum of the North on campus at University of Alaska at Fairbanks.}

Seems kind of a waste to make a sporran out of the stuff. I get that sealskin is traditional but to me that is a lot of money. The other thing is there are so many other pelts to choose from.

I would suggest google image searching fur pelts instead of fur sporrans. I personally found this site when I googled fur sporrans. The stuff that was coming up on google images was really not that great. I don't know a lot about fur, but I have learned a bunch since I moved up here. So I googled custom sporrans instead thinking I might supply my own decent pelt instead of settling for what I was seeing offered. Googling custom sporrans got me to Taygrd's commercial site, and I found a link to here on his site.

I don't see a single logical reason for an inteligent Xmarker to buy a ready made fur sporran when there are so many excellent pelts to choose from and folks like Taygrd and Artificer and so on cranking out handmade one offs at such reasonable prices. The variety of fur out there from species that aren't protected is mind boggling.

If you live in the USA and have a sealskin sporran put together after the Marine Mammal Act went into effect I get that you are on the fringes of legality and have a lot more free cash flow than me to spend on a traditional material; but seriously you aren't wearing any underwear and the ambient temperature is what?

I do want a pair of sealskin pants. In those I can go to work and change into surgical scrubs without having to deal with any layers of long underwear down to -55F or so. My first winter up here I spent as much as an hour each day putting on layer after layer of long underwear, then get to work and take off layer after layer, then put on layer after layer to leave work...below -30F just going out to check the mail is an ordeal.

[xman]

As a pescatarian (eats fish, but otherwise vegetarian)) I resist the thought of needlessly killing any creature, but the seal product ban has, I'm quite sure, more to do with politics than sense. I feel they deserve no status as 'protected', they're not endangered and they're a blight on the fisheries. I've made the choice not to wear fur (urban life makes it easy) even for dress occasions because of the moral tangle it weaves in people's minds alone, but if there was one that I would wear it would be seal for all the reasons mentioned already.

I guess I'm waiting for reason to prevail. Could be a long wait.

[saxandpipes]

As a pescatarian (eats fish, but otherwise vegetarian)) I resist the thought of needlessly killing any creature, but the seal product ban has, I'm quite sure, more to do with politics than sense. I feel they deserve no status as 'protected', they're not endangered and they're a blight on the fisheries. I've made the choice not to wear fur (urban life makes it easy) even for dress occasions because of the moral tangle it weaves in people's minds alone, but if there was one that I would wear it would be seal for all the reasons mentioned already.

I guess I'm waiting for reason to prevail. Could be a long wait.

Good point.

People have a soft spot for marine mammals. And why not, they're cute! But quite frankly, so are rabbits, and have you ever seen a Highland calf! (cutest damn thing on the planet!)... My point:

We let people kill cows etc. I believe, because we manage to use most of it up, food, skin etc. But if you think that these poor creatures are killed in anything resembling a humane manner (at least more than that for killing seals)... think again. And I understand (perhaps mistakenly) that the Eskimos who hunt the seals make the most of the poor animal and similarly, leave nothing to waste.

In my mind, as long as the animal doesn't die in vain, and as humanely as possible, I can live with it, just. (I like meat too much). I rather that people are able to buy the skins of these animals- which are to be killed anyway- not talking about elephant ivory, or rhino horns here!

I mean, just imagine how an Indian feels about our treatment of the cow! (a matter of perspective..?)

....

Slightly OT, my friends are always at a loss as to how my mum can keep a steer- for the barbecue. Well, not that she keeps an animal simply to be later culled for eating, but that she talks to it, feeds it, and treats it almost like a pet during it's life. It is not something sadistic on my mother's part, she just likes to know where her meat comes from (and you CAN taste the difference! ), and ensures that it is a: killed humanely; b: all used- no wastage; and c: treated well during his life.

Cheers

Michael

[artificer]

Is it THAT important to you to have a real sealskin sporran? I'm totally serious, here. I'm asking an honest question, because I don't quite understand it.

Are sporrans from cow leather, rabbit pelts and the like not good enough? Maybe it's a tradition-based thing?

Is it THAT important? no, probably not.

As a craftsperson who makes sporrans, I'd LIKE to be able to use a material that is legally havested in the US by native peoples. I didn't think seal was all that amazing until I saw a really beautiful pelt.

Seal has just the right amount of 'fuzz' and is a VERY sleek, shimmering fur. Cow is a VERY poor second.

My feeling is that if you can't use seal, go with something COMPLETELY different (like fox or beaver) and not the pretend seal (like rabbit or cow), but that's just me.

As an American, I find it frustrating that a relatively arbitrary law stops me from buying legally harvested pelts from other Americans. In America.

It seems like the DNR should be able to issue special tags for pelts caught by indigenous peoples for their own (food/cultural) purposes. THIS would allow for a greater market (and better prices) for the local hunters, as well as allowing domestically harvested product to be sold domestically.

Will my world end if I can't find sealskin for sporrans? Of course not.
Would I be happy if I could get sealskin?

[Schiehallion]

In Scotland it is traditional for evening wear to have a sealskin sporran and these are now under European law not allowed to be sold.
Being aware of the ban on imported sealskin in the US, I was wondering how it works in the USA if I as a citizen of the UK wants to wear my sealskin sporran and take it into the US and out again. Could I do this? or would my sporran be confiscated on entry?

[artificer]

In Scotland it is traditional for evening wear to have a sealskin sporran and these are now under European law not allowed to be sold.
Being aware of the ban on imported sealskin in the US, I was wondering how it works in the USA if I as a citizen of the UK wants to wear my sealskin sporran and take it into the US and out again. Could I do this? or would my sporran be confiscated on entry?

If I recall correctly, proof of 'prior ownership' (old sales receipt or date stamped pix) and noting it on your INCOMING customs forms aids in your ability to return with the item.

[Lallans]

wonder why they still prefer clubbing, rather than shooting?

As a pescatarian (eats fish, but otherwise vegetarian)) I resist the thought of needlessly killing any creature, but the seal product ban has, I'm quite sure, more to do with politics than sense. I feel they deserve no status as 'protected', they're not endangered and they're a blight on the fisheries. I've made the choice not to wear fur (urban life makes it easy) even for dress occasions because of the moral tangle it weaves in people's minds alone, but if there was one that I would wear it would be seal for all the reasons mentioned already.

I guess I'm waiting for reason to prevail. Could be a long wait.

In the Atlantic seal hunt, which is done on open ice, clubbing is a lot safer for the bipedal participants than shooting and indeed it would have to be more humane as well. And firearms have enough image problems.

Cows and rabbits have beating hearts and big brown eyes too, and they are not available for exploitation to the people who hunt seals. The Inuit in particular have almost no way to make a living in the modern world but to sell the pelts of such animals as are available to them, so it could rightly be considered that using seal skin promotes their basic human dignity.

Although the Highland image now predominates, Scotland has a long long sub-arctic coastline with a huge maritime tradition and seal skin is a particularly Scottish cultural item as well. I'm just sayin'.

BTW my current signature 'Gur iad na rhido luchd-taighe' is (I'm told) a graphically butchered but phonetic rendering of the Gaelic for "the seals are your watchdogs". Inside joke.