Poly Viscose... what is it?

[Casey]

I have ordered my first WOOL kilt and will make the comparisons.

It's also interesting as I have to poly kilts from Bear and I notice the difference in fabric weight. My Maple Leaf is very light, were as, my Gordon has more the feel and drape of wool.

Both are great casual kilts.

Casey

[Graham]

What wool kilt did you order Casey? Much as i love poly/vis - wool feels lovely.

This may sound kinky, but when I have my heavy 8 yard wool kilt on I love the grab the pleats with both hands and feel the weight and texture.

It feels like I have something really substantial around me compared with one, thin, light, crappy, layer of fabric called......trousers!!!

Why did I ever wear those things?? they are NOTHING!

[Casey]

Graham,

I ordered a 4yd, 13oz. in Macgregor Ancient from Lochcarron. This is my clan tie on my dad's side. It's Gordon on my mother's side.

Casey

[Mychael Sporrano]

This may sound kinky, but when I have my heavy 8 yard wool kilt on I love the grab the pleats with both hands and feel the weight and texture.

Nah, that's not kinky. That is called being a sensualist! I love doing that myself. It is amazing how so much material can comprise those myriad pleats of tartan. Of course, I usually try not to appreciate other fella's kilts using this method... That *could* be considered a little kinky!

Mychael

[richardljohnson]

Jimmy I am crushed. After all our previous talks about the care and effort that went into hunting and trapping the Poly Vicous I am depressed. To come and discover it is nothing more than "Cellulose, usually derived from tree trunks, is converted into a highly viscous state and spun into a fiber by forcing it through spinneret holes." Here I imagined you, Rocky and Bear out at night setting the PV traps and then harvesting them to make the kilts. Now I have to rethink my whole idea on PV kilts.

Now I am depressed......

RLJ-

[phil h]

great post jim, thanx

[Jimmy Carbomb]

...Bear out at night setting the PV traps and then harvesting them to make the kilts.

Bwaaahaaahaaahaaa!!!!!

I don't know about Bear, but some have found that Snipe were invading the traps FAR too often!

I'm still trying to figure-out how he skins the things and keeps the patterns so uniform!

[Calico Jack]

Snipe hunting...a favorite Boy Scout tradition for the little kids

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Let me tell you what I was told from a WELL-KNOWN and FANTASTIC kiltmaker in Edinburgh about the Poly-Viscose material...

There's no denying that the material is a GREAT alternative to heavy wools. It washes easier. It dries better. It absorbs perspiration and dries-out MUCH faster than wool.

Their ONLY reservation to the material is the EXTREME care that must be utilized when making a kilt out of it. Wool has a certain amount of "give" when you sew it up. In other words, it stretches a bit when sewn. This allows for a little room when pleating and sizing. A 16 ounce wool has a cushion that contracts and expands, to hide any small flaws.

Poly-Viscose, on the other had, proudly displays any and all mistakes in the sewing process. It just doesn't have the "give" with its weight and weave. If the pleats aren't sewn straight, the hips aren't uniform, and the tapers completely and entirely uniform, the pleats will go in whatever direction they please! Look at one of the hand-sewn kilts from Scotland in the heavy wool material. Those pleats hang like there's a steel panel behind them. The PV kilts that aren't sewn carefully enough, will pinch, pucker and tuck to follow the mistakes.

This is when you really come to love it when you can get a kilt in PV that's solid. Simply put, it takes extra time... extra effort... extra care... extra patience... and extreme precision in pleating! That will REALLY come out when a PV kilt is washed and line-dried. If it's made CORRECTLY, the pleats will go right where they're supposed to, and ironing will be minimal.

[Raphael]

AFter reading this, I have even more respect for Bear.