How would you mount these military items?

Framar

WOW Framer
Joined
Jul 24, 2001
Posts
26,422
Location
Buffalo, New York, USA/Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
I have probably framed many hundreds of military medals over the years, and ribbon bars and gadgets with pin backs and and center pin backs. Over the years I have devised many ways of attaching all of these (usually to suede or other fabric matboard) so that they may be safely removed in the future if necessary.

These two objects are proving difficult to figure out what to do with them.The clip-on tie bar, with the huge bulky clip on the back.

The little 5/8" bronze star pin (which is worn in a buttonhole) with the almost 1/2" round metal backing.

They, along with a number of other ribbons, pins, and dog tags, are to be mounted onto dark blue suede matboard.

I did, after several tries, make a sort of "buttonhole" to slip the smaller pin through from the back with no mess on the front. But can I do this again successfully on a quarter sheet of board? How may boards would I have to go through?

Have you ever encountered anything like these items?

How did you approach them?

Tie bar.jpg
 
I have my father's Bronze Star medal, ribbon and lapel pin but it has the pin and rear clasp attachment instead of the button hole attachment that you have.
You just stick the pin thru and then attach the rear clasp..
Screen Shot 2020-10-07 at 7.50.07 PM.png

That would be too easy...
I guess that you have to make a slit as small as possible and wiggle it thru from the front or the back as I believe that you mentioned that you did on that one.
Then you can try to "tease" the slit down with a burnishing tool to hide it.

As for the tie clasp...
I can't see the front of it so I'm not sure of what it is showing but kind of the same thing.
Make the smallest slit that you can and wiggle it thru maybe from the back to front.
Is it the Honorable Discharge badge on a tie clip?
This is the Honorable Discharge badge with the buttonhole back..
Screen Shot 2020-10-07 at 8.10.00 PM.png



Another crazy option might be to actually have a section of a tie with the clip attached on it.:shutup:
 
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The tie bar has the Marines globe emblem on it (there are also matching cuff links). Not military issue, I daresay.

For the Bronze Star three-piece set, I have the idea to mount them on a smaller beveled piece of the suede, so I don't have to keep screwing up a whole board. And it would put emphasis on the importance of the medal.

Maybe do something similar for the tie bar.

Here are all of the pieces and their rough layout. Window openings will be cut for the photo and the funeral card.

Widow, daughter and military guy friend all emphasized that the order needed to be pleasing - not militarily in any orxder (other than to set the Bronze Star apart slightly). Guy came home from Vietnam in one piece, only to die from Alzheimer's decades later.
 
Oops. Forgot the photo. Gotta get some sleep, I guess. And you can see why I need a camera with image stabilization.

Medals layout.jpg
 
The Bronze Star is important.

This group is all shooting and combat infantry related..
Screen Shot 2020-10-07 at 9.32.14 PM.png


This one I believe is the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon..
Screen Shot 2020-10-07 at 9.44.01 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-10-07 at 9.45.45 PM.png


The rank and Marine emblems in the upper left and the dog tags, of course.

The rest on the right lower part below the rifle badges are campaign and theatre of operation in Vietnam medals and an Achievement medal.
Screen Shot 2020-10-07 at 9.59.25 PM.png
 
As a person who was not in the service, I guess this is a good time to ask my "proper protocol" question. My best friend of over 20 years, who has since passed was "in country" for 5 years and was awarded many awards.

Is the showing of both the "ribbon" and the "metal", one above the two normal protocol for display, normal (officially accepted), or is this style of display a duplication of the same award?
On a uniform you see one or the other, but not both.
 
For the tie clip, you may be able to cut a narrow slot just large enough to accommodate the dimensions of the curved part of the clip, bend the board a little, and slip it through from the front of the board.

Or, if that does not work, "Plan B" would be to cut a precisely-shaped hole in the mat to exactly fit the shape of the upper part of the clip, fit it through from behind and use a slip of matboard, glued to the back of the board using PVA, under the spring part of the clip. When I have done this, I have used an X-Acto #11 blade to cut the opening slightly undersized, and then used the blade to carefully shave the opening's edges, along with fine sandpaper/emery boards to enlarge the opening just enough for precise fit.

For the button-hole pin, I would follow "Plan B" from above. That is, cut an opening to precisely fit the rectangular shape of the pin, fit it through from behind, and shove a small slip of matboard (or whatever fits) through the opening in the object under the mounting board and glue it to the back of the board using PVA.

To clarify: since the bar shows horizontally, the slip under the mounting board would be vertical and, of course, out of sight. Also, no adhesive touches the object mounted.
 
If you're using suede, I've cut a slot for chunky pieces like that and then peeled off a layer of matching suede from the scrap and glued it over the wreckage of a hole to conceal the damage. It's not exactly reversible without wrecking the patch, but it doesn't hurt the item being framed.
 
Thanks for the ideas, folks. I have been practicing on cutting the little hole for the smaller piece. So far so good.

Never thought to cut a shaped hole for the tie bar.

Thanks, Jim!

