Gordon,

you will be lucky to find enough deer hides with sufficient 24"wide material, and no bullet holes, to piece together. Go to this vender on ebay and look at the "grain-on" deer hides. Their tan quality is great, but you can still get a hole in the middle of an otherwise good section.

You should look into deer-tanned cowhide, which you can get in sides at about 20 sq. ft. per hide on sale this month for $3.99/sf at Tandy (pg 12-13 of the flyer in link below). They also have garment sides in a lighter weight (1.5-2 oz, versus 3-3.5 oz for the deertan) at $3.29/sf. My bet is you'll need at least 2 sides for a 4-yard kilt. I think Robert uses 6 yards avg. in his Rkilts.

FYI, 1 oz leather is 1/64 inch thick.

The best deal if you've never done a kilt in leather and want to experiment is this one, a whole side of upholstery leather on sale this month for $79.99. I was in the Tandy store in Atlanta and bought one in distressed plum color, 55 sf, thinking to make some ladies bags (sporanettae?). Then I got to thinking I could get 4 yards by 25 inches out of it, and maybe make a leather box pleat.

It is very soft to the hand. A bit heavy at 3-3.5 oz. Quality and hand softness varies from hide to hide, but for 80 bucks you can have an inexpensive learning experience, then go for the deer/deertan cow if you want to.

good luck