[billy]

Hi have acquired an Officers Royal Irish Fusiliers (K & K chapter 18, fig 936 ) looked fine but grubby - rear was awful! after cleaning, soft tooth brush and soap had removed majority of muck I could now see gilding was polished off in some places and a lot of crap between Eagle and Ball, so gently prised open fixings to remove this, it was absolutely jam packed with old residue of Polish and gone hard so had a good time clesning this all up -NOT! Why had it been polished???

Well you may ask what is the point of all this rambling? (Did have pictures but lost them on the phone - trying to retrieve them? ), while all apart did a bit of repair to original screw posts and remembered a bloke to whom I took Electronic components to have Gold Plated (Gilding), so went looking for him and still there! Result, had the badge with me to show him and see what I could do to further putting it back to its former glory, nothing! He would sort out the polishing and cleaning of both parts, Ball and Flames different finishes Gilded, - Eagle cleaned and Silver plated, so left them there.

Just popped in today, left them with him on Thursday 2nd May, today is the 8th and all finished! the badge looks outstanding some nicks still visable but not too apparent, but you can only polish so much without damaging the badge! Am popping in tomorrow to pick up badge and can show photo's of the finished article, but its like a new badge, and will seek out the original ones also.

When I went seeking information on the Forum for re-gilding it went back only to 2008 and Davec was doing the badge for a member but outsourcing gilding to a friend, hopefully if other members like what they see they can know there is someonevout there who can do this! Also maybe members may know someone and we can compile a lst of good restorers of badges? All the best billy