Why are there so many diagonal cuts?

[HG-MILW]

I do Military Funeral Honors full time, and I have come across 5 seriously diagonal cut flags in the last 2 months. When we fold it in half and pull it tight, the bottom stripe pulls back 5-6" farther than the top stripe.

I could only see a bit of the manufacturer on the tag when I closed the one today - Hodge...something. Does anyone know the common manufacturers of funeral flags? Don't they have quality control standards?????

[Peter Ansoff]

Greetings, HG!

I've noticed this phenomenon as well, not just with US flags but also with others. I store my flags by folding vertically in fourths and hanging them from clip-hangers. Very often, the bottom fly corner doesn't line up with the top fly corner, even when the hoist corners are carefully aligned.

I've always assumed that it was something to do with the way the fabric and stitching stretched when in service, rather than manufacturing defects. However, it's interesting that you are seeing the same thing with brand-new flags. Maybe some of our collectors here could shed some more light on this?

Peter Ansoff

[Robin Hickman]

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By "diagonal cut" do you mean, "bias cut" or "bias ply"?

"High end" clothing manufacturers (ie. "haute couture") use "bias cut" cloth all the time as it seems to "hang better" than "regular" cut cloth. "Regular" cut cloth is cut in line with, or at right angles to, the warp & weft of the fabric. In line or at right angles as in "north-south" or "east-west" as in the plus symbol (+). Bias cut (AKA: "cut on the bias") is more of a 45 degree "angle" (diagonal) like "northwest-southeast" or "northeast-southwest", as in the letter "X".

Bias cut garments are MUCH more difficult to sew/hem than regular cut.

IF there are any Flag Manufacturers that ARE using the "bias cut" method, I have not heard of it. IF any of them are using the "bias cut" method, they would probably have to have a pretty compelling reason to do so in order to off-set the higher cost involved with the higher degree of sewing/hemming difficulty.

Perhaps longer lasting Flags???


I always assumed that the "problem" of mis-matched Flag hems had to do with the effects of gravity while the Flags were flying.


If by "diagonal cut" you mean something else entirely different from "bias cut", then I am absolutely clueless !!!


Robin Hickman
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