New Jigsaw pants

These came in the mail the other day. 62 dated and Marine issue I believe. Still smelled like the dye from the factory!

Nice, navy-marked M58 pattern gear isn't at all common.

That's what I was thinking too. From what Steve was telling me, the Jigsaw stuff is a little harder to find because of the reduction of Belgian forces at the time and very few troops were issued camo (airborne, marines etc.).

Nice find indeed! The Jigsaw stuff made in 1958 is pretty common, though getting harder to find. It's the post 1958 stuff, but still in the 1958 pattern, that is not easily found. Navy contract is even more difficult. So you got yourself a pretty rare piece.

Problem with things like this is "rare" adds very little value. It's the sort of obscure kinda of thing that only a few people (like me!) care about.

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:Nice find indeed!  The Jigsaw stuff made in 1958 is pretty common, though getting harder to find.  It's the post 1958 stuff, but still in the 1958 pattern, that is not easily found.  Navy contract is even more difficult.  So you got yourself a pretty rare piece.

Problem with things like this is "rare" adds very little value.  It's the sort of obscure kinda of thing that only a few people (like me!) care about.

Steve

From what I understand, the post 1958 dated stuff (primarily 60's dates) is really low number stuff (500-2000 sets per year) and completely ceasing in 1965 until the 80's except for special issue (airborne, commandos, etc). Its sad that most of this stuff is being sold as work/hunting wear because it truly is beautiful stuff and very unique considering most of the world was in OD at the time. The pants seem to be easier to find.

Also, a lot of the stuff was also sold off after the introduction of the M65 uniforms came out.

I started collecting in the early 1990s and it was very difficult to get anything in Belgian camo. So if they did any large scale surplussing in the 1960s then few examples survived.

I can believe the low production numbers for the 1960s. I've got a handful of examples myself, but compared to how many 1958 pieces I've had in my hands (not to mention seen for sale) it's a very small number.

Steve

They were still used into the 80's for special use till the new jigsaw and alpenflauge uniforms came out I believe, but I think 58 and 59 was when large scale production was in effect. I still dream of finding a set of the 1965 daited Jigsaws. Last of the production in the 58 pattern.