Making a Scottish Hunting Sporran?

[GrafVil]

Hello to all.

I am attempting to make a Scottish leather Hunting Sporran similar to the one in the picture.  I could use some help or advice on how to make the circular device shown in the center.  Does anyone have experience making the outer edge of the circle with the points and holes?  Is there a special tool  or pattern available to lay this out?  

I have made many other types of sporrans but this detail is one I can't find a video on.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Tom H.

[mike02130]

I don't quite understand your specific question.  There's a lot going on there.  A circle is 360 degrees.  Figure the radius then divide by what ever number of holes and lay it out with dividers.  The star points would be the same method for laying out the legs on a three legged stool.

[Matt S]

There are brogueing punches for doing similar work, which have two or more punches next to each other. This helps to lay out the spacing on brogued shoe uppers. However you'd have to adjust the circumference of the disc to some multiple of the spacing on your brogueing punch for that to work properly.

If I were making a one-off for my own satisfaction I would take inspiration from the decoration and lay the whole thing out with a compass/dividers. That's probably how the original piece(s) what inspired your example was done. Maybe use a protractor and calculator if that's a method you're more comfortable with. I'd expect layout to take over half an hour per piece, probably closer to an hour. Cutting and punching would take maybe 15 minutes using a drive punch and a knife.

If I were doing it on the clock, and especially if I were making more than one, I'd draw the punching and cutting pattern on CAD. Print it out, a squirt of temporary spray mount on the back, stick it on the leather, punch and cut, them peel off and decorate. Punching and cutting wouldn't be any faster than with hand layout.

Larger quantities would be an obvious candidate for a custom die cutter. I would send RFQs to several die makers but with all those wiggly edges and punch tubes I'd be expecting to the cheapest quote to be several hundred £. Zero layout time, and a few seconds to cut and punch. Of course in these quantities a metal embossing plate for the decoration (including a line for sewing) would be a no-brainer.

[GrafVil]

Hello Mike02130 and Matt S.

Thank you for your suggestions.  I am making a one-of for myself, and also just to try a new style of sporran.  

I made a trial piece on scrap leather laying out the points and holes as show below.  I calculated 40 holes around the perimeter and that made the points and punched holes 9 degrees apart.  I have a 9 inch diameter paper protractor and I laid out 1/4 of the circle.  The radius from the center to the outer points was 2 1/2 inches and the depth of the notches was 3/16 inch.

I think I can make this work.  I will need to be a bit more precise on the layout and cutting though.

I have already tooled the center with no holes or notches so I will not use this method yet.  I'll post the final product when finished.

Appreciate you help.  

Tom H

[GrafVil]

Here is the final product.

This is a 5" diameter circle that will be glued to the front of a Scottish Sporran (A Sporran is the pouch worn by men wearing Kilts.  It holds essential items since most kilts do not have pockets.)

I consider this a prototype and will do it again, correcting the mistakes i have made this first time.  The points are too deep, and the holes were punched from the back instead of from the front so some of the holes are off center.

The metal emblem on the front is a thistle, an emblem of Scotland.

Tom H

[Matt S]

53 minutes ago, mike02130 said:

Ah, so it's a purse for men in skirts?  Now I get it.

A skirt has a hem. Kilts do not. Men have been wearing kilts for working and fighting far longer than your country has existed.

[battlemunky]

I'm gonna go and get some ice for that burn. 

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Matt S said:

A skirt has a hem. Kilts do not. Men have been wearing kilts for working and fighting far longer than your country has existed.

 Good one. Yup they did and they came over here too. My grand mother was a Montgomery. So our country may be new but our people are the same old people with different clothes.

[Matt S]

15 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

 Good one. Yup they did and they came over here too. My grand mother was a Montgomery. So our country may be new but our people are the same old people with different clothes.

Aye, there's a lot of Scots went west in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the earliest white settlers in the Appalachians were Scots. The Hudson's Bay Company actively recruited Shetlanders and Hebrideans to explore the interior of what we now call Canada. They used to joke that they were going for the improved weather. Half-joke, anyway. Anyone who can scrape a living from the sea around one of those little dots of wind-ravaged Atlantic granite has to be some kinda hardcase.

 

19 hours ago, GrafVil said:

Here is the final product. I consider this a prototype and will do it again, correcting the mistakes i have made this first time.  The points are too deep, and the holes were punched from the back instead of from the front so some of the holes are off center.

Tom that looks great! I like that you're not trying to make an exact copy of the one you've seen, putting your own twist on it.

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Matt S said:

Aye, there's a lot of Scots went west in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the earliest white settlers in the Appalachians were Scots. The Hudson's Bay Company actively recruited Shetlanders and Hebrideans to explore the interior of what we now call Canada. They used to joke that they were going for the improved weather. Half-joke, anyway. Anyone who can scrape a living from the sea around one of those little dots of wind-ravaged Atlantic granite has to be some kinda hardcase.

 

Tom that looks great! I like that you're not trying to make an exact copy of the one you've seen, putting your own twist on it.

LOL Yea my Clan side went to Ireland, County Donegal, first then my great granddaddy came to the US in the 1840s. Had to be hard to move to Wyoming in the 1840s from a famine to the wild west and the same weather lol.