Hi guys,
Figured I would start a thread to get some feedback on a little discovery I stumbled upon (at least to me anyway) while writing the Para badge book. In my opinion, the vast majority of Luftwaffe badges were infact produced from Nickel Silver rather than brass (tombak). Ofcourse this excludes the zinc badges, but I am really only talking about the early "buntmetal" badges. This may not be a big surprised to many of the well-experienced luftwaffe guys, but I think it will come as a suprise to many casual collectors that up until now considered most LW badges as tombak based, and silver plated. On the contrary, I have found that brass-based LW badges are by far in the minority and pretty rare, with the vast majority being made of nickel silver IMO.
What really sparked my curiosity was these 2 Assmann badges. Both pretty heavily worn, and the first one clearly shows brass base metal showing through a thin silver finish on the wreath. The other is even more heavily worn, but yet absolutely no sign of brass showing through on the wreath. However, looking at the hinge, which IS made of brass shows plenty of it showing through. So, its my contention that this heavily worn badge would definately show signs of a brass base metal if it were infact made of brass. It is not, the wreath is made of Nickel Silver.
As I studied these badges, I realized that the silver finish used by most, if not all LW badge makers was actually very thin. So even on badges that are REALLY mint and barely any sign of wear will show signs of brass somewhere on the extreme highlights of the leaf tips, or on the reverse rims of the wreath.
As I thought about this, it makes perfect sense that badge makers would chose nickel silver over brass for the wreaths. A worn down wreath made of nickel silver will always continue to look silver, no matter how much wear it endures. Whereas, brass based wreaths will become yellow over time as the thin silver plating is slowly worn away from years of use. That is also why all the Para badge makers used brass for their early eagles too! Once the fire gilding or gold plating wore off, the eagle will still look yellowish/gold thanks to the natural yellowish/gold color of brass.
Tom
first up is the brass-based wreath, courtesy of Kevin Hudson's collection
Figured I would start a thread to get some feedback on a little discovery I stumbled upon (at least to me anyway) while writing the Para badge book. In my opinion, the vast majority of Luftwaffe badges were infact produced from Nickel Silver rather than brass (tombak). Ofcourse this excludes the zinc badges, but I am really only talking about the early "buntmetal" badges. This may not be a big surprised to many of the well-experienced luftwaffe guys, but I think it will come as a suprise to many casual collectors that up until now considered most LW badges as tombak based, and silver plated. On the contrary, I have found that brass-based LW badges are by far in the minority and pretty rare, with the vast majority being made of nickel silver IMO.
What really sparked my curiosity was these 2 Assmann badges. Both pretty heavily worn, and the first one clearly shows brass base metal showing through a thin silver finish on the wreath. The other is even more heavily worn, but yet absolutely no sign of brass showing through on the wreath. However, looking at the hinge, which IS made of brass shows plenty of it showing through. So, its my contention that this heavily worn badge would definately show signs of a brass base metal if it were infact made of brass. It is not, the wreath is made of Nickel Silver.
As I studied these badges, I realized that the silver finish used by most, if not all LW badge makers was actually very thin. So even on badges that are REALLY mint and barely any sign of wear will show signs of brass somewhere on the extreme highlights of the leaf tips, or on the reverse rims of the wreath.
As I thought about this, it makes perfect sense that badge makers would chose nickel silver over brass for the wreaths. A worn down wreath made of nickel silver will always continue to look silver, no matter how much wear it endures. Whereas, brass based wreaths will become yellow over time as the thin silver plating is slowly worn away from years of use. That is also why all the Para badge makers used brass for their early eagles too! Once the fire gilding or gold plating wore off, the eagle will still look yellowish/gold thanks to the natural yellowish/gold color of brass.
Tom
first up is the brass-based wreath, courtesy of Kevin Hudson's collection
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