Bordure

Like any ordinary, it may be smooth or subjected to any of the lines of variation; it may form a field for other charges.

Since it is very often used for cadency rather than to distinguish between original coats, the bordure is not strictly held to the rule of tincture; for example, many cadets of the French royal house, for example, bore red bordures on a blue field.

Rarely a bordure is of the same tincture as the field on which it lies; in this case the term "embordured" is employed.

In French heraldry, the diminutive of the bordure, one quarter of its width, is the filière.

[3] In English-language heraldry, the term a bordure diminished is occasionally employed – as in 'Or; a diminished bordure vert; on a chief indented azure, two fleurs de lys or' (127th Field Artillery, US), and 'Or; representations of two San human figures of red ochre, statant respectant, the hands of the innermost arms clasped, with upper arm, inner wrist, waist and knee bands argent; and a narrow border of red ochre' (Republic of South Africa).