semi-DIY Black Watch crossbelt project

[OC Richard]

A few months ago I saw the Pipes & Drums of The Black Watch on their North American tour, and once again I was struck by the beauty of their uniform.

That uniform was "my first love" so to speak as far as military-style Full Dress uniform goes, because my father took me to see The Black Watch on their 1976 tour, it being the first time I had seen a military pipe band (or any pipe band) in person, and I was very much taken with their dress.

So after nearly 40 years of playing the pipes the notion recently seized me that I just had to get a Black Watch piper's uniform together!

One item is the crossbelt. Actually the Pipe Major's crossbelt is much easier to do than the other pipers, because the Pipe Major's has quite ordinary hardware (and by the way used for Captain Barbossa's sword belt in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies).

Here is the Pipe Major (Richard Grisdale) on the left, with his crossbelt clearly visible



My first step was to get the hardware. I had a modern chrome-plated set but I wanted a nicer vintage look, and luckily an Ebay seller in Scotland had a vintage crossbelt for sale with just the hardware I was looking for. Here it is, the modern chrome version on the left, a nice vintage solid nickel version on the right



The next step was to get the crossbelt itself! Being a rather large person (6'4" and sixteen stone) off-the-peg crossbelts aren't ever big enough. I was lucky to find a shop in Ireland selling nice quality crossbelts which they made up locally and I ordered an extra-long one sans hardware.

Next was to get the badges. Since around 1900 the pipers of The Black Watch have worn two badges on their crossbelts, the lower badge appearing to be the same as the cap badge of The Cameron Highlanders (sans scroll), the upper badge like a Black Watch cap badge. The Pipe Major's crossbelt has a special sort of Black Watch cap badge, bi-metal, with "42" in the centre. Happily both badges are easy to pick up on Ebay and here they are (sorry for the horrible fuzzy I-thing photos)



and the hardware and badges ready to go on the crossbelt



Determining exactly where to cut the extra-long crossbelt blank, where to put the buckle, and where everything else was to go required me to wear the crossbelt over the doublet in front of the mirror and experiment a bit. Rather than stitching or riveting the buckle in place I went down to Tandy Leather and bought a pack of little things like rivets but they screw together... I like being able to take everything apart when I want.

Here's the upper badge after mounting, a better photo of it!




and the lower badge. I wonder if this badge is really correct... I have some pretty close-up photos showing Black Watch pipers and this appears to be it, as best as I can tell



Here is the completed crossbelt, just done yesterday, with my new 18oz military-style piper's kilt, BW sporran, BW Pipe Major/Drum Major style doublet (a magnificent thing, complete with a full set of BW buttons, bought from an X Marker), and feather bonnet with the Pipe Major/Drum Major sphinx badge (the feather bonnet itself is from the Argylls; I have one with the correct dicing coming)





Now time for another DIY project, converting a pair of ordinary spats to Black Watch style spats...

PS a shot of Captain Barbossa wearing the same crossbelt hardware, looking like a nice vintage set similar to mine

[BCAC]

A question comes to mind, Richard, when seeing all the trouble that you've gone to to get these things together, with everything being "just right" as it were.

Are you allowed to wear it? Are there not laws against wearing military uniforms when you are not a serving member of said military? I'm not "getting at you" at all, just asking, that's all.

[Elizabeth]

I love the vintage hardware Richard. Very nice job of putting it all tog ether!

[OC Richard]

Are you allowed to wear it? Are there not laws against wearing military uniforms when you are not a serving member of said military?

A good question... I would think that, like an actor wearing a police uniform, the distinction is that I'm not pretending to be a member of The Black Watch, but wearing the uniform in the manner of a re-enactor, in the manner of a costume. I am in no way impersonating, that is, trying to make people think that I'm a member of that regiment.

It's common, has always been common, even in Scotland for civilian pipers and pipe bands to wear military uniforms, in all or part. I have photos, for example, of a civilian pipe band in Scotland wearing a nearly complete Gordon Highlanders uniform: tartan, badges, everything. Other civilian bands wear the Black Watch's coveted red hackle, evidently with no problems.

(There was a guy around here who was an impersonator: he went around telling everyone that he had served in The Scots Guards, even had an old ID card, but some guys who actually were members of The Scots Guards said that this guy had never served there, was just pretending, for what purpose no one could figure out.)