FLL pilots

[1943collector]

Gents
Thought I would post here beforwe putting up for sale on the STAND.
Nice unmarked or FLL Pilots badge, great detail. Weight 39.6 gr or 1.396 oz.
Any intelligent comments appreciated.
thanks
michael

[fdodge]

It looks as though the badge was stripped of all patina with a chemical. I'm not familiar with the heat(?) marks on the eagle's reverse.

Regards,
Frank

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Michael,

A fine original, but like Frank says, looks like its been stripped of its finish and patina.

Frank, the heat marks are from soldering the rivet posts to the back of the eagle before it was attached to the wreath. We aren't used to seeing this because of the finish on the eagle, so more evidence that this badge has been totally stripped of its finish IMO.

Tom

[fdodge]

Hi Michael,

A fine original, but like Frank says, looks like its been stripped of its finish and patina.

Frank, the heat marks are from soldering the rivet posts to the back of the eagle before it was attached to the wreath. We aren't used to seeing this because of the finish on the eagle, so more evidence that this badge has been totally stripped of its finish IMO.

Tom

Thanks Tom. The badge's rivets looked fairly virgin so I should have figured that was the case. Those chemical strippers should only be used on BBQ grills.

[Rik]

An original badge!
Why does the wreath have a lot of cracks in it? Is this because it's vaulted?

[1943collector]

Gentleman
Don't think the badge was stripped just not kept properly over these many years.
Probably stored where there was high humidity, this causes a very fine corrosion which will dissolve the original finish.
The very fine cracks are caused in certain materials over time, this effect is called "material creep" where the material actually changes size, changes are in .oooo1 very-very slight but enough to cause the fine cracks, some old Zinc materials were noted for this " material creep ".
thanks
Michael

[fdodge]

The cracks in the wreath are quite common IMO.

Frank

[Erichjr]

Nice one.

[Rik]

The cracks in the wreath are quite common IMO.

Frank

Have seen this before but not in this amount. I will save the info.

[Van]

I have seen cracks like this on a lot of zinc based badges especially the zink Anti Partisan Badges, almost every APB I have seen has 2 , 3 or more..
Nice Pilots badge, too bad about the finish...
Van