. Hi Salvage,   yes you have brought vivid memories back for me, not that I was ever a paid mechanic, just a ' Sunday Grease-Monkey ', however yes the smell of pumice paste.   I replaced that with normal dish-washing liquid and the sugar from those small sachets they give you with a cafe' coffee, all so much nicer smelling and the sugar would dissolve as it was being used.  It the only use I have made of sugar, I gave sugar up in the mid / late 70's when we nicknamed it ' White-Death '.  I still have a jar of the sachets at hand near the sink for dirty hand washing, the jar is actually a US Army Medical Department specimen container.       Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  11 June  2O26.   ..

On the Subject of Actual Buttons   I did not cite "several hundred buttons surviving," but referred to " perhaps over a hundred buttons that were prescribed by this order, were produced during the 1820s, and were worn by Navy officers, a good number of them with numbers (No. 1 thru No.5) consistently stamped on the backs."   I was talking about the different "types" or "examples" of known, distinct buttons that could be listed under the rubric of 1820s buttons relating to the General Order of June 10, 1820.  There are perhaps over 50 examples or types that had numbers on them, some of them post-1830 under the Regulations of 1830.  I cannot know the exact number that were produced.  As for "buttons surviving," there must be thousands of US Navy buttons out there, in various conditions, all as a result of the June 10, 1820 General Order.  This is a "spitball number," but it comes from my experience with real buttons.  Imagine how many buttons Leigh and Bazelon must have held in their hands over the years!   I am a Navy button collector because I love the buttons.  My interest in regulations and other historical documents is secondary, though interesting in terms of background information.  Real buttons will lead one to the undeniable existence and reality of their being, while words, or their absence, will generally lead to rabbit holes.  For years, I puzzled over the meaning of these backmark numbers on some of my old US Navy buttons and what they might have meant.  I did notice their consistency relating to the front devices.  And then I got a copy of Tily's book and discovered the General Order of 1820.  "The numbered buttons!"  It made sense after that.  But there was still work to do.  Still is...   I can only suggest, if one wants to understand military buttons of a certain category and period, to start collecting buttons, or information on them.  Buttons can be expensive.  If you wanted to buy the Lewis & Tomes numbered series of Navy buttons (No. 1 thru No.5) in decent condition, a full set could easily cost you over $1,000!  The lion's share of this cost would be the MC4 No.5 button, alone, if you were ever lucky enough to see one for sale.  It's a rare button.  But there is always the "thrill of the hunt," and great buttons can be found anywhere in the oddest of places, and for a reasonable price, or "small sum," as Luis Fenollosa Emilio liked to say in his book.  A lot depends on personal finances and how much one chooses to devote to this hobby.   Another possibility is Ebay.  There are at least two regular sellers who sell a wide variety of military buttons, including US Navy, in their "Ebay Store" who are very knowledgeable and who curate their offerings.  They also provide sharp photographs, front and back, of their buttons.  Ebay is easy to search.  You can even search how much they sell for.  Nothing stops you from downloading these images or taking photos of these images if you want them for your personal research, even though it violates the strict rule of "copying" off the internet.  There are also Civil War websites that sell pre-CW Navy buttons.  They, too, provide great images, front and back.  With enough good images, or actual buttons, it is easier to see patterns and similarities in the buttons that were once for sale in the naval tailor shops and lace shops of the Eastern Seaboard Navy ports in the 1820s and 1830s.  The images are out there, as are the buttons.  And, of course, there are the backmark lists in McGuinn & Bazelon, Tice, Albert, Johnson, Emilio, etc., that work best when you have real buttons, or their images, in front of you.  And there must be military relic shows in your neck of the woods.  "No price for looking," as they say in Egyptian bazaars.  Have no regrets about trying to figure this out or for writing about it.  It's arcane.  And it's research, after all.  

Nice find!

"TOP DEAD CENTER"   With these condenser, points and carburetor posts you're giving me flashbacks to my mid century auto mechanic days   Scraped knuckles and hands smelling of pumice & lanolin, fingernails always chipped and dirty with grease...        

ardennes44- The guard appears to have been replaced. Not anything from the manufacturer Utica.  SKIP

USN / Attack Squadron One Fifty Five (VA-155) (2d). NAS Moffett Field, CA. AD-6 "Skyraider". Japanese-made "Wellington".

It sounds interesting. Finding the Purple Heart is a huge factor in the valuation of the group. It would be interesting (as Kurt said) to see the engraving on the reverse of the medal. 

. hi mikie,   could you please post a legible enlargement of the text in this piece about FDR's SS patch, very interesting to actually see mention of it in a wartime dated paper, a rare patch       Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  11 June  2O26.   ..

Fixed the title. Can't tell on the hat, the style is a bit more "curvy" than I have seen. Some one will know if they made uniforms & hats for soldiers!

PO 3rd class rate patch. Has anyone ever seen one. Looks like a patch sewn over an existing rate patch.