My new tam

[BobsYourUncle]

Really an excellent job. To add to the confusion, I am not sure that Old Hippie's attempt at taxonomy holds any water, with all due respect to Old Hippie, who is a gentleman and a scholar. I've seen many non military tams that have a band below the disk, including at least one of the offerings on the Scottish Tartans Museum web shop...now everyone can start throwing things at me...

[Ryan Ross]

It's a very nice job that you've done, good sir!

Really an excellent job. To add to the confusion, I am not sure that Old Hippie's attempt at taxonomy holds any water, with all due respect to Old Hippie, who is a gentleman and a scholar. I've seen many non military tams that have a band below the disk, including at least one of the offerings on the Scottish Tartans Museum web shop...now everyone can start throwing things at me...

I agree. While I'm not quite sure on what all the proper nomenclature is, here's the idea that I have:

A Basque or millitary beret has no seam at the outer edge(meaning not cut and sewn) and just a bit of edging material or a bead around the, for lack of a better term, "head hole".

A Balmoral is a formalized style of bonnet which has no seam at the outer edge, does not have an overly large outer diameter, has a band bound with ribbon, has a toorie, has ties in the back, has a cockade, and commonly has a quilted lining and dicing around the band.

A tam is a cut and sewn bonnet, usually with a band and a toorie.

Bonnet, I believe (in our context), is a more general term that describes traditionally Highland Scottish headgear that is descended from the old and ubiquitous broad bonnet, which is knit and felted, has a band, was (and is) seen in a variety of outer diameters, and may or may not have a toorie; to this idea, all of the above, save the beret, would be considered bonnets, as would the Glengarry and the so called "Hummel".

Does that sound about right to anyone? Or completely wrong, for that matter?

[KiltedDixon]

Nice work!

[Old Hippie]

To add to the confusion, I am not sure that Old Hippie's attempt at taxonomy holds any water, with all due respect to Old Hippie, who is a gentleman and a scholar. I've seen many non military tams that have a band below the disk, including at least one of the offerings on the Scottish Tartans Museum web shop...now everyone can start throwing things at me...

Well, I've been accused of many things, but infallibility is not one of them.

To add to the confusion, I was just reading that a tam-o-shanter has a narrow band, while a Balmoral has a wider one. Everyone seems to agree on a beret.

In my collection of berets and other headgear I have a "Rasta Tam" that I've been known to wear on the odd occasion over the years. It's knit in concentric rainbow rings and is more like a beret. I have two military berets and an Abercrombie & Fitch tam-o-shanter in the old style -- knit in a tartan pattern with a toorie the size of a duck egg. And of course a couple of Glengarries now.

Out on the Prairies we wore "Scotch Caps" which are billed hats with earflaps, in either black and green, black and blue or black and red squares. Called so, I supppose, because they have a toorie or because they're patterned in what people call "plaid."