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Hat Jack

Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
Is it my imagination or does a Hat Jack tend to stretch a hat into a long oval. I swear my hat that was just stretched feels TOTALLY DIFFERENT! I don't mean too big different, I mean weird different

Since I am a long oval I use my hat jack to convert standard ovals. I guess I never considered what you standard oval folks get by using them.


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Messages
12,021
Location
East of Los Angeles
Is it my imagination or does a Hat Jack tend to stretch a hat into a long oval. I swear my hat that was just stretched feels TOTALLY DIFFERENT! I don't mean too big different, I mean weird different
I've only used mine to stretch my hats a little bit and didn't notice any changes to their ovality. But then, my head appears to be slightly wider than a regular oval so when I put my hats on it pushes at the sides of the crown, which in turn tends to pull the front and back slightly inward again, negating any ovality changes the hat jack might have made.
 
Messages
12,021
Location
East of Los Angeles
Bingo! Doesn't take a PE to figure out a hat jack only works in two opposing directions, not four or six.
Not necessarily. Apparently, someone makes a four-way hat jack:

dEWyBPV.jpg


According to the websites it's limited to sizes ranging from 6-5/8 to 7-1/2 and costs considerably more than a regular hat jack ($100 and up), but if someone had a lot of hats in smaller sizes that needed to be stretched in four directions regularly it might be worth the investment.
 
Messages
18,222
Not necessarily. Apparently, someone makes a four-way hat jack:

dEWyBPV.jpg


According to the websites it's limited to sizes ranging from 6-5/8 to 7-1/2 and costs considerably more than a regular hat jack ($100 and up), but if someone had a lot of hats in smaller sizes that needed to be stretched in four directions regularly it might be worth the investment.
It has been discussed here before. Not many spend $125.00 for a hat Jack.
 

Steinbockhase

Practically Family
Messages
514
Location
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Not necessarily. Apparently, someone makes a four-way hat jack:

dEWyBPV.jpg


According to the websites it's limited to sizes ranging from 6-5/8 to 7-1/2 and costs considerably more than a regular hat jack ($100 and up), but if someone had a lot of hats in smaller sizes that needed to be stretched in four directions regularly it might be worth the investment.

This hat jack looks interesting. I searched www, but google can't find it. How about sharing the link to the website.

Update: I found it using "4 way hat stretcher"
 

milandro

A-List Customer
Messages
421
Location
The Netherlands
I wish it went bigger than 7-1/2, though!

Maybe Mr. Woodtroll is still around after a year or so, but I was wondering if it would be possible to put some form of elastic spacer around this 4 ways jack to make it fit a larger size than 7 1/2? maybe this idea could help him.

On hat jacks and expanding in a more circular way.

Expanding in 4 directions instead of two would of course make more of a round shape than a 2 directions could. It may not be ideal but it vastly improves even on traditional wooden or aluminum hat stretchers which of course move in two opposite directions.

Now and mind you, what follows is only a speculation ( I don’t know if such thing exists, therefore, please, go gently on me I only mean this in a constructive way and don’t need been given any flack)

Fo metal tubing (which of course requires a force way higher than any hat would or should) they have 6 petals hydraulic expanders. A similar approach (but without the hydraulic part) may be used for hats and there would be no need of making the petals of heavy metal but dense plastic or wood (for a more traditional look) would work very well. Again this is just a thought I am not aiming at suggesting you use such a (expensive and powerful) machine on hats.
 
Messages
18,476
Location
Nederland
Maybe Mr. Woodtroll is still around after a year or so, but I was wondering if it would be possible to put some form of elastic spacer around this 4 ways jack to make it fit a larger size than 7 1/2? maybe this idea could help him.

On hat jacks and expanding in a more circular way.

Expanding in 4 directions instead of two would of course make more of a round shape than a 2 directions could. It may not be ideal but it vastly improves even on traditional wooden or aluminum hat stretchers which of course move in two opposite directions.

Now and mind you, what follows is only a speculation ( I don’t know if such thing exists, therefore, please, go gently on me I only mean this in a constructive way and don’t need been given any flack)

Fo metal tubing (which of course requires a force way higher than any hat would or should) they have 6 petals hydraulic expanders. A similar approach (but without the hydraulic part) may be used for hats and there would be no need of making the petals of heavy metal but dense plastic or wood (for a more traditional look) would work very well. Again this is just a thought I am not aiming at suggesting you use such a (expensive and powerful) machine on hats.
There have been four way hat extenders or hat stretchers and can probably be found on Ebay if you're lucky. These are two examples (not mine):
4 way 2.jpg
4way 1.jpg
 

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