Having recently been awarded my CFM, I’ve decided to take apart my medals and redo them as court mounted.
It took me a lot longer to do than I expected, and whilst they’re not perfect, they’ll do. However:
I rather expected the medals themselves to be a lot more…tied-down/stationary than they are.
Do people hot-glue them down or something? Yes- they’re stitched around the suspended shank. Yet the medals seem surprisingly…mobile?!
First time I’ve ever done my medals court-mounted (and that’s with nearly 30yrs of swing-mounted metalwork) so perhaps I just don’t know what to expect
There shouldn’t be much movement ideally.
The only additional fixing I use is stitching around the ‘shank’ as shown here. It is tight and prevents the medals flopping about, but they’re not rigidly attached to the backing. They will move a little by hand - pivoting about that stitching.
If you glue the medals to the ribbon mounting it will make cleaning the sides and back of them almost impossible. I’ve always used mess dress.com in Bournemouth, they’re quick and the cheapest I could find. £4 per medal. !
I court-mount medals but have never used hot glue and never will. Neither do I use double-sided tape as the acid in the tape can damage the medals and ribbons.
Like wdimagineer2b, I secure the medals to the buckram using cobblers thread as opposed to ordinary (shirt-button?) thread as it’s thicker and more robust. There will be a small amount of movement no matter how the medals are sewn down but one shouldn’t be lifting them up to clean the reverse as this will stretch the thread and increase the amount of movement.
Silvo is a little less abrasive than brasso. The wadding is good as said, but the liquid is fine also - you just have to use a nice soft polishing cloth. A yellow duster tends to leave small scratches.
But I would only go to using silvo if the medals were particularly grubby or stubborn. Start with a rub over with a silver polishing cloth. A soft pencil eraser can remove marks also.
The less abrasive polish you use on your medals over the years the better.
I use a soft toothbrush and hot soapy water to clean medals followed by a lint-free, very fine polishing cloth. Silvo is abrasive to a degree and I only use it when absolutely necessary.
As wdi2b suggests, a pencil eraser is a good way of getting rid of marks.
