Button Storage?

[Roy]

Hi Gents,

Can I ask your thoughts on how you store/display your buttons?

I have seen images of various 'trays' with suitable for such but haven't seen any for sale etc.

Any ideas most welcome.

Cheerio,

Roy

[BWEF]

Try these peoples display trays.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/BoxDisplays

You will find a thread about them somewhere here.

[Roy]

Thanks for that.

A quick glance and some nice items. Although £20 shipping for a tray is a somewhat prohibitive.

However will peruse their offerings and it has certainly given me some ideas to explore.

Cheers,

Roy

[41st]

Roy,
Try this. Usual crap with an iPad will not let me load more than one photo.

[Tinto]

Hello Roy,
I like mounting buttons on old webbing belts:

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...hp?albumid=346

Cheers,
John

[Roy]

Thanks for all this gents,

Come great ideas.

John, that's a splendid idea, looks great. Well done.

Following the initial comments, I did a quick search and found an inexpensive jewelry/ring tray that looked pretty good, so I ordered one to try out. Hopefully it will be here in a few days and I can give you all an update.

At some point I would like to display a few of my favorites but for now, a little storage (as my draw is starting to overflow) will go a long way.

Great to see these different ideas though.

Cheers,

Roy

[Blue Puttees]

Roy:

Button collecting has been around a long time and some can cost thousands of dollars ($6000 - $10,000). For additional ideas Google the following:

Civil War Button Display Case

[Traist]

Hi, my badges take up almost all my display place, so I have mounted my buttons on card board sheets cut to fit upright in shoe boxes. I have the shoe boxes covered in camo material and packed on shelves below my badge displays for easy access. Regards Andrew

[BWEF]

Originally Posted by Roy

Thanks for that.

A quick glance and some nice items. Although £20 shipping for a tray is a somewhat prohibitive.

However will peruse their offerings and it has certainly given me some ideas to explore.

Cheers,

Roy

Sorry, I saw Shropshire, but missed New Mexico.

The thing I like about those trays, made for jewellers etc, is that you can also get a case to keep them in. It holds three trays.

I have a case for each area of interest. Old Comarades/Sweetheart badges, British Legion/Royal British Legion badges etc etc.

[yorkstone]

Roy
Storage is always a issue the us display box's I find useful though I like to display my better buttons this way

Regards

Stephen

[4966Ian]

Hi Roy,

Hope this finds you well.

I use these to store my buttons.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-Glass-Di...p2047675.l2557

They were originally made to store rings and the foam already has 72 pre-cut slots [6 x Rows with 12 slots per row] (for inserting rings). The foam is springy enough that it closes around the button loop/shank and holds the button in place. There is enough space to store the large 1 inch buttons next to one another (just). The smaller Local militia buttons etc. easily fit with plenty of room around each button. Because they are sat in foam any high domed button is pushed down into the foam by the glass lid. Of course the glass lid allows you see the contents without having to open the box.
Another advantage of the foam base is that if you need to remove a button to check the back mark etc. or a new variant turns up - it is very easy to just move the buttons about. No having to cut new holes or buy more card etc.

The different coloured foam backings - allows you to allocate a colour to a particular collection (i.e. Local Militia = Black, Regiments of Foot/Infantry = Red, Yeomanry = Dark Blue etc.)

The added advantage of these boxes is that they are stackable and easy to store in a larger box or under the bed/ in a drawer etc.
If you do buy them, buying multiples normally reduces the shipping costs significantly as it is almost as cheap to ship 10 as it is to ship 1 or 2.

The Only disadvantages are :
- They don't lend themselves to wall mounting if you wanted to display the buttons.
- Once you have started using them, you tend to have keep buying more so your collection has a 'uniform' look.
- If a button has lost it's loop/shank - you have to glue something to the back of the button which will fit into the foam slot so the button will stay in place. But use a glue that is easily removed from the back of the button (not a super glue) or use double sided tape. Or I have used a plastic screw cap from a bottle which is cut down in height, that the button can sit inside. You can then glue something to bottom of the lid so it will slot into the foam and will hold the plastic screw-cap in place. The glass lid stops the button falling out.
- If any of your buttons have very long screw posts (for shoulder boards) rather than the usual loops/shanks they will probably be too long to fit in the case, especially when you take into account most will have a high domed button on top of the screw post.

I know this particular ebayer is based in the UK, so isn't of any use to you in the US - but I know he used to get his stock from the US so there may well be an American ebayer or website selling similar cases. I will keep an eye open for you. Or you could try emailing him - he might tell you his supplier.

Cheers

Ian

[Roy]

Hi Gents,

Thank you for all these great ideas. It really is very helpful indeed to get such varied input. Some of which seems rather obvious in hindsight but for the life of me, I was struggling to come up with an option prior to asking for help.

Clearly there is both 'storage' and 'display'. The latter I'm not too worried about at the moment as I have some ideas for a project down the road but the former was my main concern.

As mentioned, I trumped up a few dollars and sprung for a nice looking 'jewelry/ring' display/storage case. It holds 100 pieces and has a glass top. I like the idea of being able to stack a few of these, as this will enable me to device my buttons into their appropriate groups.

I'm excited for it to arrive (hopefully by next Wednesday) and I can give it a try out and report back with some pics.

Now all that said, I'm still keen to see any displays you chaps might have for future ideas. That looks splendid Stephen, lovely display and pleased you shared it with us here.

Cheerio,

Roy

[Artynut]

A bit time consuming but something to while away the time here in the "Great White North" Actually, I'm in the banana belt of the Niagara Peninsula but we do have 4 inches of snow upon which I laid one of my displays for the following picture. I have a number of shadow boxes, the back of which I replaced with thin corrugated cardboard covered in red felt. then I cut squares out of a sheet of "Bristol Board" and laboriously stuck blue felt on, then cut and wrapped that around the two inch squares. Then cut another large square out and covered that in red felt to make a "frame" then placed the buttons and affixed the loops with bag ties then back into the shadow box. Works for me! Best regards, David J.

[Buttonman]

For years I have used lever arch box files with the spring loaded arms removed. The buttons are mounted on coloured picture mounting card with bubble wrap in between each layer to protect the ones below. I can easily get four layers in each file with seventy-seven buttons on each card so that's 308 buttons per file.

[Roy]

Some interesting and informative solutions coming up here.

It was probably remiss of me not to show my current storage and issue. So here are a couple of pics of one of my small draws, as you can see it's starting to overflow and looks pretty unorganized.

I lined this draw with velvet covered foamboard and cut small slits for the rear loops to fit. It took quite some time, so I'm not keen on having to repeat this, hence my dilemma. Also I didn't like that I couldn't hide all my tags. I'm hopeful my knew solution will solve that issue.

Cheers,

Roy