Sgian Dubh Outside the Hose?

[Dale Seago]

Surely it would do a lot of flopping around like this? It can't be practical at all without a second tie-down point, can it?

Well. . .

It makes perfect sense as a further development in the Highland Dress trend of turning what were once utilitarian tools into mere pieces of masculine bling.

[Tobus]

There is also the friction of the sheath against the hose / skin to factor in, especially when compared against a "free floating" tether of just a garter and clip.

Luckily, I passed out of AP Physics in high school, and don't have much to do with it any more. I'll leave THAT up to my more skilled betters.

ith:

Exactly right. And I am a professional engineer!

With the sgian dubh inside the hose, you get the benefit of friction between the sgian and the skin, as well as the friction between the sgian and the hose. The compression of the entire portion of the sgian that's inside there, helps keep it from falling (and could be calculated if we knew the coefficient of friction for each surface, as well as the compression force).

And aside from the friction forces keeping it from sliding down, there's also the stabilizing force keeping it from swinging as you walk. With the sgian dubh only strapped to the outside with a garter, you get a pendulum effect from both the mass above the tie and the mass below the tie, making it want to rotate about the tie point. A clip would help with that, but it's only as good as the surface it's clipped to... which is just the garter itself.

In short, it would be more trouble than it's worth, methinks.

I do find it curious, though, that such a key component of Highland attire could be drawn in error. As much as people like to point to these old catalogs as references, it's worth a caveat.

[creagdhubh]

Do you really want to explain to everyone (and I mean everyone) at your next Burns Supper that "yes, I know my sgian dubh is on the outside of my hose...yes, I know that most people don't wear it that way...well, you see, there's this drawing, and..."?

Hahaha, I wouldn't want to either!

[Harold Cannon]

Not to take over a thread but, I got to looking at some older photos and, while I couldn't find a sgain like this I did notice that many of the men had the whole handle of their sgain sticking out of the top of the hose.

[Old Hippie]

I'm with Dale. It may be a "from life" concept, but by reading way too much into the picture I can say that while these lads may be quite manly and athletic, they've clearly only strolled from the table to the library for a smoke and some dirty jokes while the ladies retire to the drawing-room.

A sgian worn outside the hose would flop, at any pace faster than a mosey. (Did they "mosey" in Scotland?) Just looks like someone carrying the supposed tradition of revealing any knife retained about the person a little farther than most.

And geesh! He's smoking a cigarette when clearly the etiquette calls for a pipe, or in the absence of a personal briar, a cigar.

[Tobus]

And geesh! He's smoking a cigarette when clearly the etiquette calls for a pipe, or in the absence of a personal briar, a cigar.

On a bit of a tangent, when was this illustration made? I seem to recall this is from a catalog in the 1920s or 1930s. If that's the case, cigarettes were very much en vogue then. Heck, all the way through the 1950s too.

[pei Mac Donald]

maby if they where selling it like in a catalog it was to show it comes with it