The Conversion Corral

[Hat and Rehat]

This thread is probably the one for this to go to of currently active threads.
I'll use the 7 1/2 LO. 3X in the center as a valid excuse anyway. I reblocked it, swapping the front and back, also giving it a lower, flatter crown.





Most of the lids are stripped. The right front one is my DD Strat from the 50s.

I just like to look at them.

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[deadlyhandsome]

This thread is probably the one for this to go to of currently active threads.
I'll use the 7 1/2 LO. 3X in the center as a valid excuse anyway. I rebooked it, swapping the front and back, also giving it a lower, flatter crown.





Most of the lids are stripped. The right front one is my DD Strat from the 50s.

I just like to look at them.

Sent from my LM-X410(FG) using Tapatalk

You lost me at “giving it a lower, flatter crown.” The world is awash with short/stingy brims and low crowns. I have a custom coming with a 6 1/4” crown and westerns with 6 1/2 to 7” are outstanding.


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[Hat and Rehat]

And play with them too!

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[Hat and Rehat]

You lost me at “giving it a lower, flatter crown.” The world is awash with short/stingy brims and low crowns. I have a custom coming with a 6 1/4” crown and westerns with 6 1/2 to 7” are outstanding.


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I blocked it up from a 7 3/8 to a generous 7 1/2 LO. The brim is still 2 3/4 on the sides, but 2 1/2 front and back.
I planned to try to stretch a little more, but it started ripping at the break. :-( This one is the feature hat I guess in the felt mending threads I bumped, but I've been too busy to get the full story out there.
I did pretty major repairs. It's no longer merchandise.
I have a friend in MO who is having his bladder removed next month. I post pictures of my hats once in a while on Facebook, and my Strat is the only one he ever remarked on, saying "I LOVE that hat."
He has a big noggin, and isn't a hat guy. I'm going to bash it like my Strat was and gift it to him. He probably won't notice the abbreviated crown height.
My daughter and her husband are closing on their first house, 10/14, in KC. I'm flying out for a week to do a little work on the house, so will be able to see my friend.

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A little stubby.
Oh well.

I did some measuring. My hat is just shy of 5" at the pinch. The OR is at 4 3/4". Mine gains height open, at top center. That one doesn't. By doing a raked fedora bash, the height that was lost to blocking up shows as little as possible visually, because a lot of the difference is in the concave top of the crown.
We look at hats all the time. How many per day? Hat forum members would probably notice things an average Joe never would.

 

[Hat and Rehat]

I blocked it up from a 7 3/8 to a generous 7 1/2 LO. The brim is still 2 3/4 on the sides, but 2 1/2 front and back.
I planned to try to stretch a little more, but it started ripping at the break. :-( This one is the feature hat I guess in the felt mending threads I bumped, but I've been too busy to get the full story out there.
I did pretty major repairs. It's no longer merchandise.
I have a friend in MO who is having his bladder removed next month. I post pictures of my hats once in a while on Facebook, and my Strat is the only one he ever remarked on, saying "I LOVE that hat."
He has a big noggin, and isn't a hat guy. I'm going to bash it like my Strat was and gift it to him. He probably won't notice the abbreviated crown height.
My daughter and her husband are closing on their first house, 10/14, in KC. I'm flying out for a week to do a little work on the house, so will be able to see my friend.

Sent from my LM-X410(FG) using Tapatalk
A little stubby.
Oh well.

We look at hats all the time. How many per day? Hat forum members would probably notice things an average Joe never would.

I just need to make a flange block and band block for a hat that big. And sew in leather. Everyone loves that, right?

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[Hat and Rehat]

You lost me at “giving it a lower, flatter crown.” The world is awash with short/stingy brims and low crowns. I have a custom coming with a 6 1/4” crown and westerns with 6 1/2 to 7” are outstanding.


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I've decided to rework the block I used before making my own flange block for it. It was not quite a clean oval. the front was a little long, like a very subtle point. I'll take about 1/8" off of the center front which will make it match the rear, but still be an eight larger than the sides compared to a regular oval. While doing so, I'm going round the top of the crown more, particularly in back, but a little all the way around.
Then I'll reblock the hat again. I believe I'll gain noticeable height in the crown.

 

[Hat and Rehat]

It seems I'm featuring the same hat in two threads.
I reworked my block to make the top less square.
Tonight I steam blocked the felt again, on the reshaped block. Earlier I gave the felt a thin treatment of gum tragacanth. It was extremely tired, and limp. That really put the lead back in its pencil.
The first time I reblocked it, I rotated it 180°.
As I mended the felt, reasons to change that came up. Yesterday I changed the axis of the felt. I moved the back of the hat from 6 O'clock to 2 O'clock. Fankly, it was a lot of work!
I put it in my steamer time after time to make the best part of the felt the front of the hat. No matter how hard I worked the crown, over and over again, the sides had ripples of extra felt. They were baggy, even with the front and back pulled tight.
I tried to iron it on the block too, with only minor improvements.
I gave it a gum stiffening today. I also spent an hour reshaping my block
to lose the sharp corners, and get more height in the crown.
I reblocked tonight to test my block. The felt makes flaws stand out. I didn't even tie off my brim break with twine, because I knew it wasn't the final blocking. Again, I rotated the hat 180°, but this from the 2:00 position of yesterday.


