Is it possible to date an old surplus Black Watch kilt?

[Baeau]

from your photo it looks an box-pleated, not knife pleated kilt...
could you post more detailed and close pictures of pleating?

I, think, this is what blackwatch70 might be looking at.

[dirkomatic]

That's probably what he's looking at, but that's the standard reverse pleat before the inner apron...

[blackwatch70]

anyway more pictures could help

[OC Richard]

Yes definitely not the original straps.

Military kilts are hard to date due to being made in the same manner over a long period of time, from the late 19th century until fairly recently.

Many were made without straps & buckles, and were pinned. You can tell these by the wear at the places the pins were used, even if later they had straps & buckles added.

With straps & buckles there were AFAIK always three. The buckles were nearly always those distinctive stamped sheet-metal dull black two-prong buckles on black-lacquered canvas tabs.

That's the Scottish-made kilts anyhow. Many Canadian military kilts were made by the same firm that made many of the British military ones, Thomas Gordon & Son, Glasgow.

[dirkomatic]

It could be that this one was pinned and the buckles added as you say. There are definitely some crude stitches in an area that is covered by my waistbelt and that could be where the pins were.

Thanks for the information!