New Artificer Sporran Review

[davidlpope]

I recently commissioned Scott Huber/Artificer to make an Angora goat hair sporran from some materials I provided. I had a working brass cantle that Donnie Shearer had crafted for me some years ago. I located a portion of an Angora goat hide that a fellow X-Marker had purchased for a similar project and two brass replica Gordon Highlanders sporran bells. I had toyed with the notion of re-working the thing myself, but I never got around to doing it. When I started seeing Scott's handiwork here on XMarks, I realized that I had found a guy who could do a better job than I could. Scott and I exchanged a couple of emails and I sent the raw materials off in the post so that he could work his magic.

From the very beginning, his commitment to customer service and attention to detail were evident. He stayed in regular communication and suggested improvements to my original ideas. When there were decisions to be made about particular aspects of the sporran he provided needed info and sage advice but allowed me to make my own choices.

As a result, I couldn't be happier with the finished product. It is wonderfully crafted of the angora fur for the front, white deerskin for the back and gussett, completely lined in a rich red pigskin, and features dark red leather details. Scott managed to replace the cumbersome latch mechanism that the sporran originally had with a much better spring-loaded catch, had the cantle re-soldered so that it will be much stronger, and custom-dyed angora fur to serve as the dark brown tassles on the front of the sporran.

The sporran arrived well-packed and the package even included a nifty velveteen bag for storage. I am highly impressed with his work and very much recommend him for any custom job you might have. Bravo Zulu, Scott!

Here are a few photos showing the sporran. I look forward to my next formal event to show it off.

Cordially,

David