Friday, January 21, 2011

Braxmar Badges

The Charles G. Braxmar Company was founded in 1879 and until being acquired by V.H. Blackinton at the beginning of the 21st century was located in New York City.

The image above is from a Braxton catalog, circa 1927.

V.H. Blackinton, itself with roots extending back to 1852, acquired the Braxmar company and continues to offer the Braxmar line. Certain Braxmar products continue to be available, while others have been superceded by corresponding Blackinton items.

Braxmar sold direct to public safety agencies, and so for several years following the acquisition Blackinton continued to accept direct orders for Braxmar products. But this practice has now been phased out, and all orders must be processed through an authorized Blackinton dealer.

The Badge Company of New Jersey is, of course, a direct distributor for all Blackinton products, so whether you are trying to match an old Braxmar badge or you simply want to order from Blackinton’s extensive line of badges and insignia, we can make the process easy.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Officer Christopher Matlosz

It has been an eventful few days for police in New Jersey. On Friday, Lakewood officer Christopher Matlosz was killed – executed is a better word – while seated in his patrol car, having stopped to speak with a pedestrian.

On Sunday, police arrested the individual that they identified as the shooter.

On the one hand, it is satisfying to know that this individual has been apprehended and will be brought to justice.

On the other hand, we have to agree with words attributed to State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes: "There is no joy in catching an accused cop killer.”

Officer Matlosz was not married, but he was engaged. The photo shows him and his fiancee, Kelly Walsifer, smiling widely.



Here at the Badge Company, we are sensitive to the death of a police officer, not only because it is a tragedy for the families and communities, but also because so often the officer works for an agency that we serve. We hear the anguish in the voices of their colleagues. Frequently, we are asked to prepare commemorative badges used in memorial ceremonies. We are honored to provide this service, but it only makes the sense of loss even more compelling.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

To Serve You Better


Over the next few days, we are moving our web site and related online files to a new and much larger server system which became operational this week.

The new servers will allow us to offer a variety of new web-based features, although don’t expect everything to happen all at once. We are still relatively new to the world of online services, and so we will be adding new features as time goes by.

Most of the changeover will happen seamlessly, without any visible evidence. However, some aspects of this move may take us offline, briefly, over the weekend of January 8-9. Don’t worry, we’ll be back shortly.

By the way, we don’t do this in-house. Our IT needs are provided with knowledgeable service and prompt attention by the Round Mountain Group
( http://www.roundmountaingroup.com ) which has helped us move from being a company with no web presence only a few years ago to a firm that embraces the internet and what it has to offer. If you do not know where to turn for web services, we can recommend the Round Mountain Group without hesitation.