How to break a visor cap?

[Koguryo9]

Like many WWII German officers and soldiers, I like the "jaunty" look of the visors. I have been wanting to try to break a visor to give it the right look. I finally tried today and found out it is not so easy at all. All I did was pressing on the front crown. It did not look right at all, over time it sort of "restored" to the off-the-mutzenfabrik look. Has anybody tried or know the right techniques to break a visor to get the correct jaunty look?


My experiment, before shot (1)



Before shot (2)



After shot (1)




After shot (2)



After shot (3)

[jarkis88]

What are you Doing

[Koguryo9]

Breaking it, of course, jarkis, unsuccessfully though.

[jarkis88]

You can do wherever you want but my personally I like to live alone an item that is been like that for 65 plus years , I don't know if's just me or what , but anyway good luck

[jarkis88]

Can you post more pictures of your cap , interior , insignias etc.

[Koguryo9]

Jarkis, the cap is a well-made Janke with repro insignia (I thought the eagle was original, turns out it is also repro), that's why I would try breaking it. Trust me, I would never touch anything more than 65 years old!

[jarkis88]

that is why I ask for the pictures .

[stonemint]

Koguryo, you almost gave me a heartattack when I saw the title of your thread-- I thought you were trying to "break" that stonemint teller visor I sold you!

[jarkis88]

[Koguryo9]

Nah, Chris, if anybody wants to break that "stonemint" Heer NCO visor, I will break him!

[Mike Dalton]

Yeah, wise guy, you can do whatever you want to caps you own. Who are we to advise against. Just that once a 'vulcan fibre' visor is done broke, it is broke. And I don't think it is giving you the look you are trying to mimic. I don't feel that German soldiers attempted to get the 'jaunty' look by bending thier caps on purpose. Storage and stowage and wear caused them to get the '50 mission' look. 'Crushers' were a whole different animal.

[Koguryo9]

Mike, this is the look that I want, I don't think storage made them look like this, and I certainly don't think they looked like this when these caps were purchased.

[jarkis88]

Ok , I'm giving you a little tip le't see if this works , spray the under sides of the visor cap with water a lot of water then hold the cap in the shape you want with tape and then le't the cap dry for 24 Hrs , le't see the results good luck

[Koguryo9]

Thanks jarkis, what do you mean by under side? The overhang you mean or the liner? Anyway it sounds like a challenging task , I shall try and see...

[Koguryo9]

From Gary Wilkins' book, page 40, Breaking a Cap: "The usual way of doing this was by first pulling out of the shaping ring/wire in the crown and then bending or breaking the Stütze sewn into the front of the cap."