My left front and right rear corners of the block need work to perfect the hat. Both are a little humped compared to the sexy corners. Because that was the purpose of blocking, I worked the felt off right away.
It was difficult to get off the block, causing the wrinkle 1" above the brim.
Just for jollies I played around shaping it.
It behaves like a different hat!
Both of the holes I repaired are visible if you look for them. The mended tear at the brim break held up flawlessly through a gas bath, and reblocking., even one changing the direction of the oval.
This is a very impressive felt. I suspect my earlier guess that this was a 60s OR were WRONG.


I haven't even flanged it yet.

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[Scooterz]

Resistol Stagecoach in Chestnut color. Sent it to Art Fawcett, he found that it had the sweat removed an resewn several times. It was supposed to be a 7 3/8 but it was much larger. He trimmed, reblocked, resized to 7 1/4", added a 2 inch ribbon. It is about 4.25" at the pinch and 2 3/4" brim now.
Before.

After

 

[T Jones]

Just reflanged my Bradford and Resistol thin ribbon conversions on a copy of a Strat brim flange that was made for me. It definitely gave them more of a Strat look from the way they were flanged before...

Both hat pictures are of the Bradford. The Resistol has the same flange and looks identical.

The lighting was bad this a.m. so I'll get more pictures later on in better light...

The Resistol

 

[quikrick]

Just reflanged my Bradford and Resistol thin ribbon conversions on a copy of a Strat brim flange that was made for me. It definitely gave them more of a Strat look from the way they were flanged before...

Both hat pictures are of the Bradford. The Resistol has the same flange and looks identical.

The lighting was bad this a.m. so I'll get more pictures later on in better light...

The Resistol

As always, nicely done!

 

[T Jones]

As always, nicely done!

Thank you buddy!

 

[Tukwila]

Just reflanged my Bradford and Resistol thin ribbon conversions on a copy of a Strat brim flange that was made for me. It definitely gave them more of a Strat look from the way they were flanged before...

Both hat pictures are of the Bradford. The Resistol has the same flange and looks identical.

The lighting was bad this a.m. so I'll get more pictures later on in better light...

The Resistol

Those look great, Terry!

 

[T Jones]

Those look great, Terry!

Thank you Tuk!

 

[milandro]

The very first hat I tried to modify was Fedora by Tacchino Alessandria ( They make western and western-ish) models.

I reblocked it on a block that I had bought with a cattleman crease, but , after buying a number of hats with the same crease I thought that reblocking it would have been a good idea to have more wearing options. So since I was talking to a friend of the Lester Young hat, the one which made, among the jazz lovers, familia the term “ Pork Pie” ( of course quoted by Charles Mingus in his piece dedicated to Lester Young: “ Good Bye, Pork Pie Hat “.

My homage wasn’t particularly difficult to achieve and I am very proud of how it turned out (click to expand if you so wish)

 

[jswindle2]

Several of my conversions need new sweatbands. Where should I purchase the new ones and what tips are there for everyone to share? This is especially aimed at you T Jones. You seem to have a boat load of experience in this sphere.

 

[milandro]

much depends, I think, from where you are in the world because shipping prices can hit small itemes on a riduculous base.

I am in Europe and sources of sweatbands are far and few between.

I have recently bought from this very nice shop (they have a lot more). The leather ( they have satin too) sweatband is very nice and with the assistance of my wife it resides now on an Akubra .

https://www.hatblocks.co.uk/product/leather-sweatbands/

WAAY cheaper than have seen on ebay! €13,50 including shipping

Anyway see this thread

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/buying-leather-sweatbands.37821/

there deadlyhandsome advises another company from Greece (they are more expensive that the British company)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/244402...=sr_gallery-1-27&organic_search_click=1&col=1

 

[Tukwila]

@bond has an etsy shop and sells very nice sweatbands and refurb services if you get on over your head.

 

[1967Cougar390]

I started a conversion today on my Silver Canyon hat. I cut the brim down to 2 1/2 inches, changed the brim treatment from a western style “outback” to a classic fedora style. I also changed the crease from a teardrop to a diamond. I’ll do some sanding of the raw edge tomorrow to soften the look of the edge.
Before:

After:

Steven

 

[milandro]

Very nice! I have done some conversions myself .

I would like to see some more conversions of western rancher hats to a more “ urban" style. I am seeking inspiration.

The brim would have to be be cut down and maybe bound (is that an option I was looking for tutorials ).

I found several videos with binding bias attachments for sewing machines

 

[T Jones]

Here's a Bradford, "Beaver 30", western that I finally got around to finishing up. It started out as a size 7 and I blocked it up to a 7 1/4. I started this project about 3-4 weeks ago but with my wife being sick and me having another flare up with back issues I was only able to work on it a little bit at a time. This was one stiff and stubborn hat to work on but I finally got through it. It sports a tall straight crown that's creased to my preferred teardrop with a tight pinch. It's 4 3/4 at the pinch with a rake sloping to 4 inches in the back. I cut the brim to 2 5/8 and flanged it on a Stratoliner replica brim flange. It has a matching 1 1/2 ribbon with a slight up-swoop to the bow work...