Muir cap badge

The authentic leather cap from the Muir Cap & Regalia Ltd - and most of its imitators - have a leather exterior over a hard plastic 'fishbone' insert in the front which keeps the face of the cap more-or-less vertical. This leather-and-plastic insert is solid and unbroken except at the seams. If you just plan to wear the cap as is, this construction is not an issue; in fact, it may help preserve the shape of your cap for years.


But if you want to wear a bad ass metal eagle or pair of thunderbolts on the front of your cap, you're going to have to find some way to permanently attach it. That presents a bit of a problem, as neither Muir nor its imitators offer you any cap badge option.


While many regulation-issue police caps include a little tag or one or more grommet-type holes to accommodate cap badge attachments, Muir's leather cap does not. To further complicate the issue, cap badge attachments are not standardized. Some badges have one or more sharp pin posts on the back, others have screw posts and a few even have safety-pin type backings. So it's not a case of one solution fits all.


So what's a leathercop to do? Punch a hole in the cap.


While this seems rather drastic to a leather purist, it is your only option. Punching a hole defaces the leather and inside lining, and runs the risk of rendering the cap unwearable if done badly, but it is the only way to put a badge on a Muir cap.


Please note that this is a one way process: After you've punched a hole in your cap, it's always going to be right there in the front. You'll either have to leave the badge in all the time, replace it with a badge that has similar posts - or buy a new cap.

Leather shops might do the deed for you if you bought the cap and badge at the same store, or if you just bring in the badge to the shop where you bought the cap. Or you can pierce your cap yourself.

If you choose to add the badge yourself, proceed with extreme caution.


Check the cap badge position carefully several times and note where the posts touch the cap. Check your post positions again. You've got no second chances here. Gently press the posts into the leather firmly enough to leave a slight impression in the leather (or consider marking the post positions with chalk or other non-permanent maker).


Carefully drill, pierce, punch, puncture or screw the necessary holes (usually one, but sometimes two). Proceed with caution, as you can tear either the outside leather or inside lining or shatter the interior plastic if you apply too much pressure or go too fast.


Hand drilling or punching is recommended, as you have finer control over the process. You will find little pieces of stuffing and plastic particles as you go. This is normal and not something to be concerned about.


I successfully penetrated the peak of my new Muir cap with two screws - first a sharp-pointed small one to make an initial opening, then a slightly larger screw to make the virgin leather hole just barely big enough to take the post at the centre back of the cap badge (the open-winged brass eagle had a single screw post in the centre and two 'pins' that bite into the leather and hold it in a fixed position). The diameter of the larger screw should be just a fraction less than the diameter of the badge post: if the hole is too big, the nut won't hold the post in place.


Was afraid of ruining the cap before I ever wore it out, but the small screw/larger screw tag team worked - sort of like piercing and then stretching a piercing. Makes sense: leather is, after all, just skin.


Initial efforts to penetrate almost wrapped the leather around the screw like spaghetti and I was afraid I was going to rip it, but gently screwing in and out a few times (and offering it another drink and telling it that it was the hottest leathercop headgear in the room) finally got the damn thing to open up and take it. If I was going to advise someone else doing the same thing, I might suggest putting a little baby oil or lube on the end of the screw to make things a little more slippery. I could then force the larger screw into the opening to make the hole big enough to take the badge post.


I pulled out the screw, offered the cap some poppers, and with a hard continuous shove forced the badge post home without a single protest from the passive leather headgear. Oh yah, that Muir cap wanted to take that post. Bad. I slid the post all the way in, then carefully felt around in the inside lining with my fingers for the free end of the post, slapped an oversized washer on the damn thing to give it more secure backing, then screwed down the back piece of the post as tightly as I could while the newly-pierced cap squealed like a pig, forcing the two sharp prongs on the eagle's wings into the cap's leather face and locking the badge permanently in place.

The Muir cap and I then sucked on a post-penetration 'gar in a mirror. :)


Let me know if you found this information useful.

Sarge D