Going to try my hand at making some hatter tools.

[great white]

While waiting for a couple hats to arrive in the mail, I'm already thinking/researching altering them.

I've pretty much decided to cut the brim down a bit on an Akubra Sunny river to make it more general wear than cowboy. So I need a way to cut it down if I decide on that.

A search revealed everything from scissors and chalk, strap cutters, boston brim cutters to ornate rounding jacks. I came across a gents who makes rather nice rounding jacks: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/7118

Darned near furniture bordering on art! I love it. But I don't love the prices....

But upon examining it closer, it's not a complex device. I'm a fairly accomplished woodworker (amongst other skills) and I've got a nice big stash of oak out in the shop waiting for a winter project of some sort. A little bit of brass and I've got everything I need to build one. So that's what I will do!

I'll try to update as I go along. I'm shooting for functional with an eye towards making it look nice although probably not a finely finished as the picture above. Smooth, tastefully stained, varnished and finished. well, maybe a little extra time on the "art" part...

I also am afflicted with a larger head size (7 5/8). Finding "vintage" hats in my size is a bit more difficult. Not impossible, but difficult and it seems to be expensive when I do. I'm not a perfect 7 5/8, I'm somewhere between sizes slightly (like most I'll wager) so it would also be nice to custom fit a bit. It would be nice if I could buy hats in the more common 1 size smaller (or two) and rework them to fit.

Off to google reveals all kinds of hat stretchers from a simple turnbuckle affair to an elaborate aluminum domed electric device. The turnbuckle ones look ill suited to my task (but inexpensive) and the big metal jobbies look up to the task but the price is pretty dear (300+). Then, I come across something simple:

Simple, screw operated and works the whole top at once. It should also let me rework most hats back to an open crown so I can change a hat to a style of my choosing. Or at least practice creating different styles.

No steam or heat in this design, but from what I can gather that's not something a novice should start out with anyways (although I do have a steam machine out in the shop for upholstery work). Wet the hat, use patience and work it over a couple days seems to be the common theme.

Sweat bands and ribbons will be another project to get into later if the stretching tool works. Although on the face of it they don't look to be overly challenging . Just a bit of stitching and fitting. Famous last words maybe?

It's something that I can turn out on the lathe easily in oak and build myself. Essentially, it's just a big newel post split in half and a screw jack installed. Well, a little more than that but nothing challenging for me. So, that's the next project after the rounding jack. Once that's built, I'll keep my eyes open for a couple cheapy felt hats close to my size to experiment on.

I've always been a "tinkerer" and I guess hats are going to be no different. Cars, airplanes, woodworking, building houses, boats, clocks, upholstery, engines, metal working, fiberglass, etc. I can't stay out of the workings for long, I just can't help myself.

I guess it's Dad's lawnmower in pieces all over again......


Hmmmm, those hat blocks look pretty easy to make too......no, no, too much at once. Stay the course. Walk before you run.

I guess it's time to go buy a copy of "from the neck up" and start reading.

 

[great white]

Well, now, this is interesting:

http://ancientpoint.com/inf/110232-wooden_hat_stretcher___new.html

Not much more than a turning and a decent wood clamp....

 

[Lotsahats]

I'd love to get a wooden hat stretcher like your middle pic above.
A

 

[TheDane]

Not much more than a turning and a decent wood clamp....

- but what would I use it for? A topper(?) ... that can't be stretched [huh]

Hats are (and have been for many decades) blocked on a multitude of different blocks with different silhouettes. A full-crown stretcher can come quite handy, if the hat to be stretched is blocked on a block with the same profile as the stretcher. That's unlikely to happen. The vintage one, you show, has even straighter sides than a #52 block - and the new one is probably useful for a thing or two ... I just wonder if hats are involved

I have never seen the full-crown stretcher as particularly useful (especially not the heated alu-versions). You can use the top third or fourth to stretch a hat - but that's about it. In my mind stretchers like these are a lot more useful. A hatter can use them to keep the hat in place during the flanging process. He can also use it on the newly blocked felt-body (without sweatband), if the wearer is between sizes. Hat-wearers can use them to maintain the size of a hat - or in emergency situations to stretch a hat, that is a size too small.

When you stretch a hat, you also stretch the sweatband - but the reed is not stretched. If you stretch a hat, originally made as a size 7 1/2 to 7 5/8, the reed will be appr. 3/8" too short. The sweatband will no longer be "belling" - and you loose some of the most important features of a reeded sweatband. It can be done - I have stretched several a size up, myself - but it will always be a stretched hat. I would never pull a nice vintage fedora over a full-crown stretcher, but only use the top few inches.

These opinions are my own ... other loungers will most likely tell you a different story

 

[Doomstein]

I made my own rounding jack last year. It looks rough, and took a little tweaking, but it cuts brims perfectly.


If you have the money, Mark DeCou with 'Lumber Jocks' is definitely the way to go, you'll save yourself several hours with a wood router breathing in poplar dust. While I couldn't part with the money to buy his most affordable rounding jack, I was able to get some of his basic hatter's hand tools (runner downer, puller downer, foot tolliker) and they work great for me.

 

[great white]

I made my own rounding jack last year. It looks rough, and took a little tweaking, but it cuts brims perfectly.
View attachment 6158

If you have the money, Mark DeCou with 'Lumber Jocks' is definitely the way to go, you'll save yourself several hours with a wood router breathing in poplar dust. While I couldn't part with the money to buy his most affordable rounding jack, I was able to get some of his basic hatter's hand tools (runner downer, puller downer, foot tolliker) and they work great for me.

That looks like you did a fine job to me.

I'm a bit of a woodworker, so the fun is in the build as much as it in the finished product.

Cheers