Beret shapeing

-boris

Anyone have any good tips on the art that is beret shaping?
Anyone know anything about the so called "matress method" of shaping your beret?

cork1

soak your beret with hot water. take it out and put it on your head while its wet. grab the side of it and pull it down over your right ear.get the shape you want and then take it off and fold it. next put it under your matress and leave it there for a week or so.

Hard Larry

Doesn't say much for your NCOs if your asking on an internet forum.

iceage

Ahh the ancient and hidden art of beret shaping, passed down from man to boy.:) A couple of different ways are known my personnal favorite take said new beret soak in hot water, wring it out. plunge into cold water, repeat(hopefully causing some shrinkage) wring it out place on bonce, position cap badge over left eye pull the excess and wing down toward right ear, flatten and give the stuff behind the cap badge a bit of a jaunty edge. Carefully take it off and let it dry out shaped as so.

Works everytime.:)

arybvtcw0eolkf

Hard Larry wrote: »

Doesn't say much for your NCOs if your asking on an internet forum.

I remember when I was a recruit and our NCO's telling us how to iron our OVERALL's!. And telling the FCA lads to show the complete noobs how to bull boots.

Since most of the overall were too big for us (we were all 18yr skinny little runts) the NCO's told us to BOIL our overall's (to shrink 'em) and "bull" our boots.

One recruit came in on the Monday morning looking for new boots - He told his mammy to BOIL is boots and bull his uniform - god only knows what would have happened to the overall's if he'd lived on a farm!.

Company Sgt

do what has been said when ya have the shape iron the bo***x out of it make sure to put towel over it and leave it set then

ex_infantry man

and whatever you do "DONT" shave the bloody thing like a few clever clogs in my platoon decided to do and ended up shaving little holes on the top of the beret

Company Sgt

ex_infantry man wrote: »

and whatever you do "DONT" shave the bloody thing like a few clever clogs in my platoon decided to do and ended up shaving little holes on the top of the beret

ya have ta shave your beret especially if your in recruit training, thats because they were never shown properly

samhail

it was suggested to us to cut out the lining from the inside of the beret, if it was too tight.
official word would be not to dare deface military equipment.

iceage

Oooo, I never took the lining out, it just goes to ratsh!t if you do, looks cr&p.
Soakage, wringage, wearage, till it dries out on your head.

ex_infantry man

Company Sgt wrote: »

ya have ta shave your beret especially if your in recruit training, thats because they were never shown properly

no ya don,t i never did and never had any problems on inspection always used tape to take the little bobbles of fluff off

steyr fan

Someone explain why you would 'shave' your beret? Surely, somebody should have typed 'shape'? No? Yes? No?

iceage

Its to take the wooly fluffy look off a newly issued beret, never found the need myself.;)

steyr fan

iceage wrote: »

Its to take the wooly fluffy look off a newly issued beret, never found the need myself.;)

Me neither.

Local-womanizer

Never shaved my beret yet people always think i did.Alot of people did shave mind you.

Company Sgt

thats the proper way if your officers and ncos do it and tell you your gonna do it maybe not in fca recruit training (mickey Mouse) but in the real mccoy ya will do wat they say:pac:

ex_infantry man

Company Sgt wrote: »

thats the proper way if your officers and ncos do it and tell you your gonna do it maybe not in fca recruit training (mickey Mouse) but in the real mccoy ya will do wat they say:pac:

our DS never once told us we have to shave our beret and mind ya they did,nt even show us how to put our cefo or cemo together that was a task that was left to me as it was my second time goin through recruits lazy NCO,s

Company Sgt

ex_infantry man wrote: »

our DS never once told us we have to shave our beret and mind ya they did,nt even show us how to put our cefo or cemo together that was a task that was left to me as it was my second time goin through recruits lazy NCO,s

well ya werent trained rite and ya should have been shown how long ago is that pal

-boris

Right.Thanks for all the help guys.I think i'll try iceages method and hopefully end up with something that resembles a beret.just one final question,i've heard that ironing the beret can cause it to turn yellow,anyone know wether thid is the case or not from experience,is it advisible to attempt to iron it to hold the shape or not?

-boris

also should the water be boiling or luke warm?

minidazzler

Boiling water if the Beret is too big for your head.

There is no real need to Iron it, however it will flatten the Beret and all the fibre's. If you are doing it Iceage's way there is no folding though, so don't Iron it, or it will lose it's shape.

You may need to carry out the process numerous times to get the Beret right.

-boris

ok,boiling water it is then!is it ok to leave the badge on?

minidazzler

Ya, the badge will be OK.

iceage

Back in! yeah hot water if you need to shrink it, you don't want to shrink the band though, keep that out of the water...(seen some absolute pigs ears made of a perfectly good beret where the wearer would have to split the band to make it fit!)

Just as an afterthought....I take it your in the RDF, have you not been shown by your NCO's? bit of a surprise if you haven't...

-boris

ya rdf.We just told to see to it that our berets were folded in the correct manner for the next parade night!it was sort of up to ourselves to use our initiative and do it!Just tried it there and i must say its a far cry from the bakers cap it once was.Is there any trick of keeping it that way?or just repeated plunging and and pulling etc?

Local-womanizer

-boris wrote: »

ya rdf.We just told to see to it that our berets were folded in the correct manner for the next parade night!it was sort of up to ourselves to use our initiative and do it!Just tried it there and i must say its a far cry from the bakers cap it once was.Is there any trick of keeping it that way?or just repeated plunging and and pulling etc?

Put it under the mattress folded for a day or two.If it dosent take shape,pluinge again and shape again.

Worked for me but it took ages to get it right.

-boris

Local-womanizer wrote: »

Put it under the mattress folded for a day or two.If it dosent take shape,pluinge again and shape again.

Worked for me but it took ages to get it right.

what way is it folded?length ways or width,badge facing up or down etc?

iceage

The soaking is only really required the once, once it starts to shape up you can literally flatten it or fold it, when you wear it again you should be able to shape it again to your bonce dry.

Your training NCO's need a kick up the arse, bad show expecting you to know it all, this is basics and should at least be shown to you how to sort your kit out. There will be the usual inspection next time, you should get away with it nicely.

When they ask you have you done this before, or who showed you how tell them all on the Military thread at Boards said hello.:rolleyes:


Lengthways on the folding, badge down.

-boris

Will do!Thanks for the help.

Local-womanizer

iceage wrote: »

The soaking is only really required the once, once it starts to shape up you can literally flatten it or fold it, when you wear it again you should be able to shape it again to your bonce dry.

Your training NCO's need a kick up the arse, bad show expecting you to know it all, this is basics and should at least be shown to you how to sort your kit out. There will be the usual inspection next time, you should get away with it nicely.

When they ask you have you done this before, or who showed you how tell them all on the Military thread at Boards said hello.:rolleyes:


Lengthways on the folding, badge down.

True about the NCOs!Cant believe they let you figure it out for yourselfs.Ours would make sure ours where right.

All that Iceage posted is basically it.It takes time to get it comfortable but you will get it in the end,

greenarrow

-boris...
That's a bit of a poor show from your NCOs. They should have taken the ten seconds or so to show you how to do that. Its so simple to do.:rolleyes:

That's a poor show from them. Either they can't be bothered or they don't know how to look after their troops. I find that very unacceptable, especially as you seem to be switched on.

But as regards shaving berets and not shaving them, the reason some have to be shaved and some don't is down to manufacturing. Some are made by Kangol (v. Gucci indeed) and some by other companies. Its the luck of the draw which kind you get. I am not sure which kind require the maintennance either.