The Conversion Corral

[randooch]

Yes, I have that same problem with the Bailey western I converted.

So they make felt stiffener; is there a felt softener out there? And what might that be, something that dissolves shellac?

 

[1961MJS]

So they make felt stiffener; is there a felt softener out there? And what might that be, something that dissolves shellac?

Hi

Yes there is, but thanks to the interesting way that the search engine works it might be fun to find. Basically you're soaking the hat in Naptha. Don't go buy that stuff without finding the other thread first though. I'm not much into converting hats, so I didn't really work on remembering how to soak the stiffener out. I don't see that many used hats to start out on, especially nice ones. I mainly read this thread to check out the interesting before and after styles.

The thread below says to use denatured alcohol or Naptha.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?41576-Ask-a-question-get-an-answer&p=1010640&highlight=remove+stiffener#post1010640

Good luck.

 

[zetwal]

Naphtha is not likely to remove shellac from the hat body.

 

[RBH]

Naphtha is not likely to remove shellac from the hat body.

No it wont.

 

[Lastmohecken]

I recently converted two different cowboy hats. The first one was a Stetson 5x very light tan, almost white hat. It was pretty soft to start with, so I ended up with a nice resonably soft hat, but it holds it shape well. The main problem I had was shrinkage, and and it got a little too tight, so I purchased a wood hat stretcher off of ebay, and after a couple of trys, I believe I now have it right. I am not sure, but I think this hat has at least some Beaver in it, but it does not say Beaver, just 5x, but it is kind of close to the consistancy of a Resistol 4x Beaver that I have had for years.

The second hat I converted was a Resistol Stagecoach, and I don't think it has much if any Beaver in it, but doesn't say anything other then Resistol self-conforming on it, but the StageCoach name. It's a heaver hat and much stiffer, and it's still much stiffer. Both hats were easy to reshape, and get the old creases out of, by steaming and dipping in hot water.
This hat also shrunk and I had to get pretty aggressive with the hat stretcher, to get it back out. Now it slightly big, but barely so, and seems to be shrinking back a little the more I wear it.

7-1/8 has been my hat size for as long as I can remember, but on these conversions, I believe I may start with a 7-1/4 next time, and save a lot of trouble, as it will probably shrink to about the right size.

It seems to me also, that the best method might be to choose a hat that is at about the stiffness you want to begin with. I have found that 3x and 5x stetsons seem about right, and a good Resistol of 4x Beaver would be good, but stay away from the Resistol hats that are not Beaver, unless you want a stiffer hat.

However, this Resistol fur-felt (but not Beaver) that I have converted will be a tough hat, for sure, as others on here have already pointed out, However, it is also a hotter hat, better suited for colder weather.

 

[Lastmohecken]

Saturday, I took a Black Resistol Cowboy with a tall crown and a 3.5 inch brim to my local westernstore, and for 5 dollars had the guy cut the brim down to 3 inches. All I can say is that was money well spent, after fussing with cutting a couple of hats down with sizzors at home. If I do any more, I believe that is the way I will go.

The two hats I cut down myself, recently, even after sanding, just did not turn out, nearly as smooth as the one I had cut down at the western store. However, I finally fixed them today, and now I am pretty happy with them. I work at a metal fab shop, so I came up with the idea of taking a piece of 16 gage about 1.5 inches wide and rolling it to the same curvature as the hat brims, then bending up a handle for it. It looks sorta like a kidney shaped cookie cutter about 7 inches long. I them took some double sided scotch tape and put on the inside of the curve, and stuck a piece of emery cloth to it.

This really worked great, and I was able to take out all of the little bumps left from the sizzor cuts and previous sanding, as the curved sheetmetal guided by the general hat brim shape took out all of the little high spots and valleys, and my hats look much better.

Some of you guys have probably done the same, but I just thought I would share, as I was almost ready to send the hats off to get edging sewed on the brims, but now, I think I will keep them as is. At anyrate the concave surface of my sheetmetal guide, really helped me to clean them up.

 

[Sam Craig]

Yeah, if you've got a western wear store handy, it is well worth the cost to have the trimming done by a professional, unless you can just bite the bullet and buy your own trimmer.

You can eventually get a decent job done with good, sharp scissors and some patience, but it's not the best way.

Sam

 

[HatsEnough]

I once trimmed a 4 inch western 7X Stetson and made it into more of an Open Road-style fedora. I used a stick to the size I wanted and then went around the crown and put little pencil dots on the outside of the brim at the length of the stick. Then I used leather cutting scissors. Finished up with sand paper. I have to say it was time consuming. I'd much rather take it to a hat guy next time.

