Major General Bil4338 Posted September 30, 2016 Major General Share Posted September 30, 2016 ok, military detectives, here's one for you all...got this in today and went to replace my repro badge with this one.upon examination, I'm thinking there's been a bit of tinkering going on, what do you all think? have I got an original badge, or a repro which has been very nicely aged and weathered, or is the reproduction just scarily accurate? i peeled the backing cloth off the repro to see what lay beneath....we have very similar linen.on the 'original' it's similar with loose threads as if a backing's been removed, or it could've been made like that as so many period badges were.one difference is the remnant of backing material on the repro where it's been sewn-in as it were. so, do I have an original example, or a cleverly aged replica? The embroidery is very similar but not 100% exact, just scarily close.see what you think..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major General Bil4338 Posted September 30, 2016 Author Major General Share Posted September 30, 2016 where'd the pics go?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davejb Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 Hi bil, I,m afraid I,m thinking repro, have you done a burn test on the threads?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major General Bil4338 Posted October 1, 2016 Author Major General Share Posted October 1, 2016 Not yet, but I will....and if it is a copy, I'll be naming and shaming and blocking that seller.... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davejb Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 From what I understand , Nylon tended to replace silk during the war for parachutes, and some flight clothing especially American as there was problems obtaining silk from Asia, but for items like badges it was easier to use cotton as it was so readily available , especially British badges, Nylon was more expensive to produce so it stands to reason why our badges were cotton, seeing we were cash strapped at that time, more modern badges can be made from synthetics and of course this also applies to repros. From what I,ve seen over the years ,all our wartime cloth badges were cotton 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fred Karno's Army Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 Was it advertised as original Bill ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major General Bil4338 Posted October 1, 2016 Author Major General Share Posted October 1, 2016 Just as WW2 No.1 Commando arm badge,,,,with wear. no claims to originality but the rest of his stuff looks legit so it could be that the seller was fooled too. I should've compared it to my repro one but didn't have the time.just goes to show your still at risk of a bad buy no matter how long you've collected..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davejb Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 Have you made any progress re testing the material, or do you now know its dodgy?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norrie Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 (edited) @Bil4338..Excuse my ignorance ...BUT, is there money to be made by the "forgers" to repro badges?? I'd never have thought they would go to such lengths to do such good copies....BUT...It's a big learning curve for me...and ...hopefully posts like this will stop me getting stung some day.... Edited October 1, 2016 by Norrie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davejb Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 Theres a massive profit in fakes , but the key is learning what is real and what is not. it has been said that there is more profit made in fakes than the real thing, I think there was a survey done a couple of years back, and if memory serves it was estimated that between 2 and 4 million quid was made in a two year period in militaria fakes 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major General Bil4338 Posted October 23, 2016 Author Major General Share Posted October 23, 2016 Everything's faked these days, and cloth especially, British, German and even US...and especially anything to do with special/elite forces, which makes the most coin. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major General Bil4338 Posted October 24, 2016 Author Major General Share Posted October 24, 2016 Latest haul... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davejb Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 I can say that these all look the correct wartime badges, in fact they are in excellent condition, right cloth, right stitching, correct detail, very nice lot 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major General Bil4338 Posted October 25, 2016 Author Major General Share Posted October 25, 2016 Cheers @Davejb! Quite pleased with the latest intake. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabadgeman Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 Were you able to find out if the commando badge at the start of this thread was an aged fake? Just asking for interests sake 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 Hello Bil, Thanks for showing us these superb badges, and to those like Dave who gave an excellent knowledgeable reply Thanks & Best wishes to you all.....Desert Rat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major General Bil4338 Posted November 12, 2018 Author Major General Share Posted November 12, 2018 On 10/11/2018 at 19:37, sabadgeman said: Were you able to find out if the commando badge at the start of this thread was an aged fake? Just asking for interests sake As far as I can tell, it’s original, but haven’t sought any expert opinion 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted December 25, 2018 Share Posted December 25, 2018 (edited) Hello Bil, Let's hope that the badges are original...they look so expertly made, they look? 100% original, but as Dave said, which astounded me that millions of GBP are made and sold in military fakes, this gives us all the more reason hopefully to be very careful, but unless we actually see and examine them against an original and have the valuable knowledge to distuinguish the difference we are wasting our money! Anyway...Good Luck, hope they are original. Have a great festive season....Best Wishes....Desert Rat Edited December 26, 2018 by Desert Rat correction to text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Register for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now