Questions on the Newsome 4yrd Box Pleat or 8yrd Knife Pleat?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Now this is an oddness. It would seem to me that tree layers of fabric in the back and two in the front is what a box pleated kilt must contain. Add in a yard for deep pleats and such and that comes to about four yards (possibly less) in my admittedly inexperienced reckoning. How does one fit even more material into a box pleated kilt?

You can make a box pleated kilt from any (well, within reason) amount of cloth, just like you can a knife pleated kilt. Indeed, the modern "military box pleated kilt" is just a box pleated kilt made with much more cloth.