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Berets and How to Form Them

  • Thread starter Thread starter PTE Gruending
  • Start date Start date
Pencil Tech said:
As long as you don't cut where the cardboard is attached at the bottom, it won't flop over. It's when the cardboard is detached from the sweatband that you get that happening.
 
A quick story so no one does anything as stupid as I did.

I was issued a beret that seemed way too big at the time but I was assured by the leading seaman it fit great.

My buddies told me otherwise so they took it from me, cut the liner out, made me shave it, soak it hot water, and then slapped it on my head. All of that went great except that the flap was still down over my ear.

I decided I needed to shrink it. I threw it in the dryer on hot hot and took it out. The only real difference was that the leather band seemed awfuly tight. This is where I get stupid.

After getting frustrated over it I soaked it for a couple minutes in a sink of steaming water, then put it on a plate and put a big plastic microwave cover over it. Into the microwave it went. I set the microwave for 5 minutes, figuring I could judge how much it would shrink after that and walked away. After two minutes I heard a crackling sound and ran into the kitchen to find steam pouring out of the microwave. I freaked and opened the door, catching it in the face and burned myself taking the beret out. To my horror I saw the leather band was about 6 inches across now. I grabbed it to stretch it and burned myself again. I grabbed some oven mitts and started stretching it back out. I figured I should get it on my head so I threw it on without realizing the material was still soaked with now boiling water. Can't say that felt too great. I spent the last couple days trying to keep the leather from shrinking smaller and smaller as it dries. Today when I got home from school I stretched it and heard a 'crack'. The leather split, but thankfuly it's under the flap where it can't be seen. I know I will catch hell for it anyway. At least my beret is no longer too big, however I am remided of my own stupidity every time I wear it because it squeezes the crap out of my head.

In conclusion, if you need to shrink a beret a bit, stick with the dryer.
 
I must be the only guy in the CF who still has the liner in his beret...

I have only had problems once with the liner in my beret, and that beret had a really small "flap" over the ear. It used to sit square on top of my head like a green personal-pan pizza. So I did rip the liner out of it...and it looked like a green crêpe.

And those "belgique"-style berets rock -- my last dress beret was picked up at the C&E Museum at K'town.

And yeah, I did get the last laugh on know-it-all recruits on BRT who "innocently" asked ol' Sarge if he has his liner...
 
I still have my liner....

My beret doesn't look great, but its not completely silly.  No one has ever had a serious complaint about it.
 
Just pull the liner up from being "in the Flap"just before placing on your head.

When you store it, roll it up starting with the flap, then roll from the opposite side as well, keeping your cap badge facing out and in good order.  Tuck it into a snung, not tight pocket.
 
None of you guys shaved your berets?

That thins it right out and you can shape it how you want.  Also gives it the used look.

 
I am wondering what is the official way to wear a beret as it has been sometime since I wore one, I noticed there are 4 main styles, the "peaked" capbadge with the material pressed down behind the capbadge and most times forming a trench along the left side, the "flat" style, where the capbadge is flat against the head and sorta pointed skyward, the "foldover" similar in appearance to the peaked except the material is not tucked behind the badge, and finally the "Chef" which looks like an aborted fold over due the wearer having a beret that is too small, or they left the liner in.  Personally I like being "different" with my elephant slipper.
 
Hahaha a good survey of beret styles. Mine is quite a grotesque "foldover" but thats just because when I went in to get kitted up I had absolutely no clue how it was supposed to fit, and neither did the Cpl I guess, or maybe he just didn't care lol... My unit generally wears there berets in the flat style, high in the back and pretty much sitting ontop of the eyebrows in the front. They don't look much like berets when worn like that, but they still look damn good in my opinion. I'm wondering how far over everyone wears their capbadge, I put mine on with the ties in the back at exactly 6 o'clock (center of the back of my head) but I seem some wearing the cap badge almost in the center, and others wayyy off to the side. So whats the general consensus?
 
The badge should be centered over the left eye, the strings don't matter, because they should be tucked in.
Good luck with that.
 
Funkmeister said:
I must be the only guy in the CF who still has the liner in his beret...

I have my liner still.  All it does is creates minor wrinkles on the left side when worn due to the inconsistent lengths between the two types of material.  The pros of having a liner is that when you set your beret on a table top, it's still formed.  I have a "trench" and I have a liner.
 
My liner is still in too and the beret stays in perfect shape. I actually find the liner comfortable.
 
I think the best kind of barets are the belgians, i like when they are pulled back with no "trench" and they rarely ever have wrinkles, even with the liner in.
 
I don't know whether this helps or not.. But I'm storing my beret formed ontop of my helmet (I don't have any burlap on it yet) so that it can sit on a head-like shape at least for the majority of time it's not used
 
not as big as my helmet if that's what you're thinking. It just sits on top... I can't sink it onto the helmet
 
It has occured to me that I have never seen a picture of a British soldier with a trench in his beret.  That's it, we're gonna don forage caps.  How come Logistik Unicorp doesn't have any army caps yet airforce have them.  It'd make sense for them to have green ones since some army units still wear caps but none can my purchased.  WHY???
 
It has occured to me that I have never seen a picture of a British soldier with a trench in his beret.  That's it, we're gonna don forage caps.  How come Logistik Unicorp doesn't have any army caps yet airforce have them.  It'd make sense for them to have green ones since some army units still wear caps but none can my purchased.  WHY??? 

oh oh,

Not forage caps again.  Yes, we fly boys have them, but apparently tthe Army did away with them somtime ago.

http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/34700.0.html


cheers

PV

 
Hey,

I was just issued my kit and I have my beret and my triforce badge. Now, on the package it says that the triforce badge is head dress so it goes on my beret. I have found the part where the badges obviously go on my beret but I don't know how to get it on there. On the back of my badge is a sorta claspy, slide on thing I'm sure you know what I mean (I hope). So how do I get that on there? Also, how far down do I pull the beret on my head, how many fingers above my eyebrow? And is the cap badge centered right in the middle or off the the side? Any help would be appreciated.
 
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