British Army Staybrite Cap Badges - Brigades
 

Hi Guys,

I have placed my collection of Brigade badges here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/hagwalth...ey=BXLgFs34Mos

If anyone knows of or would like to add variations please let me know.

I may publish these pages in the future so photos required will need to be on a white background. A sheet of A4 paper should be OK to do this and photos should be taken in natural light.

Regards

Chris

Excellent Chris

Hi Guys,

Rifle Brigades moved and will be placed on the infantry web when I finish scanning them.

Regards

Chris

In Gaylor the Parachute Regiment is banded in with the brigades as they were infantry which wore their own badge, might it be correct to include said badge in with your brigade badges?

Cheer,

Luke

Hi Luke,

I was going to incorporate them as either Infantry or a 'Special Forces' category with SAS and (although not Army) Royal Marines and possibly Gurkhas.

Not sure which yet.

Regards

Chris

Hi Chris,

That's probably a better idea for a wider collecting spanning all staybrites, I think Gaylor must have included them there to give a dynamic view of all regular infantry at the time of the Brigade systems introduction.

As for the problem of where to put different regiments like Para's or Royal Marines if not having a page/case specifically devoted to them is a hard question and one I have not solved yet which is why my collection is still in tins! :D

Good luck,

Luke

The Para badge should also be on the bde page as the Para regts were also grouped as a bde from 1958. The badge remained unchanged before and after.

Alan

Thanks Alan,

I'll sort this tomorrow.

Regards

Chris

Brigades are the only set of a/a badges that I've kept, after selling off my a/a collection, a couple of years ago now. About 230 plus items then.
Thought I'd show these here,with some details.Comments on any of these are most welcome.
Most have Gaunt London sliders (some silver & some gilt coloured)except Wessex & Mercian ,which have Gaunt B'Ham sliders.LI & Ghurka have blank sliders(see pic)with more 'pointed' tips.Lugs to Para ,SAS,Welsh & Fuslrs.
Lowland x2 standard & Highland 3x flat/shaped/pressed.
Any problems with any of these ?
Cheers !
Steve

Hi Steve,

We would have to get some clearer and larger photos of each badge which may not be possible without removing them from the display which may end up damaging it.

From what you describe items sound just fine.

As part of my investigation into staybrites I will be looking into manufacturing techniques and from there we can start to properly identify authentic from contemporary and hopefully give an accurate reason why an item is authentic or not and not just a random guess with nothing to back up why a particular item is good or bad.

Going back to my Third Reich items we know that the techniques used there are die struck, die forged and die cast (as opposed to open cast).

These same techniques also appear to be used on a lot of my staybrite badges which exhibit the same manufacturing tell tell signs that my German combat badges do - but all this for another day.

Regards

Chris

Brigade collection is over 10 years old ,by now, so have assumed most were probably OK ,but there can always be doubts ? ;)
As they are not part of my mainstream collection, I've not been overly concerned about them, until recent information on the copying of these, has become available.
If required ,most items can be removed & photographed, given time ! :eek:

Cheers !
Steve

Hi Steve,

As part of my investigation into all this I will be looking VERY closely into fakes. As I know things these only started appearing about 2-3 years ago and they are made from thin tin sheet and pretty obvious that they are not the real thing. Some have proper staybrite sliders on with makers names. Firmin was contacted on the matter a couple of years ago and stated that they were from materials of a thinness not used by them. In otherworks they were fake items.

Looking at those items they seem to have come from an original white metal badge male and female die and were die stamped out. The staybrite die stamped dies seem different but I'm not going to say in what way as this will give a 'heads up' to the ratbags who make and peddle fakes. Fakes will evolve and I'm not going to help in that process.

Of couse, there maybe other older fakes about but until I investigate the manufacturing process to identify non factory manufactured items I can't be sure - YET.

I would say if your items are 10 years old then they would be OK as there was no economic incentive to tool up and knock out dodgy 'staybrite' items back then.

Regards

Chris