Civilian-made ranks

[Warlock_Boy]

Hello everyone!

I've seen a few officers with ranks on their jackets/shoulderboards of a different material than issued -- nicer.

I've heard people get them done in BC. Would anyone here know how to contact the people who do this/examples of the work they do?

Thanks!

[Juice]

Hello everyone!

I've seen a few officers with ranks on their jackets/shoulderboards of a different material than issued -- nicer.

I've heard people get them done in BC. Would anyone here know how to contact the people who do this/examples of the work they do?

Thanks!
Some people go to private tailors that are proficient in military uniform measurements, materials, etc. to get better braid (some authorized, some not) or to get alterations done faster than what it would be if done through the supply system. Expediency has its price.

I had the nice nylon braid put on my tunic after my promotion to Lt(N) - still authorized, but not the stuff that is used in the supply system. That tailor has since closed down, but there is another one here that I will be using from now on - it's where I got my mess dress shoulder boards for wear after 11 June.

For BC, I believe there is Mia based out of Esquimalt? I'm fairly certain she is in the Victoria area - and if memory serves correctly, she does take orders from across the country and will ship. Someone who uses her services will be better able to answer that question.

JB

[TLOD]

Mia works out of the Canex building in Esquimalt. She is reportedly retiring this summer.

http://medalscanada.com/Home_Page.html

[Warlock_Boy]

I'm actually in Newfoundland... that said, I definently won't get them done while I'm a NCdt so I'm not rushed.

Is there any place in Atlantic?

[J-P Johnson]

I was pretty surprised by the rank slip-ons I got from base supply in Borden last week. My wife needed a couple of sets of air element captain's ones and the blue cloth looked really cheap, thin and obviously 100% polyester. She has to be careful not to mix new and old sets because it is REALLY obvious they don't match. They don't even pass the 10 foot rule.

[Lt(N) Blatch]

I'm actually in Newfoundland... that said, I definently won't get them done while I'm a NCdt so I'm not rushed.

Is there any place in Atlantic?

I get all of my Shoulder boards,Slip-ons and tunic done at Quinpool Tailor here in Halifax.

[Warlock_Boy]

There isn't a place that does the gold accent on the forage cap, is there?

I only ask because those places do the band for the bowler, and I was wondering if there was a male equivilent.

[TLOD]

There isn't a place that does the gold accent on the forage cap, is there?

I only ask because those places do the band for the bowler, and I was wondering if there was a male equivilent.
Are you referring to the commissing braid? If so...that comes directly from supply.

[Juice]

There isn't a place that does the gold accent on the forage cap, is there?

I only ask because those places do the band for the bowler, and I was wondering if there was a male equivilent.
The band for the bowler for Junior Officers is the same as the NCdt braid. A female NCdt upon promotion to A/Slt can simply add NCdt braid to their bowler. I know a number of friends of mine simply did that.

The gold band on the peak cap for Junior Officers is affixed directly to the cap as part of the manufacturing process and isn't equivalent to anything found on the tunic. Upon promotion to A/Slt male Officers have to actually change their peak cap from a subordinate Officer one to a Juinor Officer one.

JB

[Warlock_Boy]

Ah, okay. So what my informent (lol) was telling me was that she got some of the high quality non-supply NCdt braid put on her cap, and there is no male version of this.

[Juice]

Ah, okay. So what my informent (lol) was telling me was that she got some of the high quality non-supply NCdt braid put on her cap, and there is no male version of this.
The higher quality nylon braid simply doesn't look well on the bowler, IMO. It looks great on the tunic, but the issued braid looks better on the bowler.

There is no male version of this, nor does there need to be. The gold band on the brim of the peak cap looks nice enough on its own.

JB

[Zipperhead]

Call me crazy - but I use the stuff that is given to me. Everyone uses it, so it meets the requirement of being uniform (hence the name).

There's enough out there to purchase with your own money, why add an extra item to the list?

[RMC 24409]

I have the optional "golden" MARCOM badge and my shoulder boards are golden as well from the same materials used on the mess kits. Just a matter of pride. Most of my friends have optional MARCOM badges as well.

[N. McKay]

I have the optional "golden" MARCOM badge and my shoulder boards are golden as well from the same materials used on the mess kits. Just a matter of pride. Most of my friends have optional MARCOM badges as well.

What badge do you mean -- your cap badge?