 

[El Sid]

Hello, Loungers. This is my first post, but I've been an invisible, lurking member of your club for months now. I thought I might introduce myself with a proud dislplay of my first two cowboy conversions, applying the skills I picked up while perusing your posts--thank you for all of the information. The first is a vintage 4X Knox of the style that I believe is called the Kemo Sabe, or something like that. It looked like the hat Clint Eastwood wore in the spaghetti westerns. It was stiff as balsa wood and about as comfortable as a stainless steel saucepan. I cut the brim to 2 7/8", then sanded it down to roughly 2 3/4". The second is a navy blue 4X Stetson Cavalry, also really stiff and uncomfortable. I cut its brim to 2 5/8". Having read several laments about deteriorating sweatbands during a long denatured alcohol soak, I removed the linings and sweatbands of both hats and then resewed them after soaking and blocking, a real challenge for a hamfisted oaf who has never before even replaced a shirt button. Then, after an exhaustive search, I finally found a spool of vintage cotton/rayon 1.5" black grosgrain that I used for the ribbon on the cavalry. After another long and exhaustive search, I used a silk/rayon vintage 3/8" grosgrain for the ribbon on the brown Knox; the color of that ribbon was too light, so I dyed it in a pot in my kitchen, another first that I wouldn't have even considered had I not read several helpful posts on the subject. My goal was to make the brown Knox into something of an Open Road, a wonderful style of fedora that I learned about right here, except that I have exhausted my sewing skills and am not quite ready to undertake finishing the edge of the brim. As you can see, I prefer a diamond bash, for which, of course, I never had a name before learning it on this site; I had been calling it a "Widmark Crease" based on one of my favorite fedora-rocking stars of Film Noire.

I set up a Facebook page just to display the hats, so I hope the link works. I'll also be submitting an application to join the Borsalino Brotherhood because until learning about so many different options--conversions, custom made hats, vintage hats even for a 7 5/8" fathead, rugged Akubra hats--Borsalino was all I wore.

Here are the conversions:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101152783307489.2058.100002383024553

Thanks for all the help!

 

[bowlerman]

I have this wool hat that has been described here as a bit of a beehive, a bit of an Alpine, and that I've use for experimentation. It has no lining or sweatband, and I decided after reading Brad Bowers' history of the Derby, to see if I could make a D'Orsay curl on it-- absolutely not (not even close), but I did manage to do a complete sort of reblock and brim job with some water and a clothes iron. Here are some before/after pics.

before:

[/IMG]

After:

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

 

[hatophile]

I like the "after" much better.

 

[bowlerman]

Thanks! Me too-- more of a true derby. Now I just want to get it sweated and stiffened. And drat for that confounded and elusive D'Orsay curl!

 

[randooch]

Hello, Loungers. This is my first post, but I've been an invisible, lurking member of your club for months now. I thought I might introduce myself with a proud dislplay of my first two cowboy conversions, applying the skills I picked up while perusing your posts--thank you for all of the information. The first is a vintage 4X Knox of the style that I believe is called the Kemo Sabe, or something like that. It looked like the hat Clint Eastwood wore in the spaghetti westerns. It was stiff as balsa wood and about as comfortable as a stainless steel saucepan. I cut the brim to 2 7/8", then sanded it down to roughly 2 3/4". The second is a navy blue 4X Stetson Cavalry, also really stiff and uncomfortable. I cut its brim to 2 5/8". Having read several laments about deteriorating sweatbands during a long denatured alcohol soak, I removed the linings and sweatbands of both hats and then resewed them after soaking and blocking, a real challenge for a hamfisted oaf who has never before even replaced a shirt button. Then, after an exhaustive search, I finally found a spool of vintage cotton/rayon 1.5" black grosgrain that I used for the ribbon on the cavalry. After another long and exhaustive search, I used a silk/rayon vintage 3/8" grosgrain for the ribbon on the brown Knox; the color of that ribbon was too light, so I dyed it in a pot in my kitchen, another first that I wouldn't have even considered had I not read several helpful posts on the subject. My goal was to make the brown Knox into something of an Open Road, a wonderful style of fedora that I learned about right here, except that I have exhausted my sewing skills and am not quite ready to undertake finishing the edge of the brim. As you can see, I prefer a diamond bash, for which, of course, I never had a name before learning it on this site; I had been calling it a "Widmark Crease" based on one of my favorite fedora-rocking stars of Film Noire.

