Strange U-boat badge

[John R.]

Thanks John. That's excellent perspective on the impact of the internet on the evolution of the hobby.

Best regards,
---Norm

What is your take on the measurements issue above? From our research, I think you came up with a tolerance range?

John

[Norm F]

What is your take on the measurements issue above? From our research, I think you came up with a tolerance range?

John

Hi John,

I agree with your summary of the topic. Measurements can vary depending on equipment used, temperature of the room, vaulting of the badge and user technique, so even an entire mm or two of difference may not be significant. And as Tom says the high quality Staegemeir copies have "original" measurements anyway.

Planchet thickness and weight can vary considerably too on originals from the same maker.

That's not to say these statistics aren't useful, of course. It's good to have a database of "usual" measurements. Like in any statistical analysis, comparing just two items is not that useful, but comparing the means (averages) of two larger populations can be useful to see if there is a difference between two variants. So the more the merrier for posting of statistics!

Also within one's own collection, when using the same equipment and technique to measure badges at the same sitting, one would expect a much smaller variability than in readings from two completely different sources on the internet, so in that case a greater than 1 mm difference between unvaulted examples may indeed raise flags.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Mike Kenny]

.....but if it is a sand casting like Mike says, there should be a difference in the dimensions.

Late again, but I did only "?" sand casting as a possible reproduction method in this case. For the record, I've done some comparisons of sand-cast v their originals and was VERY suprised that the differencve in size was as low as only 1 or 2% in some cases, nowhere near the 5% which I've seen quoted in other places. For a 40mm badge, the shrinkage COULD be as low as only 0.4mm using sand casting!

Regards
Mike