Tell newbie about kilt pins

[OC Richard]

Yes as Jock says the car door can grab a kilt pin! And many other things, especially for pipers and drummers.

As I've mentioned before, I think any Pipe Band who issues out kilt pins is asking for trouble.

Over my 45 years in Pipe Band I have, on several occasions, looked through entire "band sets" of kilts, sets of 40 or so kilts which have been worn for a quarter-century or more by successive generations of band members.

The kilts of bands who wore kilt pins and the kilts of of bands who didn't are like night and day.

Non-kilt pin wearing bands might have the usual split open pleats and stains and the random pull here or there, but the aprons will be in fairly good shape.

Kilt pin wearing bands will have visible wear on nearly all the aprons in the affected area. A good percentage will have holes. Several will have rent fabric, sometimes big enough to put your hand through.

Why bands in particular? Snare drums are heavy and bulky and have an astonishing number of things poking out which can catch on the kilt pin on the drum's way down every time the drummer un-hooks the drum.

At gigs pipers often have to march through crowded rooms full of people sitting on chairs around tables. The pipers' hands are busy on the chanter so chairs must be shoved out of the way with the knees- and the tops of the chair-backs are often the exact height of the kilt pins, giving predictable results.