peter monahan

Mervyn

I'm not sure the scratches above the 'SAP' are anything to worry about. They look like wear marks of some kind to me - perhaps from having the rifle racked with bayonet fixed? Anyway, they don't appear- to me - to be related to the stamp, if that's the basis of your question.

Peter

P.S. Snowed here yesterday. Still, musn't complain, as its been sunny and shirt sleeve or light jacket weather for most of November. The real 'downer', quite literally in my case, is the fact that the sun rises at 7:30am and sets at 4:30 pm this week, so those of us with Seasonal Affective Disorder [sADS] are already hunched over our sun lamps praying for spring! :off topic:

Lovely weapon! First rifle I ever owned was a 'Tini - the long lever Mark 4 - and I still love them.

Kipling wrote a great story, with his characters the 'Soldiers Three'. Private Mulvaney has a talk with the armourer sergeant about how the lads are b*****ing up the weapons by putting twigs into the action to ease the trigger pull, which was notoriously hard, especially after the Snider Enfields. Later in the story Mulvaney hears some other Irishmen in the regiment planning to use his rifle to shoot an unpopular officer, so he'll get the blame, so he pulls out the pin which holds the breechblock in, with predictable and ugly results when the would be murderer pulls the trigger. Sorry, can't recall the name of the tale.

It seems likely to me that someone, who either didn't know or didn't care what they were, decided they would make lovely jewellery! I assume that the cnahges must have been done by a non-Japanese, but maybe that's stereotyping we 'gaijin'.

I don't know anything about Japanese orders either, but if its possible to date these examples [?], I wouldn't be surprised to find that they came out of Japan immediately post war, when many treasures were being sold off cheap so that the owners could eat! Shame, though.

Peter

Lovely display, Robin! Is there a family connection to the truncheons? [i assume the photo is you?]

Peter

Spasm

Couldn't agree more! Life's too short. You forget to mention: overbrushing handles and knobs with silver so they look as if the paint's worn off, abusing the fenders with a hot metal object to simulate dents and, if you really don't have a life, scratch building interiors so you can fix the hatches in the open position.

I never did that last myself. All my AFV were done in 'buttoned down' mode: hatches closed and crewmen all safely inside. Then, at 18, as I was a late bloomer, I discovered alcohol and women, and the long winter evenings got way more interesting and it was "So long, plastic modelling!" ;)

Majesteka

Simply click on Chris' name at the top left of one of his posts and a new window will open with his 'bio' and a button to send him a private message. Welcome to the GMIC, by the way!

Scrumptious!

Looks great so far, Gordon! Can I assume that when it is planked the interior detail will be hidden? Unless one peers in the gun ports? What a lot of work!

I have one Tuareg dagger, acquired in West Africa years ago and it is very similar to the Hausa one. Both tribes are great travellers. In fact, Hausa is a trade language in many West African countries - every market will have someone who speaks at least a bit, much like Swahili in East Africa.

Wearing the dagger handle down is not restricted to the tribes. If you look at photos of special forces - US Rangers, SAS, etc - you'll often notice fighting knives worn handle down on the left breast, handy for a quick draw with the right hand but less likely to get caught on things or get in the way than if it were worn on the belt. "There's nothing knew under the sun"!

Demir

It may be just me, but the uniforms look American in style. Was this uniform worn by all the trrops in the Turkish Army, or just the ones who served in Korea? Just curious.

Peter

Joe

Isn't this kind of thing fun? Welcome to the GMIC. I'm not sure about the photos but I believe that it has to do with the type of membership or how long you have been a member. I do know, for example, that paid subscription memberships come with a larger allowance for uploading photos.

If you want the word from the horse's mouth, go the the very first Forum -'News' - and click on "Chairman". Nick, our fearless leader will be able to answer all questions. If it turns out you can't upload photos yet, send a personal to one of the members who has responded her - Spasm, pikeman or me - and maybe one of us can help out. I'm willing to try, but I'm no tech geek!

Again, welcome!

Peter

I can't recall what the difference in the Indian made ones is either but many/most of them would have been named, as issued to the Indian Army. I believe that the South African stars were named on issue as well, but that may be old age and a faulty memory!

The short and simple answer is 'Do nothing, you're more likely to make it worse than better. I do a little [amateur] shoemaking and repair and so I've heard all the 'granma says' - 'heard it in a pub' - 'the little old cobbler down the street told me' solutions. As Odulf says, leather losses its oils and moisture and begins to break down, just like any organic fibre. [ I'm breaking down faster and faster these days myself! ]

No one would believe that soaking an old plank in water would turn it back into green wood, but people persist in believing they can make old leather new again with fats, oils and creams. One light coat of dubbin probably won't hurt. It is meant mostly to keep water out and natural oils in, but even hours of rubbing won't turn this artificial fat/grease compound into natural oils. The same for saddle soap - it cleans the surface and puts a sheen on but its like waxing a rusty car - does b***er all for the rust. Leather has a natural life span just like the beasties it comes from and 70+ years is old leather.