I set up a Facebook page just to display the hats, so I hope the link works. I'll also be submitting an application to join the Borsalino Brotherhood because until learning about so many different options--conversions, custom made hats, vintage hats even for a 7 5/8" fathead, rugged Akubra hats--Borsalino was all I wore.

Here are the conversions:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101152783307489.2058.100002383024553

Thanks for all the help!

Welcome to the lounge! I really want to see those conversions, but I'm anti-Facebook. If you ever post 'em on a site like photobucket, please provide another link.

Thanks!

 

[El Sid]

Thanks, Randooch. I'll mess with photobucket--I was excited to post and stuck with familar territory. Funny part is after hours more reading on FL, I decided both hats had too much taper, so I crafted a vintage-inspired stovepipe block out of basswood and started over. Wood working is fun, but only here will I admit that I have discovered a preference for the quite Zen of handsewing grosgrain over the din, danger and dust of radial arm saws, lathes and drill presses. Anyway, I'm now anxiously awaiting delivery of roan sweatbands to replace the papery 80's era stock sweats. I figure I have plenty of time as the felt on these hats are so thick, I won't really be rockin' them until the fall. Maybe I'll get my 15 posts in first so I can display pics right here like one of the big kids.

 

[RobFedoraField]

I have this wool hat that has been described here as a bit of a beehive, a bit of an Alpine, and that I've use for experimentation. It has no lining or sweatband, and I decided after reading Brad Bowers' history of the Derby, to see if I could make a D'Orsay curl on it-- absolutely not (not even close), but I did manage to do a complete sort of reblock and brim job with some water and a clothes iron. Here are some before/after pics.

before:

After:

very nice! looks like a great kickaround hat.

Thanks, Randooch. I'll mess with photobucket--I was excited to post and stuck with familar territory. Funny part is after hours more reading on FL, I decided both hats had too much taper, so I crafted a vintage-inspired stovepipe block out of basswood and started over. Wood working is fun, but only here will I admit that I have discovered a preference for the quite Zen of handsewing grosgrain over the din, danger and dust of radial arm saws, lathes and drill presses. Anyway, I'm now anxiously awaiting delivery of roan sweatbands to replace the papery 80's era stock sweats. I figure I have plenty of time as the felt on these hats are so thick, I won't really be rockin' them until the fall. Maybe I'll get my 15 posts in first so I can display pics right here like one of the big kids.

making your own blocks! you'll fit right in here!

 

[randooch]

Here's my Resistol 15X "Diamond Horseshoe" after I: removed liner and glitzy pin, steamed out cattlemen's crease, moistened entire hat, left it in a hot car for hours to shrink it down a size (3 rounds of this, actually, nod to frank r. for this technique), steamed and reshaped crown, and cut off an inch of brim.

 

[gtdean48]

Here's my Resistol 15X "Diamond Horseshoe" after I: removed liner and glitzy pin, steamed out cattlemen's crease, moistened entire hat, left it in a hot car for hours to shrink it down a size (3 rounds of this, actually, nod to frank r. for this technique), steamed and reshaped crown, and cut off an inch of brim.
...

Looks like a nice job. Remember to put some conditioner on that sweat. All the drying & shrinking takes a lot out of the leather.

 

[frussell]

Looks good Randooch. I've got the same hat in a size 8 that just received the car treatment yesterday. I tried leaving it out in our triple digit sun yesterday while wet, but it kept blowing off the stand and getting too close to the pool. I don't think chlorinated water will do the felt any favors. Did you have to cut off the bound brim? I hate to cut a bound brim off any hat, but I was sure thinking about converting this one, as the felt is excellent. Maybe an Elko style instead, as the one I have is looking pretty tired, and that shape looks good with a bound brim. Tom is right as usual, the sweatband will probably need some re-conditioning, preferrably with something other than pure oil, (neatsfoot, mink, etc...) which might goop up the stitching, causing it to rot, or leach through to the felt. I use several different leather treatments, but I look for something that doesn't oversoak, or leave a residue that will make my head sweaty or itchy. Great job. Frank

 

[randooch]

Thanks Tom, I'll definitely condition the sweat, but not with Lexol, after having called the company for the list of scary ingredients.

Frank, this one had no brim binding. That would've slowed me down for sure. Thanks again!

 

[randooch]

So, I decided to treat the sweat to an application of an organic hand/face lotion, figuring that if the product can sink into my skin so effectively it could penetrate leather as well. It seems to have been a success.