25th Annual Texas Scottish Festival

[mookien]

Morris at Heathfield: I give up. I guess your just going to have to remain "unidentified". :-)

[Morris at Heathfield]

On Merlin's thread I was just joking around. I figured someone else who was at the games would see what I had done and call me on it, but I guess I made either my action or my intent too subtle.

Mike_Oettle: If you're still watching this thread, sometime in the not-too-distant future (maybe Monday) I'm going to try uploading my pictures to a new image hosting site. I haven't decided yet which one.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I don't know who "Torf the Kiltmaker" is, but it looks in this photo as if he is talking about the "registration" of tartans dating all the way back to the 1700's according to his timeline.


I may just be overly sensitive to semantics, but it really makes no sense to speak of "registering" tartans until modern times. The first formal register for tartans is the newly formed National Register (which it is very surprising to hear you say he knew nothing about, especially if his topic was the registration of tartans). Other groups such as the STA, the former STS, etc., would record tartans, but as these were and are not formally sanctioned government entities it would be technically incorrect to speak of "registering" a tartan with them. Although many people in practice would use that term. Nevertheless, the STA dates only back to the 1990s and the STS to the 1960s.

Before that time, all you had were private collections, the records of weavers, and published books on tartans. There was no body out there in existence to "register" a tartan with in the 1800s and 1700s, so I'm not really sure what to make of his timeline.

Maybe he means "recorded" tartans, as in there being an historic record of the tartan in a weaver's pattern book or other collection. In this case, yes, a good point can be made about the number of known, named tartan patterns increasing dramatically from about 1800 till today. But "registered" is a poor choice of terms if this is the point he was making.

Then there is this picture, which made me cringe!

He has the "first kilt" around 1594, which is correct (I'd phrase it as the "first recorded mention of a kilt" but that's a minor point). And he has the first "short kilt" in the early 1700s, which is correct as far as we know (the dating on the introduction of the feilidh-beag is not precise). I would have used the terms feilidh-mor and feilidh-beag here, but again that's semantics.

What really gets me is that his history gets worse the closer we get to the modern times, which is totally the reverse of what one would expect, as we have so much more in the way of records the closer you get to today.

He has the introduction of knife pleats sometime in the early 1900s. FALSE. The Gordon Highland regiment switched to knife pleated kilts in 1854.

He also has the introduction of the 8 yard kilt somewhere around 1960, according to his chart. FALSE. You can find kilts made from around 8 yards of cloth from the late 1800s.

I don't know where he is getting his information from. I'm trying not to sound harsh, but this really irritates me. I don't expect everyone to be an expert in tartans, or kilt history. However if you are going to be conducting a class or seminar on the subject, presenting yourself as an authority, I would expect you to know at least the basic facts. Especially when you have organizations such as the Scottish Tartans Authority, and here in the US, the Scottish Tartans Museum, who are very willing to make information available to you - or even come and give such a presentation ourselves at your Games.

[beloitpiper]

I don't know where he is getting his information from. I'm trying not to sound harsh, but this really irritates me. I don't expect everyone to be an expert in tartans, or kilt history. However if you are going to be conducting a class or seminar on the subject, presenting yourself as an authority, I would expect you to know at least the basic facts. Especially when you have organizations such as the Scottish Tartans Authority, and here in the US, the Scottish Tartans Museum, who are very willing to make information available to you - or even come and give such a presentation ourselves at your Games.

I feel the same way about "Celtic Reenactors" who are basically LARPing. Why don't they understand that to reenact something, it has to have happened in real life?

[Morris at Heathfield]

From what I could find online and elsewhere, "Torf" is a nickname, whether assumed or acquired I don't know, for Louis Torfason, a resident of the Austin area. He is presumably a kiltmaker, but he appears to have no online presence except for in secondhand business listings. As Zardoz said, he may be largely unaware of the Internet.

I remember his nickname from previous games. In 2009 he was on the program offering a seminar on Scottish castles. I have never attended the Scottish castles seminar. In both 2009 and 2011 he is listed in the program guide as a "sustaining patron", as well as a member of the festival committee, in charge of the photo contest. (I did not attend the games in 2010, and can't seem to find my program guide from 2008).

I also noted his use of the word "registered", when "recorded", or perhaps "named", would be more apt. I don't remember his exact words, but when someone asked him how one would find what tartans had been registered, Torf seemed to indicate that such a resource didn't exist, which makes one wonder how he obtained the data for his graph. He also indicated that Lord Lyon registered the tartans, but seemed to be completely unaware of the Scottish Register of Tartans. See what Zardoz said above.

Regarding the dates for knife pleats, buckles, and 8-yard kilts, I wondered if he meant their near-universal adoption by the military or their widespread use by civilians, rather than their first introduction. That would make his timeline look a little better. Still, the average person would expect him to be referring to the date of introduction.

On the plus side, his information on the construction of the belted plaid was accurate from what I could tell.

The seminar was titled "The History and Wearing of the Kilt". I know Torf used So You're Going to Wear the Kilt! as a reference for the "wearing" part, but I'm not certain what sources he used for the "history" part.

I can't speak on behalf of the Texas Scottish Festival, but I believe we have one or more members here who are on the festival committee. Or at least the festival mailing list.

[WillieMacG]

I met this fellow at the Texas festival a few years ago and in the course of a few minutes conversation decided he was at the very least a bit of an "odd duck." I'm not a bit surprised that he calls Austin home.

[KiltedGunn]

Yeah, Torf is both a Character and a Fixture at TSF. I remember running into him in the Press Box when last we were there in 2003...I'd just bought my first Utilikilt and shed my great kilt because of the heat. Torf made some snide comment I don't recall.

This year, the wife and I again ran into him getting onto the elevator for the Press Box (if you aren't familiar, the Press Box is air-conditioned and has ice water, etc...the wife insists we buy patron tickets solely so that we can have access to the a/c! But I digress... ). Torf tells me he doesn't recognize my tartan, and I explained it was the LEO Memorial tartan.

Oh, he says, Gestapo.

I just smiled and explained that my Gestapo tartan is predominantly black and dark grey with blood red stripes, but it absorbs too much heat in sunlight so I generally only wear that one during night raids. He gravely nodded his head as if absorbing it all and I would not be the least surprised if the Gestapo tartan I mentioned wasn't part of his presenation next year!

My wife was able to hold her laughter until we parted at the bottom of the elevator, but only just barely!

[Zardoz]

Folks need to realize that people identified as "a character" in Texas would usually be called "mad" elsewhere.

[Gunny5711]

Folks need to realize that people identified as "a character" in Texas would usually be called "mad" elsewhere.

That is true.

[WillieMacG]

Folks need to realize that people identified as "a character" in Texas would usually be called "mad" elsewhere.

Hey! I resemble that remark!