[ctjj.stevenson]

Call me crazy - but I use the stuff that is given to me. Everyone uses it, so it meets the requirement of being uniform (hence the name).

There's enough out there to purchase with your own money, why add an extra item to the list?

What can we say ... some people will say that we are nuts. However, I agree with the pride thing. No one should be blamed for using the issued items, they are okay, and they follow regs. However, purchasing higher quality materials just make our uniforms nicer, and there is nothing wrong with that too.

As for the silk/nylon braid for the bolwer, I actually think that it looks quite nice. But that is my opinion.

Lastly, I know that William Scully in Montréal actually has seperate peaks for peaked caps with the gold "stuff" on it. However, it seems to be more coast guard than anything else.

[LCdr DesJardins]

I get all of my Shoulder boards,Slip-ons and tunic done at Quinpool Tailor here in Halifax.

Joseph Hollery is fantastic. He made my Mess Kit, boards, slip-ons, etc. Is he still running Quinpool Tailor?

[RMC 24409]

What badge do you mean -- your cap badge?

There are the optional "gold" embroided badges available at CANEX and JoeDrouin.com.

[Zipperhead]

However, I agree with the pride thing. No one should be blamed for using the issued items,

Absolutely nothing wrong with having pride in your uniform. It's just that in most jobs in the CF that are not HQ centric - the wearing of any type of uniform that is non-operational is a rare occurrence. Hence my reaction. I can count on both my hands the number of times I actually wear a uniform that is blue.

[Juice]

Absolutely nothing wrong with having pride in your uniform. It's just that in most jobs in the CF that are not HQ centric - the wearing of any type of uniform that is non-operational is a rare occurrence. Hence my reaction. I can count on both my hands the number of times I actually wear a uniform that is blue.

Whereas for those of us CIC Officers and those with HQ jobs (or both), we are the exact opposite. I wear NCD on a relatively regular basis, but certainly nowhere near how much I wear service dress. I kept the issued stuff for my tunic up until SLt. During my time as a NCdt and a A/Slt, I noticed the braid of SLt and Lt(N) tended to be very wavy and generally not sewn on well, so I decided to go to a private tailor and pay money to have my tunic done with braid that would not be prone to that. I have yet to be disappointed.

JB

[FireForEffect]

Absolutely nothing wrong with having pride in your uniform. It's just that in most jobs in the CF that are not HQ centric - the wearing of any type of uniform that is non-operational is a rare occurrence. Hence my reaction. I can count on both my hands the number of times I actually wear a uniform that is blue.

Unless we're doing actual dirty work, we wear DEU at the base as the working dress of the day for PO2 (Sgt) and above in most of the places I've worked at CFB Esquimalt. Most of the subordinate officers I know where there 3B far more often than any other type of dress. I wore my NCDs maybe... twice? Other than damage control.

[Lt(N) Blatch]

Joseph Hollery is fantastic. He made my Mess Kit, boards, slip-ons, etc. Is he still running Quinpool Tailor?

He is indeed I was there yesterday and both he and his wife are very hard at work, I noticed his racks were starting to fill up with Tunics with the executive curl.


Whereas for those of us CIC Officers and those with HQ jobs (or both), we are the exact opposite. I wear NCD on a relatively regular basis, but certainly nowhere near how much I wear service dress. I kept the issued stuff for my tunic up until SLt. During my time as a NCdt and a A/Slt, I noticed the braid of SLt and Lt(N) tended to be very wavy and generally not sewn on well, so I decided to go to a private tailor and pay money to have my tunic done with braid that would not be prone to that. I have yet to be disappointed.

That is actually why I first took my uniform to a tailor, I didn't even know there was a difference in braid. I have notice here in NS that it is actually mostly Reg4 and PRes officer with the "nice" braid and it seems to be a smaller percentage of us CIC officers.

[Warlock_Boy]

So... does anyone have a picture of a tunic with a tailored Curl?

[ctjj.stevenson]

http://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fca.images.search.yahoo.com% 2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DRoyal%2BNavy%2BOfficer%2Bu niform%26n%3D21%26b%3D22%26ni%3D21%26ei%3Dutf-8%26xargs%3D0%26pstart%3D1%26fr%3Dyfp-t-715&w=500&h=333&imgurl=farm1.static.flickr.com%2F210%2F524000417_9 5794120a5.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fgragui tar%2F524000417%2F&size=69k&name=Marching&p=Royal+Navy+Officer+uniform&oid=d2beb3b090998e1c&fr2=&fusr=graguitar&hurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fgragui tar%2F&no=38&tt=306&sigr=11hvkpqk8&sigi=11kc8uq83&sigb=143b92u8l&sigh=1173acpkj&type=JPG

http://www.replicaters.com/ww2%20British%20Royal%20Navy/ww2%20british%20navy%20uniform2.jpg

http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/content/images/343848333_080602112417_LRG.jpg

[Warlock_Boy]

So, what are the official dimentions for the loop itself?

