The Conversion Corral

[milandro]

( Sent from my LM-X410(FG) using Tapatalk)

You have a nice phone there tapatalk does nothing for you but you advertise them with every post

 

[milandro]

About Sweatbands

@bond here on the lounge or finevintagefedoras on etsy sells pre-sewn sweatbands to your size specifications. Just have to tack them into the hat. They are very nice and reasonably priced. I can’t see shipping being that crazy maybe for you @milandro but certainly not to Texas

The ones from Guy Morse-Brown are certainly competitive with any at most other places on the internet, not only because of the cheap sending. At £6,50 this has to be one of the cheapest leather sweatband anywhere. They are very good indeed! The company makes a number of other products but none so conveniently priced as this.

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

These are very cheap for the US members

https://hatterssupplyhouse.com/sweatbands/

At $7,95 they have to be very cheap even with shipping within the US.

 

[Hat and Rehat]

@H&R ( seen your “ signature” you are looking and posting from a phone, a LM X410(FG)...you are not visually challenged.... your device is just too small, by the way, this is not a criticism to you in particular but disabling the Tapatalk free ad that tells anyone that you are using a particular brand and model of phone adds nothing to your forum contribution and is easily clicked away in the phone or tapatalk preferences, lots of people do this ...

That is interesting on more than one level. I will have to look into Tapatalk preferences. I just accepted whatever defaults came with the ap, which I didn't really want anyway. Prior to downloading it, accessing the Lounge on my mobile included a Tapatalk ad that blocked a good portion of my screen, the dialog box of fellow Loungers I was replying to the most obnoxious example. I admit to being less than savvy about tailoring a mobile device, but couldn't find a way to block the ad, and was pestered into downloading the ap.
I don't see my own signature, but do see what you describe in other people's posts. If that's the phone the ap says I have, they didn't even get that right. I use an LGK30.

 

[milandro]

This post is without the signature, for which I am grateful about Please keep on doing it

 

[Hat and Rehat]

About Sweatbands


The ones from Guy Morse-Brown are certainly competitive with any at most other places on the internet, not only because of the cheap sending. At £6,50 this has to be one of the cheapest leather sweatband anywhere. They are very good indeed! The company makes a number of other products but none so conveniently priced as this.

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

These are very cheap for the US members

https://hatterssupplyhouse.com/sweatbands/

At $7,95 they have to be very cheap even with shipping within the US.

I use Hater's Supply. About $10 shipped.
Yesterday I ordered #85 plastic reed wire and ferules from Hats by Leko. I had to buy another item to meet a minimum order requirement, so added a $9.25 1 5/8" sweat. I'll see how it compares with those from Hatters Supply, but am also making my own.

 

[Hat and Rehat]

This post is without the signature, for which I am grateful about Please keep on doing it

Don't get too excited. I'm on my laptop. I havent figured out how to disable it on my mobile yet.

 

[Hat and Rehat]

I was going to DM these but it won't let me so I guess I will just post them. Some more for you Milandro. If you want to DM me your email address I can email you a copy of the model itself as well.

View attachment 194063 View attachment 194064 View attachment 194065 View attachment 194068

A larger screen makes all the difference in the world. I like that modelling a lot, Justin, particularly these last side views with the "twine channel". If you can enter the brim size into the program, it should be able to generate a complete working model. That will ad the 180 degree variations I was talking about. The third line up in your drawing is actually not a straight line. my Borsa flange for a 2 3/4" brim is a bit worn, and doesn't show it unless you put a tape on it. I have another flange, 2 1/2", that is nearly pristine, and it shows it clearly.
The area below that third line does not stay 1/2" around the entire flange, because the brim is rounder, but the flange more oval.
I'll edit this from my phone, to add some images.

 

[J Williams]

I have read some talk about cheaper plastic or composite hat blocks. I have a few hats I would like to reblock and wanted to give it a try before investing in vintage equipment or making my own. Does anyone have links or information about what's available? Looking for something like a 52 block in 7 3/8 Long Oval.

The only thing I have been able to find is this.

http://www.hatshapers.com/

 

[jswindle2]

I have read some talk about cheaper plastic or composite hat blocks. I have a few hats I would like to reblock and wanted to give it a try before investing in vintage equipment or making my own. Does anyone have links or information about what's available? Looking for something like a 52 block in 7 3/8 Long Oval.

The only thing I have been able to find is this.

http://www.hatshapers.com/

I have 2 hat shapers from them and they work great. I believe T Jones has one or two also. I recommend the Straight Sided Dome. It's very similar to the 52 but you should contact T Jones for confirmation.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I have 2 hat shapers from them and they work great. I believe T Jones has one or two also. I recommend the Straight Sided Dome. It's very similar to the 52 but you should contact T Jones for confirmation.

The #52 has a slight bit of taper, but the straight sided domes don’t have any taper at all. The problem is getting a Hat Shapers block that is sold small, medium, large, etc, to match your true hat size.


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[Xylophile]

I appreciate the link man, but the pictures are horribly out of focus. Is there another option?

My first attempt to upload a file here is the stitch awl tutorial pdf that I imagine will be evident...

