ANOTHER person makes his own hat

[Retro Rob]

Holy Crap thats nice ! Time to quit the day job !

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Oh My Lord!

That is absolutely fantastic! I'm proud of myself when I can get a good teapot steam crease in an existing hat, and you go and do this! Tremendous.
I looked at the photos, I smiled, I wept, I soiled my armor...
Gene

 

[Mark Brody]

My highest compliments, Mark!

You are strongly arousing my sense of if-you-want-something-done-right-do-it-yourself, so please dissuade me from doing this myself by addressing the following:

The total amount of money you spent on materials and equipment, including items most folks would not already have lying around the house or garage.

The total amount of time you put into the project.

I'm counting on both of these metrics to be outrageously steep!

I'll do my best (for the rest of you that might be interested in such a venture, take the following as lessons learned.

I enjoyed every step of this, including making the block myself. Unfortunately, making the block out of pine cost me. There was a huge gap in time from when I made the block to when I made the hat. In that time, the pine soaked up the humidity and changed shape. At this point, I no longer had access to the woodshop that I used to originally create the block, so I had to use a regular belt sander. More time passed before I decided to make the hat. It happened again. This time, I didn't even have sandpaper (and certainly not the budget to go buy a bunch of power tools. I got a rubber sanding block and some sandpaper and fixed the block by hand. Total money spent making the block, about $20 (not so bad). Total time spend making, fixing, and refixing the block, about 30 hours (bit of a pain, considering it only took about 3-4 hours to make in the first place). Lesson learned - don't use pine. Next time I'll get poplar or some other hardwood.

To make matters worse, since I had to shave off so much of the block to smooth it out, the hat doesn't really even fit that well. No worries, however. It's not so bad I can't wear it (see picture), and I've got a hat stretcher in the mail, so that'll do fine. It would have been nice if the hat fit perfectly the moment I put it on, though.

Obviously, you can avoid all the pain above by either doing it right the first time, or dropping the extra hundred or so dollars for a hat block. When it comes to making the hat, it was honestly no more difficult that I expected. I'm not gonna say it wasn't a lot of work (I started a little before lunch and finished around 3 AM), but it wasn't stressful work. All in all, I spent about $170 to make this first hat. To make another, it'd only cost an additional $70.

 

[Stoney]

One thing to bear in mind about hat blocks , if you're making one. Make sure you size the block a little bigger than your head to allow room for the sweatband. Otherwise the hat will fit fine, [huh] uh until the sweatband is installed. Then it will be too tight.

 

[Mark Brody]

That's something that I DID think to do. I'd tested it out on an older hat of mine, and without the liner, the block made the hat just a little loose on me - perfect. Than the block had to go do what it did. [huh]

 

[Mark Brody]

I read through the block-making thing, and while I admire the results, I think it would be easier for me to use my lathe and then glue a piece in the middle. I don't like sanding!

Anyway... my previous statement stands... great job on your hat!!!

Anj

I meant to post this in my rant, but I got carried away and forgot. The lathe idea would be easier, but it wouldn't work quite right. You can see the difference in the pictures below. One would fit into a flange, but the lathe-made block never would.

 

[airforceindy]

Brilliant posting!!! I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now, but $160 for a custom-sized block from Lamode simply did NOT sound very enticing! I'll be giving this a try, to be sure...

Regards, Andy

 

[AdmiralTofu]

Brody.. You have been busy as a beaver.. haven't you?

Don't say that -- somebody here will turn him into a hat! lol

Brody, that is truly astounding. All these new-hat projects here are starting to make me want to try my hand at making one myself.

I love that liner logo! I know it's the same as your forum avatar, but the implementation is great, with that single-color white on the red diamond. It's great!

-Tofu

 

[citRon]

Outstanding!! What color is that hat? -I know it's brown, but what is the name of the color? Your hat looks much better than my Federation Deluxe!

 

[Marlowe P.]

Great Hat!

 

[Stoney]

Also I've been digging through the forum looking for info on sweatbands and found a post from Sharptoys that mentioned Fern Thatcher Co. as a supplier of Roan Reeded sweatbands. I called (816-238-8720) and purchased eight of them in the antique color. They were a little under $3.00 each. I'll post back when they come in and let you know what I think of them.

I just received the sweatbands from Fern Thatcher today. They are almost identical to the ones from hatsupply.com . The only difference I can see is the color of the leather being a shade or two lighter. Otherwise the same sweatband. However they are much less expensive than those from hatsupply.com. My guess is Fern Thatcher Co is where Leko buys hers.

I'm still looking for better quality replacement sweatbands. To be fair about the quality of these, they appear to be the same as those used in the new Dobbs hats. Not the best, but not the worst either.

 

[Mark Brody]

Yeah, since the sweats didn't even really cost much, it's not big deal if I have to replace it in a year or two, but I'd obviously rather not have to. Thanks for the tip, though.

The color was called "chocolate". I think my eyes have been playing tricks on me the past couple days, but I'm pretty sure the hat is darker than the pictures actually show. I wrote a pretty lengthy thread about how I made it at COW.

http://www.indygear.com/cow/viewtopic.php?p=383141#383141

 

[Spatterdash]

Ya know, aaronhats.com (getahaton.com - under accessories) offers sweatbands, roan leather for $10. I'm not sure if they're also from the source Leko uses.

One thing about Leko (hatsupply.com), she really wants to help and expand her line (I think she's a little surprised at the number of men starting to call her for equipment) and she offers ferrules for the sweatbands, something I've never heard of until recently. I had no idea what a ferrule was, and I'm still trying to figure out if they're required or just a nice option.

The other thing about these sweatbands... folks say they feel a little cheap. Is this something that could be solved simply by given the sweatband a quick wipe of lexol to wake up the leather?

 

[Mark G]

No, I don't think Lexol would work. It's the quality of the leather. I've made my own, but even finding the right leather is tough.

Great hat Mark. Very impressive.

 

[Roadrunner]

I just read your tutorial over there, thank you for writing it. You've got me wanting to go make a block. My account at COW isn't activated yet, but I thought you'd like to know a good source for fine grit paper. Wal-Mart and automotive stores carry paper up to 2000 grit, it's used for body work on cars. It's not a place people usually think to look for sandpaper. Thanks again for the tutorial, it's been bookmarked and I might actually act on it someday.

 

[Mark Brody]

Looks like I'm going to Wal-Mart today! Thanks for the tip.

 

[Stoney]

I picked up a plank of poplar last night. We'll see how it goes.

lol

 

[alphy27]

Bravo!!

A+ job Mark. That's a terrific looking lid.