Sporrans and belts and shooting tabs... and some great companies!

I've made my first online purchases for custom and specialty items this week.  It seems like I may be on the verge of really taking off with this leather work, as well as getting in gear with archery.

Last week, after seeing the work I did for my brother's in-law belt, my good friend Hippo asked me to stitch him up a ranger-style belt.  If you haven't seen one, just Google "ranger belt", and plenty of images come up.

Anyhoo, I don't know if you have ever worked with British/German ex-pats living in West Africa.  If you have, then you know that they are both jovial and particular, and, if it weren't for my day-job as a lobbyist (that's right), I might have even succumbed to his honeyed words.  Heck, I probably did a little bit, anyway.  He plied me with fine vocabulary, weaving in particular requests with the vision of a near-perfect belt and its use to draw in hundreds of fawning customers.

The "particular" about which I speak concerns the type of leather he would like: bridle leather.  I'd never heard of it before, but I looked it up and yes, it is, indeed, an actual item.  A very nice item, as a matter of fact.  I did some further perusing, and learned a bit about it.  I also learned about a wonderful place I'd never before known: Outfitters Supply, out of Columbia Falls, Montana.

You see, a lot of horse packing gear has to be strong, consistent, weatherproof, and still nice enough to not wear a hole in a horse.  Or an Englishman, for that matter.

I got on the phone with the good folks at Outfitters Supply, and in two days had two fine pieces of bridle leather, finished on both sides.  The stuff is beautiful, and pictures (especially the ones I take) do not do it justice.  Oh, the ideas it inspires, constrained by finances!

Some beautiful bridle leather!.

The big difference between Hippo's belt and my brother's in-law is that Hippo wants no tooling, but he does want stitching.  Ranger belts require stitching the billets, and I've opted to add stitching along the belt edges for the length of the belt, in order to minimize stretching (although I'm sure that this bridle leather will do a good job of keeping its shape).

I'm okay with stitching, but, like the tooling job on Pedro's belt, I've never done it for over three feet in length.  So, I got back on the horse -- or pony, as it were, and stitched up a sporran for practice.  I practiced the saddle stitch (appropriate, considering I'll be working with bridle leather and sitting on a stitching pony), and I feel comfortable.  I also know that I need to upgrade my stitching awl.

Another box in the mail!

I also had a great time looking up a custom order for me... in a way.  A couple of months ago, an archery shop up in the foothills had asked me if I could possibly make leather shooting tabs, as the ones they currently purchase are made of the suede side of split leather -- which means they are flimsy, as well as sticky.  I make my shooting tabs out of vegetable tanned leather, complete, and he said that, if I could get a stamp to cut out the shape, he'd be interested in buying tabs from me.

I poked around and found Pro-Dies.  They are great people, out of Colorado, and custom make dies and punches for saddle-makers and people like me.  I sent him my pattern, and he got me a die at a good price.  I have to really wail on it with my mallet, but I get a consistent shooting tab that I can send up for sale.


The sporran I made is officially the first real quality leather item I've made for myself (my leather-clad mug was commandeered for a pen holder, and my mug and dagger frogs are too, shall we say, 'utilitarian').  I designed a cross pattern with knotwork inside it.  Here are some pictures of the process:

Here is the sporran in the stitching pony (a third hand, very helpful). On the table is the front panel of the sporran, and a panel for attaching the drawstring, to be stitched onto the front panel. 

Here is a view of the back panel and flap (this was in the stitching pony).  Note that I've tied the corners of the flap temporarily onto the back panel (the lighter colored thread).  This is because the soft deerskin stretches quite a bit, and if you don't put your corners in place, you will end up with a lopsided bag.

Here is a picture of the front panel in the stitching pony.  You place the pony on your chair, and sit down over the horizontal bar.  I'm using a saddle stitch, with a needle on each end of the thread.  Note the cash register for all the sales I'm making!

Here is the Rob Roy sporran, ready for a button on the top flap.  If you are interested, I'll be selling sporrans like these starting at $100 -- you can check them out at my other webpage.