Saturday, September 10, 2011

Fist Thing First! How do you tie your ranger hat (flat hat)?


The hat band should read USNPS. You want the "N" centered in the front of the hat and the knot you will be on your left.  Wrap the band around the hat in this configuration to get started.


Tying the Knot
The following instructions correspond to the diagram above, with "Ring A" being the loop where the tie strap is attached (left on the above diagram) and "Ring B" being the open loop (right on the above diagram). 
 
5.  Pull the strap through the underside of Ring B, then back through over the top of Ring A so that it emerges to the brim side of the underside of Ring A.  Pull it as tight as you can and don't let go!  You need to keep tension on the tie strap through the entire procedure or else it will come apart.
 
6.  While keeping the strap as tight as you can at Ring A, loop the strap around what you did in step 1; keep the loops parallel to each other (like a spring) and somewhat loose because you will need to thread the end of the strap back through them.  Depending on the size of your hat, you will have a varying number of coils.  Make sure the coils completely cover the horizontal passes of the strap from step 1.
 
7.  The last coil needs to pass through the underside of Ring B and then - here's the tricky part - you must pass the free end of the strap through the coils.  Once you've got it through, keep tension on the free end of the strap and twist the coils to tighten them.  If you have done the knot properly at this point, the hat band should be snug around the hat.
 
8. Trim any remanding strap to create a clean look band.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the great directions. My one addition is DO NOT CLIP THE REMAINING END! If you do this you will never be able to redo the hat band or use it on another hat. It is very easy to tuck the excess back through ring A and then between the ends of the main hat band. You won’t see a thing and then your hat band isn’t stuck.

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