I am wondering what this means for kilt makers?!?!?
When I had a kilt made by Robert MacDonald of Westcoast Kilts, he said that he only used tartan from DC Dalgliesh because they were the only mill whose quality met his standards.
When I received my kilt, this made sense, because Dalgliesh’s wool feels exactly like Great War era regimental kilts that I’ve handled over the years.
I find myself wondering if there are alternative sources and worrying about the ripple effect on practitioners of traditional kilt making.
I own the yarn stock that came from D C Dalgliesh the base yarns are used by a number of tartan weavers and there are a limited number of suppliers. D C Dalgliesh were still using shuttle based looms for the in house weaves, the weaves produced by the contract weaver (who I'm working with) use a Dornier rapier loom. There are also slight variations in the work done at the finishers.
When I had a kilt made by Robert MacDonald of Westcoast Kilts, he said that he only used tartan from DC Dalgliesh because they were the only mill whose quality met his standards.
When I received my kilt, this made sense, because Dalgliesh’s wool feels exactly like Great War era regimental kilts that I’ve handled over the years.
I find myself wondering if there are alternative sources and worrying about the ripple effect on practitioners of traditional kilt making.
That sounds like Dalgliesh's F1 weight which was about an 18oz cloth. I have an old kilt in it, wonderful cloth. That range was stopped when the firm was sold a decade + ago.
I have a kilt in this cloth, in Royal Stewart, the tartan worn by the pipers of a number of Scottish regiments (the number getting smaller all the time) and the look and feel of this cloth is quite different to ordinary civilian kilting cloth.
It pretty much feels like a travel rug, and resembles the cloth of a WWI military kilt I used to own (back when size 30 trousers were a bit big on me and I could wear ex-army kit).
It generally has a larger sett-size that civilian heavyweight cloth.
Traditionally the heaver fuzzier bigger-sett cloth was worn by Other Ranks while senior sergeants and officers wore cloth more akin to heavyweight civilian kilting cloth, as can be seen here in the difference between the Pipe Major's cloth and the other pipers' cloth.
Last edited by OC Richard; 4th November 25 at 05:33 PM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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Originally Posted by Jock Scot
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