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How to use brass stencils on clothing


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Hi Guys. I feel stupid asking this.

How did soldiers during WW2 apply stencils to their clothing? Did they just use a brush? Is it still done today?
I want to stencil some clothing and I just would like to do it the way it was done in WW2 if there is a correct "way".

If that makes sense...

Thanks!

 

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Hi Guys. I feel stupid asking this.

How did soldiers during WW2 apply stencils to their clothing? Did they just use a brush? Is it still done today?

I want to stencil some clothing and I just would like to do it the way it was done in WW2 if there is a correct "way".

If that makes sense...

Thanks!

 

 

For clothing I imagine they used a brush, on vehicals a air compresed sprayer, no aerosol spraycans back then.

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Some units had the machines that could make tag board stencils.

 

I had a friend in the national guard recently make a few for me.

 

I have seen the brass pocket stencil before for the USMC and EGA front pocket.Im nit sure if they used a brush or a roller to re ink the eagles.In all the time I have collected I have only seen two USMC pocket stencils.

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Some units had the machines that could make tag board stencils.

 

I had a friend in the national guard recently make a few for me.

 

I have seen the brass pocket stencil before for the USMC and EGA front pocket.Im nit sure if they used a brush or a roller to re ink the eagles.In all the time I have collected I have only seen two USMC pocket stencils.

Right a roller, forgot about that, just thought of a brush.

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I pulled these out of a dumpster last year - the family dumped most of the Sailor's possessions in it with the exception of the uniforms and medals (which went to thrift, figures!)

 

post-5941-0-20468800-1408742099.jpg

 

Cardboard stencils that have had the ink brush applied. I would imagine the flexible nature of these stencils made it a bit easier to transfer onto clothing.

Also, if any of you ancestry guru's could look up Mr George E Hill, #3295049, I'd love to know what Sub he served on as an electricians mate. ;)

 

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Salvage Sailor

I pulled these out of a dumpster last year - the family dumped most of the Sailor's possessions in it with the exception of the uniforms and medals (which went to thrift, figures!)

 

attachicon.gifIMG_20140822_161054667.jpg

 

Cardboard stencils that have had the ink brush applied. I would imagine the flexible nature of these stencils made it a bit easier to transfer onto clothing.

Also, if any of you ancestry guru's could look up Mr George E Hill, #3295049, I'd love to know what Sub he served on as an electricians mate. ;)

 

 

 

Those are standard USN stencils issued in boot camp punched out from heavy card stock.. We would also receive one (1) white and (1) black pump action stencil pencil to manually ink the letters and numbers on our seabags, uniforms, web belts, web gear, etc. I still have mine in my seabag.

 

We actually spent a day at boot camp making them and learning how to stencil our uniforms and gear "the navy way". Later when we became unchaperoned adults, we discovered the joy of using aerosol spray paint......

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Those are standard USN stencils issued in boot camp punched out from heavy card stock.. We would also receive one (1) white and (1) black pump action stencil pencil to manually ink the letters and numbers on our seabags, uniforms, web belts, web gear, etc. I still have mine in my seabag.

 

We actually spent a day at boot camp making them and learning how to stencil our uniforms and gear "the navy way". Later when we became unchaperoned adults, we discovered the joy of using aerosol spray paint......

Do you have any more info on what the "Navy Way" is to stencil uniforms and gear?

 

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  • 5 years later...
Salvage Sailor

Aloha avigo,

 

A late response to your questions in regard to marking USN textile items, etc.

 

We used a "stencil pencil" for most of our markings i.e. a pump action TEXPEN which were issued to us in black and white permanent ink. (black shown below)

 

Texpen Black USN 001.jpg

 

The stencils were made on a hand press machine on heavy brown card stock.  Each of us made a stencil with our last name and initials, our service number (or ssn), and our boot camp company number.  We also made a smaller card with our initials for marking smaller items (hats, gloves, etc)  In the fleet we just used the stencil pencils in a freehand fashion to mark our gear (watchcaps, dixie cups, etc) and the stencils (minus the company number) for larger items such as deck jackets, sea bags, flight bags, etc.  As time went on, I would use a roller or spray paint to mark the larger items.

 

Stencil Cutting Machine 001.jpeg

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Salvage Sailor said:

Aloha avigo,

 

A late response to your questions in regard to marking USN textile items, etc.

 

We used a "stencil pencil" for most of our markings i.e. a pump action TEXPEN which were issued to us in black and white permanent ink. (black shown below)

 

Texpen Black USN 001.jpg

 

The stencils were made on a hand press machine on heavy brown card stock.  Each of us made a stencil with our last name and initials, our service number (or ssn), and our boot camp company number.  We also made a smaller card with our initials for marking smaller items (hats, gloves, etc)  In the fleet we just used the stencil pencils in a freehand fashion to mark our gear (watchcaps, dixie cups, etc) and the stencils (minus the company number) for larger items such as deck jackets, sea bags, flight bags, etc.  As time went on, I would use a roller or spray paint to mark the larger items.

 

Stencil Cutting Machine 001.jpeg

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much! Very helpful

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Army wise I have not seen any such marking in over 20 years. SSN use to be on the duffel bag but that was cut out. Guys use to mark their web gear but CIF will not take it back like that, so pretty much nothing but name tags are used if anything. Army wise we really don’t need to mark everything as we don’t wash stuff like the Navy and Marines do...bulk washing. 

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4 hours ago, Rhscott said:

Army wise I have not seen any such marking in over 20 years. SSN use to be on the duffel bag but that was cut out. Guys use to mark their web gear but CIF will not take it back like that, so pretty much nothing but name tags are used if anything. Army wise we really don’t need to mark everything as we don’t wash stuff like the Navy and Marines do...bulk washing. 

Right, I still got my Duffel Bag with the Social Security as Serial Number on it with my name, got that in early January 1980 laugh.png.567e1aeb060513e51e8b7863ccfda73e.pngNow back then in 1980 and I'm sure gong back a lot of years into the 50s, when we were issued are Phase 1 (Fatigue and Sundry items)and later Phase 2 (Class A uniform items) our Name and SSN were stamped in a lot of items, two examples, the underside of one Shoulder Loop of the Field Jacket, and the underside of the Sweatbands of both our Soft Caps and Garrison Caps, Service Caps too a couple of years back as well I'm sure. This was done right there at the CIF, for me Phase 1 was at Ft Jackson were I went through Reception Station, and Phase 2 at Ft Benning were I took Basic and AIT.

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