SBS Patch.

[leigh kitchen]

Any views on this please?

[leigh kitchen]

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[leigh kitchen]

There must be somebody out there willing to condemn this one.

If it helps, I'm very sus of this, it's a nicely made badge, nice "old" feel colouring to the felt etc, but it reminds me very much of a completely different range of badges of similar manufacture purporting to be for units of a different country. They seem to have popped up in the 90's.

[Jim Maclean]

I have no idea on the authenticity of this, but........ I know a man who may be able to help you. Gillie Howe, In 1978 or 9 I went to his retirement party after 32 years in the R.M. He was at the time reputedly the most decorated man in all the services, and was the inspiration behind the sport of long range pistol shooting. The majority of his service was with S.B., and I believe he joined before the end of WW2.
When he left the R.M. he established Modern and Antique Firearms in Bournemouth, 01202 429369. I haven't seen him since I involuntarily gave up pistol shooting, but I believe the company is still going.
A long shot I know but maybe worthwhile.

[leigh kitchen]

Thanks, I'll give that a go. Personally I think this badge is a fake, it looks good but the distinctive style of manufacture makes me think that it's made by the same manufacturer of a range of Croation patches which crop up in Britain.

[SHEARING-CROSS]

Special Forces Cloth

[ Hello LEIGH ,
Did not want to give an absolute def, answer in case i was wrong but i suppose this is the point of this forum i do belive its wrong for several reasons , the backing is all wrong to what i would expect to see ,but i have never seen a real one ( the experts are still deciding if it was a war time badge or a post war old comrades badge )_
just remembered , got to write this carfully as i dont want to be sued i was told that a well known cloth badge faker was buying up a lot of army musslin bandages at a northern arms fair ,this stuff is often used as backing on fake badges ??? or may be he just collects bandages.
best wishes ,Michael. QUOTE=leigh kitchen].[/QUOTE]

[leigh kitchen]

I agree that it's a dud, as I said, it looks like it's by the same manufacturer of a range of 1990's Croatian patches. It has the same sort of construction of cloth on felt with the "join" covered by a border of thread - very attractive & well made, but impractical. The only place that I've seen this illustrated is in Rosignelli's book on WWII insignia.

[VerKuilen Ager]

Can't say positively, but the method of manufacture looks pretty much the same as what has come to be known – in U.S. insignia collecting – as the "cord" or "rope" edge reproduction. The thick-threaded cotton hand embroidery and twisted cord or "rope" border is characteristic. They started showing up in the U.S. in the late '80s and are made in Pakistan. Any militaria collector who doesn't have his spam filter turned up too high probably gets three or four e-mail solicitations a year from the shops over there and it can be instructive to order something from them just to get a bonafide sample of the work. They also do pretty nice bullion pieces and have gotten very good with the Nazi material, from breast eagles to standartes.

[leigh kitchen]

"Cord edge" is a good description of the style, I think - a totally impractical way of making a badge that would see any wear at all - the cord being tacked on over the edge of the cloth sewn to the felt etc. I'd never have placed production as Pakistan tho' - nice attractive badges, pity they're worthless rubbish.