USAF Tartan In PV

**seanachie** · 5th January 13, 04:36 PM

ROCKY:
I literally have just ripped open the box and received my new kilt. Thank you (and to Mac) for the great kilt.

I do have a curiosity question and ask it publicly as others may be interested. If you recollect when I ordered the kilt, I did so on the phone and we had a bit of a chat on the variations of the USAF tartan and some, such as the Thurso tartan, that are just plain incorrectly represented as the USAF tartan. I have also read through a thread that Barb extensively commented on.
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-tartan-70031/

When you go to the Strathmore site http://www.strathmorewoollen.co.uk/m...&cat=10&page=6 and view the tartan look at the blue between the 2 red stripes. I have seen this blue in many wool tartans as being a much lighter shade of blue. I would say with my non expert eyes close to Cerulean Blue, Pantone 15-420. Also interesting is the lighter shade does not match swatch picture.

The blue that Marton Mills used in the PV is a darker blue. It is not close to Cerulean, and more akin to the blue (at least as it appears on my non calibrated monitor) as depicted in the Strathmore swatch. Was this something you consciously reviewed with Marton Mills, and elected to go with? If so was this based on specific information you had learned or history of the tartan that you were aware of? I am curious. If you go to Google images and look for images of the tartan you will see exactly what I mean as far as the lighter shade of blue. Here is one with the POTUS http://www.usafreserveband.af.mil/sh...-ZA323-201.jpg

I will be interested in your and other comments, thanks.

**Zardoz** · 5th January 13, 05:03 PM

Not to jump in front of Rocky responding to these questions, but in my experience PV tartans almost always have slightly different colors and textures compared to wool

**RockyR** · 5th January 13, 05:12 PM

Not quite that intense of a reason.

I got permission from Strathmore for the US Army, US Air Force, and US Navy Edzel tartans to be woven in PV (we're the ONLY company with such permission). Strathmore sent swatches of each tartan to MM and I asked MM to match the tartans exactly to the colors Strathmore uses. One thing to keep in mind is that for one mill to match another mill's coloring is VERY difficult, even if both tartans are wool. When you add into the equation that one is wool and the other is PV, it becomes even MORE difficult as the PV material is a 2 step process to dye the yarn (polyester and viscose take dyes differently). Based on those facts, I'm VERY pleased with how well the PV cloth matches the wool we have in our swatch book from Strathmore (please excuse the crude cell phone pic):

As Strathmore is the only mill to weave the USAF tartan as stock (in 11 and now in 13 oz as well), I decided to use their tartan as the 'correct' sett, even if the register's sett is slightly different. The Strathmore one is "out there" and since they're the one who designed it, I'm following their lead.

**seanachie** · 5th January 13, 05:31 PM

ROCKY:
Thanks for the favor of a response, as always I enjoy the knowledge you and others impart. My questions was born completely from curiosity. I look forward to strapping on the tartan tomorrow. As I related to you, I was sold the wrong tartan once, so I will flatten the first person to make a stupid remark on this one.

(joking of course) Funny too, how simple questions often have complex answers and complex questions can have simple answers.

As often happens I learned something not part of my question. Dying PV is a 2 step process as polyester and viscose take dyes differently. I was always thinking that matching wool color was difficult because they were altogether different dyes.

I appreciate the answer and my fine kilt!