This month we are going to revisit the topic of authenticity in uniforms and gear. Obviously almost all of our gear, and all our uniforms, are reproductions. The quality of those reproductions is of considerable interest to anyone who wants to do a credible job of portraying a WBTS soldier.

To simplify the discussion let's classify reproductions according to two criteria: 1) degree to which they copy details of original items, and 2) quality of workmanship. Further, we will only consider two levels of gradation for each criteria. Thus we have four categories into which reproductions can be placed.

1) Details are not correct to the original and workmanship is poor to fair.

2) Details are not correct to the original but workmanship is good to excellent.

3) Details are correct to the original but workmanship is poor to fair.

4) Details are correct to the original and workmanship is good to excellent.

Obviously this is an oversimplification, but will serve to illustrate my point. What then can be said about goods in each category?

Sadly, category 1) represents much of the material available from the run-of-the-mill sutlers who attend many events. This equipment is usually cheap, and therefor attractive to many, but should be avoided.

Category 2) is often sought after by those who want to improve their impressions, but who don't really have the knowledge of what is correct. It seems better to buy an item with nice leather or nice fabric, which is neatly sewn, etc. but if the basic style of construction is wrong, it really doesn't matter how well made it is when you consider "correctness" of your impression. These are better than 1) but should still be avoided if possible.

Those striving for a better impression usually find that the gear they want isn't available from normal sutlers at all. To get goods which correctly replicate period details, one has to pay for the difference, and usually wait a long time to get it, since the people who make it do so on a small scale, and often have many parts custom made.

If you don't mind paying $350 you can have a beautifully crafted Federal Mounted Services Jacket (typical sutler model is 1/3 that price) or for $150 a lovely pair of brogans (typical sutler fare is about 1/2 that). These custom made goods are almost always in category 4) and for some people this is the only acceptable choice.

Certainly this is something toward which anyone who desires true authenticity should strive. Many of these goods are "museum quality" and make fine additions to anyone's wardrobe. What about category 3) though?

There is a boot maker who will, for a price, take 12 different measurements of your foot and create a brogan which is a thing of beauty and which fits your foot like a glove. However, the WBTS soldier did not have this luxury. He had to dig through the issue shoes and find ones that came close to fitting.

Likewise, as mentioned above, for $350 you can have a roundabout which is lovely, but when a contractor was churning out 1,000 of these per week, do you really think that each and every one of them had the same loving attention to detail as your $350 creation will have? The answer is obvious: category 3) is probably the most correct category of them all, and yet is a category which is almost impossible to buy as a reproduction. No one wants to take the time to custom weave cloth, draft correct patterns, cast correct buttons, etc. only to do a slipshod job of construction.

What can we do about this? Not a whole lot when you get right down to it. I suppose you could talk to one of the custom makers and request a shoddy job on a particular item, but then you would hate to pay the asking price for it. Another choice would be to try and make the items yourself and hope that your inexperience would create the proper quality of construction. Keep in mind though that many of these items were mass produced, and the type of poor quality introduced by mass production is not the same as the poor quality produced by unfamiliarity with the product. At present the best most of us will want to do is stick with category 4) and hope no one notices that everything about us is just a little too well made!