Dear all, I thought I would show these two brass control tap buttons as they are different and may be of interest to someone. One is off an early guardsman.. I’m not quite sure what the other one was off but it still has some blue-grey paint on it so is probably earlier? The knurling on them is different , being more pronounced on the one still attached to the control tap The other has a straight type of knurl similar to that seen on the filter cup of a control tap? Thanks pb
In my opinion, the one with the blue/grey paint on it is from the WW2 era and I have often found those on military spec., PL 53 lanterns, some Tilley wall lamps and R1 heaters also turn up with that blue/grey finish, perhaps those were for the RAF., but that is just speculation as I do not have any paperwork which proves that theory. I have also found those brass knobs fitted to later Tilley products, perhaps Tilley were making use of old stock or the brass knobs could have been fitted by previous owners. The military spec., control cocks also have a steel thread for the gland nut to screw onto and the link below shows one of those with a small magnet stuck to it. 8 Tilley control cocks
There is always something different on Tilley lamps, I think they just use what they have at the time.
That's a very commendable attitude, rather than buying in new stock and just throwing the old stuff away.
Imo they look a treat - I managed to find one fairly recently and put it on one of my concoctions. They're quite rare as I understand it