This topic has been debated for decades, even among conservators. If you want chapter and verse, the US National Park Service [who run literally hundreds of museums] publish "Conserv-o-grams". Here's the one on leather care: http://www.cr.nps.go...ogram/09-01.pdf

Sadly, the same is true for the cleats: there is nothing chemical you can use which won't hurt the leather. In fact, the iron nails in shoes react with moisture to damage the leather. Watch a cobbler re-heel a pair of shoes and notice the dark stains around each nail - the iron oxide actually rots the leather. That's why shoemakers often used brass nails or wooden pegs [among other reasons]. Buff or sandpaper the cleats and then keep them dry.

Bottom line: clean the boots gently and leave them be. They can look good again, but they're always going to be old boots!

This discussion has gone on for some time on various re-enactor/history buff web sites. Some of us are already saving our euros for the trip to Waterloo in 2015, the 200th anniversary of the battle!

Lord Strathcona's Horse traces its roots back to the creation of the School of Mounted Infantry in 1885 and subsequently the Canadian Mounted Rifles and The Royal Canadian Dragoons. Its official 'birth date' is considered to be 1 February 1900.

The unit won the battle honour "South Africa 1900-1901 and one of their sergeants won the VC in 1900.

Nice shots! At the risk of exposing my ignorance - not for the first time, I hasten to add - they're French, right?

A quick search of the Gazette doesn't turn up Alfred E, Alfred Edward or A E Eddolls, though I didn't check every variant spelling of the surname. Unfortunately, there are 185 pages of hits, at 5-6 per page, for just 'Wallis' but none for George Frederick Wallis. Doesn't mean neither is there, as the search engine is far from infallible, but more info. would be very helpful in narrowing down the search fields.

Quite a classy looking piece, if I may say so. I remember thinking that the first time I saw one and haven't changed that view in the 30 years since. Now if only I'd bought it back then! To quote a friends Ukranian babushka, "To soon old, too late smart."

Peter

The brass work on the hilt, especially with the very visible tang end, certainly looks like Indian standard workmanship but I also agree that the device is a colour crossed with something else. The work looks Indian too - a copy of something perhaps only partly undertood by the craftsman.

I know that John Company had a navy - the Honourable East India Company's Marine, later His Majesty's Indian Navy, so it would make sense that they would have naval swords and it was in existance for 200+ years, so your theory makes a lot of sense! Perhaps some one of our esteemed members can make an authoritative pronouncement on the subject.

Incroyable! Fantastique! There's got to be a great novel and movie in that story!

I was mildly puzzled, though, by your reference to "His Canadian RNAS badges". A slip of the keyboard for "British RNAS"?

Peter

In what may have been regarded as a dangerous burst of liberalism, the British Army in 1827 passed a regulation which, in theory, allowed non C of E types to fall out when Church parade was called, presumably to practice their own bizarre religious rituals. It would, however, have been a brave man who actually asked for and got that dispensation from the CO! Michael has the right of it: CE, RC or jankers were still the real choices at least as late as the 1950s in the Canadian Army!.

Prior to that, and probably after, it seems to have been the case that Irish Catholics who had evaded the regulations and actually gotten commissions were given dispensations by their bishops to attend C of E church parades without committing a sin, as church parade would not have been optional for officers!. In a side note, when Michael and I were attending a Catholic college at the University of Toronto in the late 1970s, going down to ther Anglican cathedral on a Sunday to hear the choir and smell the incense - we RCs weeren't doing that much by then - was considered risque and possibly even slightly subversive!

The purpose of a church parade was, at least in the mind of the NCOs, to have the men parade! Spiritual sustenance, if any, would have been a fringe benefit. Patrick O'Brien probably had it right when he suggests that Sunday service on a British man of war was part of the comforting routine - a kind of spiritual mental blanket rather than a spiritual experience as we would understand it, especially given that on many occasions the sermon was replaced by the recitation of a list of capital crimes which the congregants might be charged with! After all, until the 1960's the RC Mass was said in Latin, hardly a language in common use and any number of Orthodox denominations still use Greek, Arabic, Ukrainian and so on for congrgations who are not proficient in those languages.

There was an NCO of the Royal Artillery in the 1810's who retired, went to Bible college and returned to Halifax, Canada in the 1820s, where he founded a chapel. In fact, the garrison chaplain (C of E) was in the embarassing position of having to ask to use his chapel for church parades because the garrison had nothing suitable. He was very highly thought of and when he passed away some of his pall bearers were officers of the Halifax garrison, but that was sufficiently unusual that it was widely reported.

On short, church parade in the abstract was undoubtedly about religion and spirituality but in practice was often more likely a reflection of a tried and true rationale for many large organizations: "Because that's how we do it!"

Peter

Of course you heard about the chap on a visit to Australia who, when asked by Immigration if he had a criminal record responded "I didn't know that was still a requirement." [ducking for cover now]

Many thanks for posting this invaluable link it is a most useful research tool.

Paul

Yes! What he said!

Didn't mean to make light of this great reference source. I'll bookmark it for the next time I see Her Majesty on a state visit and ask myself "What on earth is she wearing round her neck/on her dress?"

Peter

A fascinating collection alright, though I think I would class a number of the awards as "interesting" rather than "beuatiful". I won't offend anyone by naming names! [i think I may be a closet art snob. ]

"I think we might be confusing two different units"

D'oh! Brain fart! You are right, of course. The unit I described was the Arab Legion, not the JFF. Sorry!