A trio of clasps: judgment day...

[mgidhagen]

Ok, the time has come... After over ten years of letting them reside in a desk drawer, with fairly little interest spent in them, I have finally reached the point where I would love to get some input on these three silver clasps...

Since I laid my hands on them, I just concluded that there are more things that I like than what I dislike (generally speaking, as this is out of my collecting interest). However, having compared to known fakes, and to known originals, I have not - yet - found any match to any of them. And, a BSW fighter clasp is for good reasons always met with a fair amount of scepticism... Anyways, they are all Feinzink clasps, although the bomb and the arrow are made of tombak(?).

Below is the picture series; feel free to jump in and fire away...! Should they all be copies, well - that's not the end of the world. If anyone would pass, well... that would of course be nice!

Thanks...!

/Mikael

[mgidhagen]

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[mgidhagen]

Transport Clasp

Pic 3

[mgidhagen]

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[mgidhagen]

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[mgidhagen]

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[spectre]

Hi Mikael, I am not an expert on clasps but these look fine to me for zinc badges. The BSW mark does look right compared to some good badges I have. I know there is a fake clover leaf mark out there but this does not look like that to me.

All in nice condition

Alan

[Pierre]

To my knowledge BSW never produced fighter clasps. I don't think that this one is original.

Pierre

[mgidhagen]

Many thanks for your input so far...! Hmmm... Well, that reaction to a BSW-marked clasp other than a recon clasp is - as I said - expected. However, as I have never seen any other known (BSW-marked) copies looking exactly like my fighter clasp, I thought it could be more fruitful to establish *why* this is a fake clasp.

To rule a badge out simply on the basis of that it has never been seen or heard of before is a quick solution, but not really adding to the research spirit in our collecting. As said, even though my hopes are far from high regarding the fighter clasp, I still feel I need to give it the benefit of a doubt... For now, that is!

I will troy to match the hardware against known genuine (zinc) BSW hardware and tooling to see where we land...
Cheers,
Mike

[Tim Calvert]

I hope I'm wrong, but they are all giving me the heebie jeebies!!!!

I used to have a zinc BSW recon. It had different hardware and the mark looked dif too.

[Leroy]

If they are copies, then they are very good. There are things I don't like about them and things I do. The rivets and center devices are very convincing. The base metal looks, in these photos, to be strangely identical for different makers and parts of some areas look, frankly, cast.

I have, personally, never seen a BSW clasp I was convinced was good. But that is just my own experience and not a definitive condemnation.

I honestly could not make a call on these without actually having them in hand and being able to study them.

Sorry.

P.S. The bomber, to me, is the best of the 3 and I think the odds of it being real are very high.

[mgidhagen]

BSW fighter clasp - some comparisons

Hi all,
As mysteries intrigue me, I spent some time comparing my BSW-marked clasp with reference pics. If you would find your own badge among the pictured ones, and if you don't like that I use your pics for reference as a confirmed genuine BSW badge, please let me know - and I will remove your picture!

Anyways, just to throw some wood into the debate, still without any claims that my clasp stands a chance of being genuine although never heard of, here are some striking features that could maybe point in a favourable direction...:

a) The BSW maker mark seems to match confirmed authentic examples.

b) The pin/catch/hinge hardware seem to match hardware found on confirmed authentic examples, save that this type of hinge is found on a late-war BSW pilot badges.

c) The design (and many details) of the laurel leaves, berries and oak leaves seems to match the one found on confirmed authentic BSW recon clasps.

Please note that I have only made a "positive" comparison; hence I have not pointed out features that would indicate this being a fake/copy... I will leave that for others!

Cheers,
Mike

[mgidhagen]

Comparison pic 2

Comparison pic 2

[mgidhagen]

Comparison pic 3

[mgidhagen]

Comparison pic 4