goat hair sporrans??

[Rangingscot]

aye! thank you for the pic Mike!! and that is a fine sporran strap you have!!

[OC Richard]

I wear a goathair sporran all the time.

I picked up the sporran, which fully opens and is very roomy, on Ebay. It was made recently, but I like the way it looks "old school".

It came with a new cantle, which I didn't care for. I switched the cantle for an Edwardian cantle I likewise picked up on Ebay.



It opens up like this



Here it is being worn



Back in the old days

[Profane James]

Not to sidetrack, but, I notice a design trend in this style of cantle, with much decoration around the face of the radius, but at the top center, a blank shape. My initial thoughts are 'it needs something there!', but I then wonder if the traditional design is exactly that...without a 'thing' present.

?

[Rangingscot]

Makes you wonder, does it?

[MacCathmhaoil]

There are some who might have their grant of arms emblazoned in that empty space. Not uncommon to see older goat or horse hair sporrans passed down in families with the arms engraved.

[OC Richard]

I notice a design trend in this style of cantle, with much decoration around the face of the radius, but at the top center, a blank shape. My initial thoughts are 'it needs something there!', but I then wonder if the traditional design is exactly that...without a 'thing' present.

Yes you do see that over and over, not only with cantles but also with buckles.

It's common on sporran cantles to have three "bosses" the side ones with knotwork the centre one plain.

Here's an Edwardian cantle showing that.



Here's a common cantle design which has been around since the 1930s at least and is still in common production.



The plain bit can be shield-shaped or something approaching a shield shape; here from 1930



The earlier sporran cantles, the Victorian ones, tended to be sheet metal which was then engraved, rather than cast. Here's one with a shield.



Yes it was probably intended that you could have your Clan Crest or initial engraved there.

Here's a cast one with a badge stuck on that blank place



And a waistbelt buckle (#109) with the same idea



You also see that blank space with waistbelt buckles, where it appears to be residual, a covered-over opening if you will. Here are two crossbelt & waistbelt hardware sets, on the left modern, on the right Edwardian (#109). As you can see the waistbelt buckles were made both Portrait and Landscape. The cast sporran cantles for the long hair sporrans weren't usually made in isolation but made en suite with matching waistbelt and crossbelt hardware.



Another old waistbelt & crossbelt hardware set (#90) where it's obvious that the blank portion of the waistbelt buckle is a filled-in version of the crossbelt buckle



Being worn, a Gordon Highlanders piper in India 1890, wearing the #90 crossbelt hardware above with the #109 waistbelt buckle, landscape, also seen above.

[Rangingscot]

Up date on sporrans!!!
I have a pic of two sporrans i have started making, one is deer hide that i tanned me self and the other is goat hide i tanned me self, bonus is the antler handle sgian dubh i made from an old saw blade.
Injoy!

[Tarheel]

Up date on sporrans!!!

Good looking on all three items. Do you have the skins mounted on a complete bag, or, are the hides also the interior of the sporran. If the latter, how do you have them treated? (fur retention, suppleness, etc.)

Tinkering minds wonder about such items.

[Rangingscot]

It would be the latter haha, i treated them with a pre mixed tanner that is used for mounting so it works well for fur, both of them are semi soft but still pretty hard for thin skins for i did not work them. Works pretty well for a good looking semi formal sporran!

[Tarheel]

Gotch ya Rangingscot. I have prepped pelts, so understand your technique now. Thanks.