Lots of tartans!

[OC Richard]

In fairness, the cloth in this photo is pretty much all either 13 or 16 oz, designed for making into a kilt. That's probably why the industry as a whole has effectively settled (for lack of a better term) on 6 to 9" sett sizes for the majority of stock supported tartans in 13 to 16 oz.

Yes that's what strikes me as different from the situation in the 1860s. The men in Highlanders Of Scotland were likewise wearing tartan designed for making into a kilt (which we can presume because it had been made into kilts) yet the sett sizes vary from a size we would use only for lightweight necktie fabric, to a size which appears to be larger than 9".

Look at the ginormous sett on the left, estimating from the sporran length it would be around a 14-16" sett.



Here on the left is a tiny sett, maybe around 4"



It might not seem strange, until you see the same tartan as woven today made up into kilts