[HammerOfHope]

Well, I got a set of curly slip-ons the other day. The bars are actually thread sewn into the material, not sewn on ribbon like the old style. The thick bar is 11 mm wide, the thin bar is 6 mm. The curl is 38 mm in diameter.

I don't know what the dimensions on the shoulderboards and tunics are.

[Lt(N) R. Molitor]

where did you get them from?

[HammerOfHope]

where did you get them from?

Clothing stores at the dockyard. They're issuing 3 sets per person and you have to sign for them.

[TLOD]

Clothing stores at the dockyard. They're issuing 3 sets per person and you have to sign for them.
My CO tried to get his recently at Bldg 211 Dockyard and was asked point-blank "Are you on the 'list?'" Had he been on the list I'm sure he would have been informed previously.

[HammerOfHope]

My CO tried to get his recently at Bldg 211 Dockyard and was asked point-blank "Are you on the 'list?'" Had he been on the list I'm sure he would have been informed previously.

There's a list for shoulderboards and tunics but I think there are enough slip-ons to go around. This is in Halifax, anyway; not sure how they run things out west.

[Coomber 535]

I was pretty surprised by the rank slip-ons I got from base supply in Borden last week. My wife needed a couple of sets of air element captain's ones and the blue cloth looked really cheap, thin and obviously 100% polyester. She has to be careful not to mix new and old sets because it is REALLY obvious they don't match. They don't even pass the 10 foot rule.

The same thing is happening with the cadet slip-ons.

It's almost like they have vast amounts of that material left over from the old base dress and they're converting them into slip-ons. :)



As for taking things to a private tailor, that's what I've always done to have the issued stuff sewn on. All because when I was first enrolled I left my tunic for the tailor at ASU London for almost four weeks and was told it would be ready on the date I said I would come back (the morning of the day before our annual). I arrived, and it was still hanging on the rack how I had left it. Luckily I found a local tailor who would sew on the braid (for a mere $20 -- when I picked it up the morning of annual he said next time it would be $50 b/c he had no idea it would take that much time and effort when he quoted me the first time).

So since then I've had all my rank sewn on locally. Everyone always reminds me how it's free at ASU London, but I'm not devoting five hours of my day to driving there to drop it off, and another five to pick it up. I save money in the long run by having it done locally.

[Chris Drouin]

I was pretty surprised by the rank slip-ons I got from base supply in Borden last week. My wife needed a couple of sets of air element captain's ones and the blue cloth looked really cheap, thin and obviously 100% polyester. She has to be careful not to mix new and old sets because it is REALLY obvious they don't match. They don't even pass the 10 foot rule.

What is the 10 foot rule?

[FireForEffect]

I have the optional "golden" MARCOM badge and my shoulder boards are golden as well from the same materials used on the mess kits. Just a matter of pride. Most of my friends have optional MARCOM badges as well.

What is a MARCOM badge? Are you talking about your SeaOps cap badge?

[N. McKay]

What is a MARCOM badge? Are you talking about your SeaOps cap badge?

Thank you for being one of the eight people in the entire navy who knows the difference!

[FireForEffect]

Thank you for being one of the eight people in the entire navy who knows the difference!

I had a feeling he wasn't talking about a MARCOM command badge. The MARCOM badge isn't worn on anything as far as I know, maybe a blazer when he retires, but it would appear from his signature that he is not in the navy.



What is the 10 foot rule?

It's just the idea that if no one can tell the difference from 10 feet away, you can probably get away with it. Not a good rule to follow.

[J-P Johnson]

It's just the idea that if no one can tell the difference from 10 feet away, you can probably get away with it. Not a good rule to follow.
The actually "rule" is the 1 foot rule - as in if it is indistinguishable at inspection distance, it usually meets the standard.

My reference to the 10 foot rule is a sarcastic nod to the slip-ons not looking to standard from across the room much less at conversation distance.