should i buy or not hat moulds and last.

[59Lark]

Dear loungers; i have a chance to purchase the tools of a hatmaker, his mould wooden to shape and block the hats, last, brushes basically all his tools, and probably not as much stuff as a big shop but enough to clean and block my own hats, all his stuff for $200. is that outragous or shut up and buy the hatmaker has had a stroke and is in a walker and unable to use these tools anymore. ps he is a old friend that moved away and havent seen much since. Anyone give me an idea what moulds and lasts,and hat strechers are going for and how hard to find. 59Lark.

 

[Dinerman]

buy it.

 

[carter]

Sounds like a good investment to me.

One of the hatmakers on the Lounge would be your best source for an answer (Art Fawcett, Major Moore, Jimmy Pierce, Tonyb come to mind).
My initial response, sight unseen, is, that sounds like a very good price. Blocks and flanges alone can go for at least 1/2 that amount on auction sites.
If you decide not to keep the items post-purchase, you can most likely sell them to another member of the FL. I know that I'd be interested.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Why not[huh] [huh]

 

[tonyb]

Ditto. Likewise. I concur.

Provided it's in usable condition, or could be put that way, and there's more than just a couple of blocks and flanges in a size and style you could use, it would be hard to go wrong.

I'd like to know more about this stash, such as what the numbers on the bottoms of the blocks and the sides of the flanges are. Some are clearly more desirable than others, but almost any would be of some potential use.

 

[Jerekson]

Uh...yeah, do it. For $200 that's a no-brainer.

 

[steppenwolph]

buy it.

+1!

 

[scotrace]

Buy it. Fast.

 

[59Lark]

The day has come, moulds and tools here.

Yesterday we borrowed a friend and his gps and went to the big city and went to go get the hat blocking stuff. The stuff included 7 large burlap sacks of wooden moulds over 80 moulds, a table with a motorized spinner. A ancient metal , head steamer etc , boxes of banding, ribbons, liners. etc. stretchers. lasts. The moulds were bought 4o years ago from a 80 year greek hatmaker in London ontario. This man is 85 years ago and now i am 45 years old oh oh. We will post pictures soon. The stuff took up the whole back end of my van. NOW the basement which was already full is fuller and now we need to go to the dump and get the scrap metal dealer in , too make room to set up the hat shop. A long way too go and no intention of taking over the world just would like to be able to clean and block the occasional hat.

 

[Rick Blaine]

To make room...

If you should want to get rid of any I am always looking for a #52 or #51 block in 7 1/4 or 7 3/8...

 

[Thwack]

You gotta remember...

We are all a bunch of enablers

But it sure sounds like quite a find for not a lot of money. If you ever considered making hats here is your opportunity!

 

[cookie]

Yesterday we borrowed a friend and his gps and went to the big city and went to go get the hat blocking stuff. The stuff included 7 large burlap sacks of wooden moulds over 80 moulds, a table with a motorized spinner. A ancient metal , head steamer etc , boxes of banding, ribbons, liners. etc. stretchers. lasts. The moulds were bought 4o years ago from a 80 year greek hatmaker in London ontario. This man is 85 years ago and now i am 45 years old oh oh. We will post pictures soon. The stuff took up the whole back end of my van. NOW the basement which was already full is fuller and now we need to go to the dump and get the scrap metal dealer in , too make room to set up the hat shop. A long way too go and no intention of taking over the world just would like to be able to clean and block the occasional hat.

Good Lord all that for CND200 and a good deed for an old mate...:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[tonyb]

Just so you know ...

That stuff is easily worth thousands of dollars. Several thousands of them, I'd think, judging from your description. Congratulations. Should you decide the hatter's trade isn't for you, I know of several people who would happily see to it that you turned a handsome profit on your $200 investment.

 

[Lefty]

Could this be the new Johnnyphi story?

very exciting stuff

 

[John in Covina]

As I recall many of the hat blocks and other items would fetch a pretty good price on EBAY if you were to sell either some individual pieces or put together sets of sizes.

One> be sure you keep together what needs to be kept together to make it a functioning item.

TWO> a KEY thing is if you have sizes that are relatively unused like the really small stuff, you may want to put it together with a regular and desireable size as a "Lot" to entice someone to buy the so-so stuff just to get the good stuff.

 

[GWD]

LOL I need a #52 block size 7 and 7 1/8 let me know if your selling!

 

[randooch]

Any size 60 blocks in the bunch? what a find!

 

[Jerekson]

$200 Canadian is $100 Australian is, what, $20 American?

Practically. I think $80 or so last time I checked the coversion.

Sheesh, some people get all the luck! :eusa_doh:

 

[Dinerman]

$200 = $162 US, at the moment.

 

[59Lark]

Gratefull for the advice and help 59Lark

LOUNGERS; am extremely grateful and glad for the advice and help, will post photos and show the goodies in about two weeks. We are overwhelmed in the shop right now and have a home show in tillsonburg this weekend and it will take all of our resources and meagre staff to pull it off. So the hat stuff stays put in the back cellar for another week. We have a german shoemaker who did the cleaning and blocking of hats for twenty five years lined up to come in and train us. We need to build a shop for the hat equipment. Put up walls with hooks or shelfs to put them in size order, rewire the steamer its wiring looks like noah wired it, the spinner motor isnt sitting right and its first test the belt flew across the basement. NO chemicals or brushes came after all they were all unusulable. We need to put a new window in the area its in, its plywooded shut, no ventalation. We need to barrier off the rest of the shop, we blow dust and lint and oil everywhere in the main shop fixing sewing machines. I think its gonna take a month to get ready to learn , wow. summer is our slow time so we hope people will get their hats blocked inthe summer and keep us busy then, but hey we are a long way off, we are going to be playing with old fedoras and thrift store finds for now. 59Lark. at this point we wont be selling anything we think that would be crazy, we specialize in doing things nobody else does, so this would be another one, my eldest daughter was asked by me if she thought the two businesses would mate well and she said, well its better than that cheese and taxiderminy shop in mapleton. NO EYES in the showroom looking at you 59Lark. fftopic: