10 CRT - Bakelite??
 

Picked this up recently - don't know what to make of it. It is a CEF 10 CRT badge in bakelite. Anyone know anything about the use of plastic badges in WW1?

Cheers, Ian.

Hi Ian, I have not come across any documentation regarding CEF badges being made in plastic. There were some plastic Canadian badges made in the Second World War, including the rare Canadian Parachute Corps, and the far more common Army Cadet badge.
There is no mention of plastic in Harper's A Source of Pride, and no other reference has mentioned the use of that material to make badges for the CEF.

Has anyone got any ideas why someone would go to the trouble of making a plastic/bakelite badge like this? Re-enactor? Just because?? It does look quite old but there seems to be no record of anything like this being made for issue to Canadian troops in WW1...

Cheers, Ian.

Be careful.
These 2 types of 'plastics' are completely different. Bakelite (and being older I can remember bakelite telephones....) is very brittle in comparison to most of the 'plastic' badges I have or have seen. A bakelite badge will break if you put it under pressure, a plastic badge will 'give' (but be gentle). They even sound different if you tap them on a hard surface. As far as I am aware both materials were used - beyond this I have no idea what the breakdown was between the various issues etc.
david

The british economy badges are all plastic. Describing them as 'Bakelite' is a misnomer and they were not actually made of it.

Thanks David - I am pretty sure it is bakelite then. No give, feels quite hard and "sounds" brittle when tapped/scraped gently.