Blackinton Commendation Bars

Commendation Bar

How Do You Start A Commendation Bar Program?


Police and fire departments often ask how to start a Commendation Bar Program.   While it may be true that the Military has guidelines, citation standards differ between municipalities and communities.   We offer 1,000’s of rich enamel commendation bars in many sizes and designs, which can make decision making tough.

So what steps should you take to start a program?  Below is a great place to start.

Consider a Pre-Defined Commendation Bar Program


The first step is to determine which skills and honors you plan to recognize. For example years of service, fire fighter of the year, valor etc.  If you are uncertain consider starting with one of our four pre-defined programs.  For example: Fire Services, Law Enforcement Services, Law Enforcement Skills, and Military.

Program Details

The program’s contain our most popular Commendation bars.  Additionally they come in the most popular size bar we offer (1 3/8″ x 3/8″), and they come with our commendation bar slide holders.  The bars ship within 5 business days, since they are part of our in-stock program .  Since they are stock items they are only available in gold and silver and the enamel colors shown.   Click Here to view the bars in each program.

Find Commendation Bars That Meets Your Needs


Again if you know which honors you would like to reward you are off to a good start.  Finding bars that meet your needs will be easy, because we manufacture 1,000’s of commendation bars.  Commendation bars can be personalized with the enamel colors of your choice!

First click here to visit our products page.  Second, use our dynamic menu to narrow down your search. For example, pick the size bar you want, the category; i.e., EMT, and maybe the number of sections.  Or you can search by keyword.  Most importantly decide what size bars you would like to offer.  The most popular sizes we offer are 1 3/8″ x3/8″ and 1 3/8″ x 5/16″.

CAB Slide Holders


Next important thing to consider is how the bars will look on your uniform.  Since you are working with Blackinton, your commendation bars are made in the US at the highest quality standards.  So they will be impeccable.

Generally each bar comes with two nails, so that means two holes in your uniform.  Not only is it two holes, its two clutch backs.  If you have more than one commendation bar you must also try and line each bar up next to each other.

Recognizing lining up bars would be difficult our engineers went to work. The engineers developed Commendation Award Bar (CAB) slide holders.  First of its kind in the industry.

The benefits are below:

  1. Holders can hold 1 bar or up to 15 bars, so rather than 30 holes in your uniform you have 3!  To view the configurations Click Here
  2. Our holders hold our most popular size bars (1 3/8″ x 3/8″ or 1 3/8″ x 5/16″)
  3. Commendation bars can be exchanged easily by sliding in and out of holder
  4. Because the holders are soldered together all the bars will be straight not crooked on your uniform

commendation bar holder

Custom Engraved Commendation Bars


Still looking for the perfect bar?  We have two custom commendation bar options.  First imagine a custom commendation bar without the cost of a die.  We are the first, and only, manufacturer to offer Commendation Bars with engraving.  Like all our bars these bars can have the enamel color of your choice.  Also, there are NO minimums!  So you can order one custom bar if you would like!

Customize With Lettering And/Or Symbols

Above all the bars can be engraved with text and / or one of our many standard images. To see our images click here and click on a bar to view its specs.  Below the enamel colors are all our symbols / images.  In addition to picking enamel color(s) for the bar, you can pick enamel color for the engraved area.  Or the engraved area can be the finish of the bar.

Take a look at our video on the left.

Custom Die Struck Commendation Bars


If you can not find a commendation bar to meet your needs we can create a custom bar.  Although our commendation bars with engraving are a great option we recommend custom die struck bars when you need more than 27 bars of the same design, or you plan to place multiple orders.  To explain, a die struck bar will always look the same, and after 27 pieces a die struck bar is a more economical approach.

The sky is the limit with our custom die struck commendation bars.  Get started today by contacting our sales group or an authorized dealer.

Below are some examples of our custom commendation bars.

BostonMarathon Commendation Bar Mexico Commendation Bar DRE Commendation Bar