Peace, love and revolution

I made this rosette yesterday according to the instructions in this demo.  I'm not sure why mine turned out so messy; it may just be lack of practice, or it may be the fact that it's a very narrow (5/8-inch) ribbon.

The pin is heavy-gauge sheet brass, etched as usual and painted with Testors enamel.  As I didn't have an extremely fine brush, the enamel tended to slop out of the recesses, but with the brass well burnished, I was able to scrape off the excess with a needle when it was half-dried.

The pin has not yet been lacquered.  In my experience, spray lacquers invariably take away some of the metallic shine, but the alternative is to let the metal tarnish.  Lacquer will at least keep it bright and glossy.

The rosette is sewn to a circle of blue garment leather with a hole poked through the middle, and I soldered a tie tack back to the face, sanding the back of the face and the top of the tack to make sure the solder would adhere.  The solder this time was a low-temperature paste, and I slid a pair of heavy brass beads around the actual pin to act as a heat sink, all in an effort to prevent the pin from annealing and becoming too bendable to poke through fabric.  I'm not sure how well I succeeded (the beads were glowing orange by the time the solder melted), but it seems to work okay.  All of this, of course, was done before the final polish, burnishing and painting of the face.

Targe from Armlann Gàidhealach

Armlann Gàidhealach was formed in Edinburgh at the end of August 1745, in anticipation of the return of Charles Stuart.  Its owners were Màiri MacNeil of Edinburgh and Caitlin O'Shaughnessy of Kilmacduagh, who temporarily moved to Scotland for the venture.  They officially began production three days after Stuart entered the city on September 17.  The factory produced targes, furnished German broadsword and dirk blades in the usual fashion, imported French firearms and swords, and stored and distributed captured government arms.  When government troops reoccupied Edinburgh in January, the workshop was hastily moved to a barn outside the city, where they continued production right up until the disaster at Culloden on April 16 of the following year.

Last year, I was able to obtain a beautifully-preserved targe through my connections with the Hawkins family of Gloucestershire.  They weren't Jacobites, but some were friends with O'Shaughnessy and MacNeil, and bought out the remaining stock to help the venture recoup some of their investment and dispose of/launder the evidence, since the Hawkinses had ties with the shipping industry down in Bristol, and the middle class in their own hometown would purchase swords.

The vast majority of Armlann Gàidhealach's stock has been sold, auctioned off or given away over the centuries, but I hope to put aside enough money next year to get a sword and dirk.