 

[J Williams]

The #52 has a slight bit of taper, but the straight sided domes don’t have any taper at all. The problem is getting a Hat Shapers block that is sold small, medium, large, etc, to match your true hat size.


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Yeah the straight sided dome has a ‘medium plus’ size which is 59.7 - For the hats I want it for this seems kind of perfect. Will be just a touch big and give me a bit of wiggle room for a new sweat


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[J Williams]

I have 2 hat shapers from them and they work great. I believe T Jones has one or two also. I recommend the Straight Sided Dome. It's very similar to the 52 but you should contact T Jones for confirmation.

Thanks for the input. The straight sided dome was the one that struck me as most useful.


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[jswindle2]

My first attempt to upload a file here is the stitch awl tutorial pdf that I imagine will be evident...

Thank you for sending this!

 

[Hat and Rehat]

Yeah the straight sided dome has a ‘medium plus’ size which is 59.7 - For the hats I want it for this seems kind of perfect. Will be just a touch big and give me a bit of wiggle room for a new sweat


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I recently saw someone on Etsy is selling blocks made with a 3D printer, from a composite plastic of some sort. He claims the material is environmentally friendly. (?)
They seemed to be copies of actual blocks.
Prices seemed close to those of vintage blocks though.

 

[Hat and Rehat]

It seems your oval can be somewhat determined at flanging. Conforming hats is done by creating conformed band blocks, so standardized blocks and flanges are still used.

 

[milandro]

I recently saw someone on Etsy is selling blocks made with a 3D printer, from a composite plastic of some sort. He claims the material is environmentally friendly. (?)
They seemed to be copies of actual blocks.
Prices seemed close to those of vintage blocks though.

I don’t think that the material plays a great role in the price unless we are talking of aluminum blocks.
the price is largely determined by the time to make it ( 3D printing is time consuming ) and the fact that you are not going to sell a lot of any of these things.

 

[bond]

Here’s a 1940s Stetson Flagship that I tried to save. The hat came to me very dirty , so dirty in fact I thought the hat was dark grey! As for the sweatband it was stiff and misshaped . Liner was good but badly soiled too. Only positive it had was the felt didn’t appear to have any moth damage . The original crown ribbon was dark blue and I was thinking some one added it at some point but when I cut it loose that notion was dispelled. The other main problem was that someone tried to glue the original sweat back in and made a great mess of getting lots more glue on the felt than on the sweat band. Fortunately I was able to lift out about 50% of the glue residue but stopped as I didn’t want to lighten or scar up the felt any more.
To restore it i disassembled the sweat , liner and ribbon and then set out to clean up the felt and reblock it to get the old creases out. Fortunately this is some dynamite felt and it came out looking pretty good for all the years of neglect this hat suffered over the years.
Besides adding a new sweatband I added a new old stock vintage grosgrain in a pewter grey that really made the felt color pop more. I call the felt color a Periwinkle blue and it’s a color I’ve never seen before as far as owing a vintage Stetson before.
Happy holidays to everyone!
Cheers!
Anyway here’s the hat before and after pics .

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[M Hatman]

Here’s a 1940s Stetson Flagship that I tried to save. The hat came to me very dirty , so dirty in fact I thought the hat was dark grey! As for the sweatband it was stiff and misshaped . Liner was good but badly soiled too. Only positive it had was the felt didn’t appear to have any moth damage . The original crown ribbon was dark blue and I was thinking some one added it at some point but when I cut it loose that notion was dispelled. The other main problem was that someone tried to glue the original sweat back in and made a great mess of getting lots more glue on the felt than on the sweat band. Fortunately I was able to lift out about 50% of the glue residue but stopped as I didn’t want to lighten or scar up the felt any more.
To restore it i disassembled the sweat , liner and ribbon and then set out to clean up the felt and reblock it to get the old creases out. Fortunately this is some dynamite felt and it came out looking pretty good for all the years of neglect this hat suffered over the years.
Besides adding a new sweatband I added a new old stock vintage grosgrain in a pewter grey that really made the felt color pop more. I call the felt color a Periwinkle blue and it’s a color I’ve never seen before as far as owing a vintage Stetson before.
Happy holidays to everyone!
Cheers!
Anyway here’s the hat before and after pics .

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

VERY NICE SAVE!!!!!!!!

 

[T Jones]

This 3X Stetson Western thin ribbon conversion, I'm gonna call, 'Unfinished Buisness'. I started this one a few weeks ago but was never able to finish it. I held off showing it until now. For one, I can't find a matching 3/8 ribbon to bind the brim edge. Two, my back just aches too much right now for me to sit long enough to sew one on. So, I just popped it on a #810 flange and made it a thin ribbon with raw edge brim for now.

Before: It started off about two sizes too small and I blocked it up to a 7 1/4 to fit me. It was in pretty rough shape.

Embroidered 'Last Drop' liner that I was able to iron out and reuse, along with the original sweat band bow

On the block a few weeks back

After: I may or may not leave it as is with the raw edge. Just depends on what the ol' back can take sitting and sewing and if I can locate some matching 3/8 ribbon for the brim binding. All in all, I do like the crisp lines on this one and the clean look of a thin ribbon...

On the head from a few different angles...