Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

[Malcolm Davey]

Some examples of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers badges.
Flag left worn until about 1926 and has 4 braze holes.
The Castle with Inniskilling above worn until about 1934.
Flag right worn until 1958 when they joined the North Irish Brigade, 4 braze holes.
Another flag right but with no braze holes.
I believe the flag right badge comes with a mis-spelt Inneskilling also, i'm sure one of our more knowledgeable members on Irish badges will correct me if i am mistaken.

Cheers
Malc

[Alan O]

This is it. Gaylor states that it is post WW2. This one has a slightly tapering notched slider and no sweat holes.

Unfortunately I dont have either the WW1 or the WW2 economies.
Alan

[jeanpit-frenchy]

here my 2 badges
flag left has 2 braze holes (1 big for castle and 1 little for scoll )
flag right ( hardly polished) 3 braze holes...

i dream to found a nice 1926 -1934

[John Mulcahy]

A nice thread,

here are a few additional ones to help round it out.

The WW2 Plastic badge (sadly missing one "tang")
FSC badge c. 1894, sorry no back picture for now as it is in a frame.

[John Mulcahy]

A few more

officers post 1934 Cap Badge.

O/Ranks Busby badge

[Luke H]

Originally Posted by Alan Owen

I don't know whether I saved anything as I have never seen one for sale to price it at. The last Inniskillings plastic I saw was for £120. I have my reservations about Woodward economies as they are so yellow brass but even the best dealers sell them as originals.

I am off to Middle Wallop next April.

Alan

I'm sure the woodward skins is fine if I'm honest, my all brass Munster is the same colour as well and its not what I would call bad just not quite as deep in tone. I know woodward stamps have been copied but that badge was from the same die as Lew Shotton's one, which he swears by from what I hear. You can tell by those two curves on the bottom part of the two end towers (pics on militaria collectors forum), and I couldn't argue with the slider type or it positioning. I happy its fine.

Did you see the picture of the other type brass economy skins I posted in my Random badges thread - what are your opinions on that? NB it has copped quite a bit of flash at the back but it is brighter than the front (plate possibly)

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...=random+badges

I think that Inneskilling of yours is certainly worth a good few quid, I've never seen one listed either but I don't think you did too badly for £6

Luke

[John Mulcahy]

a 1926 - 1934 O/R badge with white metal slider (which I believe to be genuine)

Some of my skins badges, an officers badges with the Firmin plate on the rear, an OSD badge - a collar I believe and a FL badge with no brazing holes.

Jonny
(hope their all ok)

[Luke H]

Hi Johnny,

The FL without braze opens up the braze hole arguement again, being lugged its an early one pre 08/11 depending on who you ask. I would have really expected a badge that early to have braze holes, however it appears to have been polished on the flames, has the cut away between the flag and the castle, is lugged correctly NS and has great patina all of which are good signs.

I'd like to get my hands on it but aside from not having braze holes everything else about it look right... certainly a countdown conundrum.

Luke

P.S are the lugs rather long? - they look it from the photo, also are they made of brass as opposed to copper?

Luke,
Yes it has all the signs of a genuine badge, but with no brazing holes its a tough one to say. The lugs are rather long made from brass - you cannot bend them without using a lot of effort.

Jonny

[Chrisr]

According to most views, brazing holes are thought to have been phased out in the 1930's but I read on a thread somewhere that a particularly advanced badge making company was producing badges without brazing holes during the Great War. Can't find the the thread now, but does anyone else have information about this?

Cheers
Chris

[Luke H]

Braze hole supposedly was advanced upon in the mid-late 20's (1927 rings a bell from somewhere), However the use of braze hole technology was never abandoned and badges from the 50's still have them. It all seems to depend on the manufacturing methods that the particular factory was using. I for instance have never seen a BM Northumberland Fusiliers with braze holes.

With regard to the WW1 manufacturer it is Lambourne of which you speak I believe who were mostly makers of officers badges (I believe) and took over contracts of ORs badges during the great war to try and fill the massive deman. However from one or two other badges I've owned and seen I'm sure that other companies dabbled with trying not to use braze holes to save a little bit of time stamping them out. However I would be careful in calling them advanced, I see what they were trying to do as a small economy measure (rather not bothering to stamp out braze holes to save time and aid production) because if you look at the quality of these WW1 Lambourne badges the quality tends to be poor often with a 'slipping' out of line of the overlay metal due to a build up of braze under the surface.

Luke

[John Mulcahy]

My opinions (for whatever they are worth) are.

The Firmins Officer's badge looks great, never seen a Firmins marked one before.

I am skeptical of the other two I am afraid.

The OSD badge has the loops placed E & W on the flames as do many fakes of fusilier badges. I have not seen any evidence that the Skins wore this (full size O/R type) design in OSD. Mind you I have not looked very extensively but all the references I have seen of the collar are the smaller type designs (a little like the Firmin badge) illustrated as Churchill 751 752 etc.

On the FL O/R badge, I personally would have preferred to see sweat holes (that is just my opinion) and the top loop is mounted un-unusually high. I would class this example as a little suspicious.

Attached for interest is my modest collection of Skin's items. There are 3 duds in there (Yes I am one of those who keep some re-strikes as gap fillers, they are in almost all cases momentos of my early naive collecting days). The out and out dud is the 1916 economy, The glengarry is iffy as is the later pattern pipers badge which I believe should have copper loops). I also continue to wait for a matched Officer's post WW2 pair. Champagne taste and a beer budget means I shall get many years more collecting pleasure.

John

[Faugh-A-Ballagh]

This is one of my Inniskillings ones. This came in a box of very poor quality WW2 dated restrikes. They had come from a gents oufitters and were simply replacement badges for soldiers in WW2. They are very obviously fakes - the quality of the metal is poor and the bi- metal examples aren't particularly well joined, however they would have passed muster on parade, and would have probably saved a few soldiers from being on a charge. But - this one was one of two very different ones amongst them. One was a bronze officer's Leeds Rifles cap badge, and Inniskilling Fusiliers. On the Inniskillings one, the metal was of very good quality, and had four good sweat holes on the rear. I've had it looked at, and the expert opinion was original and unissued. So what's the opinion here?

[Alan O]

Commercially sold badges were often sourced from the same firms who supplied the WD with badges. I would suggets that yours is one of those. For example Gaunts were a commercial company who supplied not just the Wd but also other countries, civilian organisations and commercial tailors. Also it was the the norm for Officers badges to be bought privately in many cases.

Alan