Badges, or topping your bonnet questions.

[OC Richard]

Very nice vintage Scottish brooches are listed on Ebay all the time. I love the look of those! Many are just the right size for a Balmoral. Probably few of them were originally intended as bonnet badges but they look great on a bonnet.

Like this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-SCOT...item4d032f1a3c

or this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-SILVER-I...item3375b3c3d2

A bit pricey yes, but here's one under $20

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Scot...item2c695db1f6

The classic clan cap badges were usually made in two sizes, a smaller size (1 5/8" or 42mm dia) intended for Balmorals and a larger size (2" or 53mm dia) intended for Glengarries. It never looks "right" to my eye when people wear badges on their bonnets which vary much from these traditional sizes. (The traditional Army glengarry cap badges were slightly larger, that of The Cameron Highlanders being 2 1/4" or 55mm for example.)

I must admit that except for traditional bonnet badges I'm not a "pin guy".

[Foxgun Tom]

My "Society of William Wallace" coin which I attached to my balmoralsoldiers.jpg

[thescot]

I wear a few different badges depending on which bonnet I wear.

On the khaki glengarry (which I rarely wear, but my wife likes it), I have a copy of the old territorial badge of the Scottish Reserve Regiment. (I know, I know, I was never in that regiment, but I don't think anyone alive was either, no one other than me is likely to know what it is, and it doesn't even look military. It's just a thistle for goodness sake!)


I also have a Scottish Rite silver balmoral badge on a navy bonnet.


I have a plain thistle clan-type badge on an old regimental tam-o-shanter I like to wear.


I have a USMC Eagle-Globe-Anchor badge I like a lot on another navy bonnet.


And there's the Clan Donnachaidh badge I've had for years. Problem is that most of the badges like that are pewter and very heavy. They tend to pull the balmoral top over in a way I do not like.


For a few other occasions I have the jewel of the Knights of St Andrew (of the Scottish Rite) on a beret I wear occasionally for St. Paddy's Day.


Finally, I have an Xmarks badge on a navy blue beret that I almost never wear unless it's just for cold weather.

So, you can see that I am pretty loose when it comes to bonnet badges, but I always wear one. A bonnet just doesn't look right otherwise to me.

Oh, yes--I tend to wear a white cockade on the navy bonnets, just sayin'. It's not a political statement, just a Scottish one for me. See my avatar, too.

[piperdbh]

I have a USMC Eagle-Globe-Anchor badge I like a lot on another navy bonnet.

They are in the same department, aren't they? A sailor once told me what M.A.R.I.N.E. stands for.

[thescot]

They are in the same department, aren't they? A sailor once told me what M.A.R.I.N.E. stands for.

No, the Marine Corps is the Men's department. The sailors provide a very excellent taxi service, though, I must say. You know, pound the enemy with gun fire from three miles offshore and send in the Marines.

The bonnet is nave blue, not a navy issue. I don't think the US Navy issues bonnets or berets. However, the Royal Navy does, I think.

[piperdbh]

I once read that the big guns on a carrier can throw a Volkswagen X number of miles. Who do you think thought of that test?

[Lee Bradbury]

However, the Royal Navy does, I think.

Yes, the RN does wear a dark blue beret.....or Devil's Cowpat as my Dad calls them.

[BBNC]

Is there anything which suggests I should not sew a piece of stiff material inside a Balmoral to help support a badge on the outside? Matching thread would make it nearly invisible on the outside.

[Pleater]

I have several berets which have a strip of stiffening stuff on the inside which is kept in place by the lower end being sewn inside the band, and then the pin of the badge goes through both layers and all is held properly and well.

Another option was a hat I had where a disk of stiffening material was held in place by the stitches around a pair of eyelet holes. The loops of the badge must have been pushed through and then a bar inserted between them to hold it in place.

I don't think that there is any need for the patch to be fixed all round - perhaps the exception would be if the cap was very floppy and inclined to sag so much that the badge begins to sink down inside it.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[BBNC]

Pleater, sewing to the band and allowing the pin to support the rest sounds very doable. I don't have a Balmoral yet, but based upon what I have been reading, some folks take their new, stiff bonnets, and soften them up a bit, which would seem to leave less support for sizeable metal pins. I like the looks of a well-cocked Balmoral with a nice pin or badge standing tall.