Sgian Dubh casual, formal, both?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Generally speaking, while that is undoubtedly a nice item, stag isn't formal. Day wear, yes. Evening wear (when wearing the equivalent of a suit and tie) okay. Formal (white tie or black tie) silver mounted with black hilt is the standard of dress. The hilt (not the sheath) is all that is seen, and it should match the degree of formality of the rest of your outfit.

[Nick the DSM]

I think both is acceptable. Why wear a handy tool only at formal events, when it can be handy anytime?

[Tommy Hunt]

Generally speaking, while that is undoubtedly a nice item, stag isn't formal. Day wear, yes. Evening wear (when wearing the equivalent of a suit and tie) okay. Formal (white tie or black tie) silver mounted with black hilt is the standard of dress. The hilt (not the sheath) is all that is seen, and it should match the degree of formality of the rest of your outfit.

Hello MacMillan. Have you a source to support this position? Thanks.

[Galb]

Generally speaking, while that is undoubtedly a nice item, stag isn't formal. Day wear, yes. Evening wear (when wearing the equivalent of a suit and tie) okay. Formal (white tie or black tie) silver mounted with black hilt is the standard of dress. The hilt (not the sheath) is all that is seen, and it should match the degree of formality of the rest of your outfit.

Hello MacMillan. Have you a source to support this position? Thanks.

I have heard the same. I think it probably has something to do with the super formal being mostly black and white, so therefore you match the sgian to it as well. That being said, how often are you going to be dressing up in a Prince Charlie, bow tie, and all the trimmings? For an every day, and 99% nightly sgian, that is quite the handsome item. Then again, it has quite the ornate top to the hilt, which looks very nice, so it might very well pass for even the most formal of occasions. But like I said, how often will you be in that kind of dress situation. Even then, no one is going to look down upon it.

I have always loved the looks of the stag horned sgians. Maybe someday I'll get one.

[Tommy Hunt]

I have heard the same. I think it probably has something to do with the super formal being mostly black and white, so therefore you match the sgian to it as well. That being said, how often are you going to be dressing up in a Prince Charlie, bow tie, and all the trimmings? For an every day, and 99% nightly sgian, that is quite the handsome item. Then again, it has quite the ornate top to the hilt, which looks very nice, so it might very well pass for even the most formal of occasions. But like I said, how often will you be in that kind of dress situation. Even then, no one is going to look down upon it.

I have always loved the looks of the stag horned sgians. Maybe someday I'll get one.

I think you might be right. I did some research and from one site I got this:

For day wear, the sgian dubh may have a hilt or handle of deer antler or may be made from carved horn or wood. Evening wear and dressier occassions call for a more elaborate sgian dubh with a blackwood or ebony hilt carved in a Celtic pattern and accented with silver fittings and a cairgorm stone pommel. http://reviews.ebay.com/A-Gentleman-...:-1:LISTINGS:3

Maybe I'll carefully wrap the handle in a strip of black leather if I ever get a Prince Charlie.

BTW check out the clan cap badge pin on that page. Is that just the coolest badge ever? I think I could arrest someone with it LOL. Can't find it anywhere though.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Hello MacMillan. Have you a source to support this position? Thanks.

Hi Tommy-- I think that Galb has pretty much answered this; but since you asked, virtually every book published on highland dress (with the lone exception of Thompson's "So You're Going To Wear The Kilt", first published in 1979) tends to make a clear distinction between "day" and "evening" wear, including sgians dubh.

I'll quote from just one source, because it is still considered the best by most folks living in Scotland:

"The Sgian Dubh with carved handle and silver mounting is correct with day or evening dress." And: "The Sgian Dubh with bone handle is sometimes worn with day dress". Later, in the same edition: "A black-handled sgian with a cairngrom set in silver mountings is equally correct for town wear." -- C.R. MacKinnon of Dunakin, F.S.A.Scot., Scottish Tartans & Highland Dress; Collins, 1961 (with later editions).

Now what we see here is that it was considered perfectly normal to posses a single knife that could be worn for day or evening wear, the traditional "black knife" or sgian dubh, with carved black handle and silver mounts that may or may not have been embellished with the addition of cairngorms and the like. Anything else (bone or antler) was-- and still is-- considered strictly a day wear item.

There are several reasons for this, and probably chief amongst these is that highland attire, more than any other modern mode of gentlemen's dress, takes its styling cues from military uniforms. Those uniforms worn by the various Scottish regiments have changed but little in the last 100 years, and neither has the general cut of civilian highland wear. Military sgians are black, and each regiment has (or at least used to have) it's own distinct pattern. This translated into the civilian world quite nicely, and gentlemen were able to procure fabulously well made sgians from literally dozens of suppliers until the middle decades of the last century. Sadly this is no longer the case, and one now pays as much at auction for a decent sgian dubh as he does for a well made kilt.

Finally, as proud as I am at having designed the "Officer Sgian Dubh", now manufactured by Gaelic Themes, I would never wear one to any sort of formal evening event. It, like the chunk of antler sgian I also posses, is strictly a day wear item, or something worn in the eveing when the kilt is to be preferred over a suit and tie.

Yours, Aye--
Rathdown

[Tommy Hunt]

Hi Tommy-- I think that Galb has pretty much answered this; but since you asked, virtually every book published on highland dress (with the lone exception of Thompson's "So You're Going To Wear The Kilt", first published in 1979) tends to make a clear distinction between "day" and "evening" wear, including sgians dubh.

We posted at the same time.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

We posted at the same time.

LOL! So we did! Please don't think I've gone on a rant-- As I said earlier I think that's a nice looking sgian, and certainly the "SG Politzi" aren't going after it.

The clansman's badge looks to be a bespoke item-- and quite well done.

Cheers!
Scott

[12stones]

That thing is beautiful. Personal preference, but I'd not think it was formal attire material. Congrats on a fine purchase though.