And Neil, thanks for the info on the medals. Had most of it already, thanks to the copy of his discharge papers that is going on the back of the frame. Apparently some in the military believe there is a corresponding medal for the NUC and some do not. And did you know the gold bars are called "butter bars"? I had never heard that before.
 
There are apparently 2 awards that have similar names.
The NUC only has a ribbon.

There is the MUC that has a ribbon and a medal.
They look similar but are different awards.
 
Thanks, Neil, I'll tell my military guy that - he was pretty sure he was right about the NUC, and he and the widow were both rolling their eyes about their know-it-all friend.
 
Jim - Plan B worked in my first trial run on a scrap of suede board!!!

I traced the front of the tie bar on the back of the board, cut part-way down and carefully peeled and cut away the mat's core (about 3/4ths of the way through).

I make little notches in the ends of the opening and carefully pushed the bar through from the front - then slid the suede back into position.

And instead of matboard or a straight pin (my usual go-to's for securing pins and such from the back) I FINALLY found a use for that stack of plastic "membership cards" that I keep getting in the mail from AARP and Capitol One - I cut a strip from one and slipped it under and it was perfect! Could also make layers of the indestructible plastic by stacking them. (Actually, most of the time I use the cards for spreading glue.)

Happy dance!
 
Oh boy, I did not realize how long I have been struggling with this thing.

I ordered a new sheet of suede, so of course I was able to do everything on the piece I had left over from way back when.

The tie bar and cuff links were a royal PITA - I ended up stripping the suede fabric off of a little piece and wrapping it around regular matboard and everything fit pretty well. (After cutting out that shape about six times in suede board.)

A few of the medals and ribbons were kind of cobbled together from my customer's own collection - and it turns out they were missing pieces on the backs so some ended up being hot-glued down, some were wired. Some pins had clips, some did not - so I hot-glued the back of the board.

The bronze star was mounted on a beveled piece of suede and is raised up about 1/4" to let it stand out.

I still have to make the mat walls and do the fitting, but it ought to be finished soon.

Medals.JPG
 
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And . . .

I just had to order a new chop of the danged frame because in the almost 2 months it has been kicking around the shop it ended up with a tiny but visible gouge in the lip on one rail and a tiny but unfixable ding on the face of another rail.

Of course the moulding is out of stock in Cleveland so they have to ship it from Atlanta.

(Ordered three chops today and they are coming from three different locations - this makes me pretty scared for Christmas orders . . . )
 
Since this thread discussed the Bronze Star and the little enamel lapel (?) pin - here is my latest conundrum.

Customer ordered whole set of new medals for her dad - Purple Heart, Bronze Star, sharpshooter pin, and a few other medals (including one for good conduct) (I have always heard of a "good conduct medal" but I have never seen one before!).

Everything has usual pin backs and stabby/clippy fasteners - except for the darned little enamel bar on the Bronze Star - look at the back of it!

The ribbon bar had the usual stabby/clippy things, and the little enamel bar has the stabby part is fastened most securely to the plastic/suede display presentation case insert by the gold thingy that looks like a stubby push pin. I cannot seem to get it off. It is not screwed on to the pin - seems to be all one piece - and I am wondering if maybe I have to just cut it out of the case and figure out how to slip it into the matboard?

Anyone seen anything like this before?
Bronze star fasteners.jpg
 
I can't imagine that the standard way to remove that is cutting the plastic.
Is it possibly a screw on?
 
Hi, Mar!
I think I have an answer for you.

I have done tons of military framing but I don't think that I have seen that clasp ( or I just don't remember...:whacky:)..
That said, I believe you are dealing with this...
Screen Shot 2021-05-06 at 9.50.52 PM.png

It has a spring inside and you push down on the bottom part and then pull up on the top part.

You can click on the video in the Etsy ad and see it in use.
 
Great Zot! I do believe you have come up with the solution, dear Neil.

I can't wait to get to the shop and try pushing the thing - because pulling and twisting sure did not work. NEVER occurred to me to push it!

And then I am going to order a few of these for all of the stabby pins I am afraid to wear for fear I will lose them.

And I just found them cheaper on eBay! YAY!!!

(Is this a great place or WHAT???)

:icon21:
 
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BINGO!

Neil's answer was the right one. YAY!

However, pushing on it may install it and lock it in place - but PULLING on it got me nowhere. Even though they are advertised as "No tools needed" I found it necessary to wiggle a small flat-blade screwdriver between the top of the hat and the middle of the hat. Then - off it popped!

*Happy Dance*
 
Customer was still looking for additional items to add to her dad's shadowbox.. Today she brought in his dog tags - only there are two identical sets. One long neck chain with two tags and the other two on individual key chain lengths of ball chain. And one in each of the sets is the usual aluminum and the other looks like brass. Have you ever seen brass dog tags? I am planning on using the one with the neck chain for the box.

She just emailed me that she has found his 84th Infantry patch, too. Good thing I allowed for some clearance around the original medals and badges when I ordered the frame . . .
 
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