Court Mounting Woes

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Everyone,

I hope I have posted this in the correct area.

I have, today, ordered some Pakistan Independence Medal ribbon from a fellow in the UK. Getting this ribbon has been quite the adventure in itself. Apparently it is hard to find at the moment (political unrest?). I am going to attempt to court mount a group of medals which includes, the Pakistan Independence, 1939-45 Star, Burma Star, 1939-45 War Medal and the WW II India war Service Medal. These are all named to the same soldier which makes this a scarce group.

The question I have is, how is the best way to court mount the stars? I want the "V" shaped folds to be even and uniform.

When I am adding a ribbon to a single star I usually roll the ribbon into a tube shape, incert it through the ring and then unfold the ribbon to get the angle I need on both sides of the ring. It takes a little fiddling around but I can usually get a fairly good looking fold. This I usually "touch" with a hot iron. I cover the ribbon with a piece of white cloth, spray a little distilled water on the cloth and the iron produces a little steam when it touches the cloth giving the ribbon a crisp "pressed-looking" edge.

When I look at some groups with stars it looks like the ribbon was cut and then glued in place just after the ribbon passes through the star's ring. When I look at the area where the ribbon goes through the ring there seems to be a "shadow" or imprint of the folded ribbon beneath showing through the ribbon above.

I have posted some photos of what I am talking about. The ribbon is paper as I don't want to cut into my ribbons, yet.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Brian

[David Gregory]

Brian,

Sorry I cannot help you, but I would also like to know the best way to mount groups like this without ruining a length of ribbon by trial and error.

David

[Brian Wolfe]

The last photo showed how I think some mounts with stars have been done. This photo I have tried to show how I fold the ribbon when I add a ribbon to a medal or star's ring. This leaves a rather bulky area over the folds and I would think it may not look as good with the other medals in the mount.

[Brian Wolfe]

In this photo I am trying to show the, more or less, finished ribbons of the two styles of folds. The paper "stand in" is not evenly folded but this is only meant as an example. If I can get this mount looking good I have a few others that I would like to attempt.

Thanks again for any assistance you can give me.

Cheers

Brian

[peter monahan]

In this photo I am trying to show the, more or less, finished ribbons of the two styles of folds. The paper "stand in" is not evenly folded but this is only meant as an example. If I can get this mount looking good I have a few others that I would like to attempt.

Thanks again for any assistance you can give me.

Cheers

Brian

Brian

I assume you've considered ironing the ribbon BEFORE putting it on the medal. That helps a bit but there's still the 'bulge' problem. I don't think there's a good answer other than cutting, which you don't want to do with rarer ribons. In the past I've glued front and back of ribbon together, but again, like cutting, it ruins a ribbon for future removal/re-use. Good luck, though. Please post whatever you get when done.

Peter

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Peter,

Yes I usually iron the ribbon before attempting to put it on the medal. The yellow ribbon in the photo was just folded for the photo and was not ironed as I would like to store it flat.

I have a while to wait before the Pakistan ribbon arrives so I can obsess over this for a couple more weeks. Anything to drive my wife crazy!

Cheers

Brian