Glengarry.....how and wear to attach a badge?

[OC Richard]

One thing I often have pointed out on these forums is that civilian clan cap badges were made (at least by some of the makers) in two sizes, a smaller size intended for Balmorals and a larger size intended for Glengarries.

The Glengarry size is 2 inches or 52mm in diameter. I don't have my Balmoral to hand just now to measure its badge.

These civilian clan cap badges generally have an ordinary pin back. When pinning on the Glengarry you want to have the pin go deep enough to go through some of the wool. If you just pin it through the ribbon it will droop, hang crooked, flop around, and possibly tear off the ribbon in time.

It always looks not-quite-right to me to see people wearing the small Balmoral-sized badge on their Glengarry. The proportions are off.

Now, the old military badges are another story. They were specifically designed for wear on the Feather Bonnet and are usually rather large, and as it happens look great on the Glengarry too.

Yes they have those long lugs (Feather Bonnets are very thick) that you put those cotter pins through. Leaves a mark on your head sometimes. The army appeared to have made the badges with two lengths of lugs, longer ones for Feather Bonnets, shorter ones for Glengarries. For sure I've mounted badges on Glengarries that had the long Feather Bonnet lugs.

I believe it's Ian Grant of Edinburgh who makes cap badges with threaded lugs, with little knurled nuts you screw on.

One note, the Glengarries of The Black Watch lacked cockades and the badges were put directly on the wool.

[pofloyd1]

The punch would be removing material, I would favour using an awl and gently separating the fibres.

I also recommend testing the effect before the day to see if the fabric will take the weight without slumping as some badges are quite hefty.

You might need to add a rectangle of something more rigid to help the ribbon - I would cut out a piece of leather sturdy enough for the job - having that sort of thing to hand, but if nothing else then a couple of layers of card, in best 'Blue Peter' tradition would be better than trying to deal with a badge drooping or swaying around.

So if you had cut two small slits as shown on Youtube to mount the badge, would it be a good idea put something like anti-fray on said cuts? I'm sewing a little and was curious about this. The awl looks to be the way to go.

[OC Richard]

Yes the awl. It shoves material out of the way rather than removing it.

[CollinMacD]

Had to order some of these too to attach to reverse of badge lugs.

You can use a one long piece of leather lace going through both eyelets of the badge. Another way of doing this instead of using the eye pins. Leather should be thick enough not to move around.

[OC Richard]

Just for fun here are some Scottish regimental cap badges. The old ones were what they called "white metal" but more properly called German Silver. Newer ones are the nasty-looking Staybrite.



BTW that lug & cotter pin attachment method was also used for collar badges, shoulder titles, and sporran badges.

This fellow shows all of those, the bonus being that as a Seaforth Highlander he wears four collar badges instead of two:

[Jock Scot]

One thing I often have pointed out on these forums is that civilian clan cap badges were made (at least by some of the makers) in two sizes, a smaller size intended for Balmorals and a larger size intended for Glengarries.

The Glengarry size is 2 inches or 52mm in diameter. I don't have my Balmoral to hand just now to measure its badge.

These civilian clan cap badges generally have an ordinary pin back. When pinning on the Glengarry you want to have the pin go deep enough to go through some of the wool. If you just pin it through the ribbon it will droop, hang crooked, flop around, and possibly tear off the ribbon in time.

It always looks not-quite-right to me to see people wearing the small Balmoral-sized badge on their Glengarry. The proportions are off.

Now, the old military badges are another story. They were specifically designed for wear on the Feather Bonnet and are usually rather large, and as it happens look great on the Glengarry too.

Yes they have those long lugs (Feather Bonnets are very thick) that you put those cotter pins through. Leaves a mark on your head sometimes. The army appeared to have made the badges with two lengths of lugs, longer ones for Feather Bonnets, shorter ones for Glengarries. For sure I've mounted badges on Glengarries that had the long Feather Bonnet lugs.

I believe it's Ian Grant of Edinburgh who makes cap badges with threaded lugs, with little knurled nuts you screw on.

One note, the Glengarries of The Black Watch lacked cockades and the badges were put directly on the wool.

I have a civilian Clan badge on my balmoral which would be about two inches across made by Ian Grant that has a pin and catch . I don’t know if that is the “normal” way for him to produce Clan badges. Of course the military being the military do things differently and the cotter pin system does stand up to the rigours of military life rather better. I must admit that I did not know that balmoral badges were smaller than Glengarry badges. Is that a military thing , I wonder?

Just a thought, many in the UK choose not to wear military cap badges if they did not serve in the Regiment as a mark of respect to those that served in it. As a rough guide many choose to wait a decent amount of time, say 100 years, after a Regiment has been disbanded to allow for the last of the old Regiment to fade away, before they might choose to wear a military badge. Just saying.

[Dollander]

I wonder if you're just thinking of the size difference between the cap badges from Art Pewter and Gaelic Themes? Though I personally wore the AP badge on a balmoral before affixing it to a sporran, and I've likewise seen a GC badge on a glengarry and it didn't look out of place at all. I doubt either manufacturer intended their badges exclusively for one type of cap, so it probably is a military rather than civilian convention as Jock suggested.

[Miller6582]

As stated by others if its got lugs and a separate pin, use an awl or small sharp knife to make a couple of slits through the ribbon and the wool to the inside of the headdress. The badge isn't going to move around enough to enlarge the holes so you don't need to worry about fixing the fabric. Once you have put the pin through, bend the end of the pins, one up and the other down that will prevent the pin from slipping out. Thats how my old Sergeant Major had us do them and never lost my cap badge.

[Garth]

OC Richard. Thanks for showing us your splendid collection.

Garth

[OC Richard]

I wonder if you're just thinking of the size difference between the cap badges from Art Pewter and Gaelic Themes?

I used to work in a Highland outfitter which carried numerous Clan crest items from a particular firm (EDIT: it was Carrick Jewellery Scotland). Gaelic Themes didn't exist at that time, I don't think.

The round Clan crest badges were offered, as I recall, in four sizes:

1) large size for Glengarries
2) smaller size for Balmorals
3) much smaller size lapel pin
4) tiny tie tac size.

In addition there was a Clan crest pendant, and kilt pin, key fob, and sgian dubh. Maybe more stuff, I don't remember.

Here are the two Carrick bonnet badges:



The large Glengarry-sized one is 2 inches or 52mm, the smaller Balmoral-sized one is 1 5/8 inches or 41mm.

Note that they used the same interior casting (hand and cross).

It always looks bad in pipe bands when the people have a mix of the two sizes, which used to happen all the time years ago.

Then Gaelic Themes came along with their neither fish nor fowl size; it looks a bit undersized on a Glengarry. Bands haven't worn Balmorals much since the 1970s so there's not much of a pipe band market for the smaller size.

Here they are in situ, trouble is the white cockade camouflages the size difference. The smaller one would look goofy and puny on the Glengarry, the big one would look absurdly big on a Balmoral. In the old days they had this stuff all figured out.