Refrigeration Tech trade badge... Repro?...

[jonnynation]

hi guys;

recently purchased a set of the three lower levels of the refrigeration tech trades (levels 1,2,3) from a reputable dealer (via ebay)... however... they are slightly larger (which i noted as soon as i took them out of the packet and simply handled them, weird huh?!, perhaps by as much as an 1/8") and also they have a different backing to anything else in my collection being less plastic-y.

does anyone have these trade badges to compare mine against, and does anyone recognise this new backing and slightly larger size as a newly manufactured but issued to the CF construction type that i just havent come across surplus anywhere else yet?...

i almost fell of my chair that i was able to secure a these three badges for my collection, which is soooo close to completion... have been looking for them for ages... but my old heart didnt half sink when i first saw them!...

help!

refrig tech.jpg

refrig_tech_rear.jpg

[army outfitters]

I hope this will help. Having come upon this problem before when supplying badges to the CF the biggest issue is getting the correct material and colour. If you compare the ones you have purchased to your other trade badges they should be the same in colour. There really are only two "official" contract manufacturers in Canada for cloth for the CF. One is Grant emblems and the other I can not remember at this time. I personally would not think the trade badges would be worth copying but I am not an expert in this area. I hope my little bit of information is of use to you.
Dave

[Bill A]

To add to Dave's comments, I agree that these badges just don't merit faking. They are more likely a different maker or a sample pattern that was made up. The base material appears to be a very dark green?
The backing material is interesting. It appears to be a synthetic type of fine material that is commonly found on many modern embroidered badges. Many examples of that type of backing can be found on DEU titles and some combat titles. It is a fairly recent innovation, not being found before the 90's badges. (Or maybe I am just dating myself, by saying fairly recent.)

[jonnynation]

awesome, thanks Gents.

the dealer tells me that they came from the same chap "on the inside" as all his other stuff, so im now hopeful they are good. i have seen the same backing material myself on newer air cadet titles, so thanks for helping me think further afield for other examples of this type of backing, Bill, i had not considered looking outside the trade badge collection previously for comparrison.

the design and the colours appear to be 100% correct, i was happy with that part, otherwise i would likely not have bid on them!

for what its worth, this trade is one of the three hardest to find for trade badges, ive seen one single refrig tech trade in with a small collection of others, and it fetched a fair price on ebay before... other than that, in the good perhaps 5 years of searching i`d never seen an example for sale before, on ebay or at shows. hence my excitement at getting a hold of these three all at once!... so perhaps it would be worth making a reproduction of?... i cant believe im suggesting that!

cheers fellas.

sean

[jonnynation]

just got an email from a fellow collecter who has this trade badge, and he has a L4 with the same type of backing as my L1,2,3 and he says he got them off Base about four years ago... so im more than happy with them now!

cheers, sean