What Hat Are You Working On Today?

[HatsBySam]

This hat belonged to a friend’s grandfather. Grandad was evidently a street performer and used to wear this while performing and pass it around for cash at the end, lol. I’m gonna try to get it fixed up for my friend.

Luckily the brim binding is in good shape, and I’m gonna try hard to keep it that way. Should be able to put in a new sweatband and re-use the original bow.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

 

[moontheloon]

Question for the vintage hat altering mind hive.
I want to add a pencil curl to the brim of this 50s hat... to give it a more Josey Wales inspired feel.
The brim actually feels like it's begging for it to me.

I'd love to hear from those who have done this before... that's what matters most to me... if you've done it or do it regularly.

...anyway... I see the tool available.
Do you recommend the heated iron version?
The non heated version using just steam?
Any educated info would be greatly appreciated.
I've been working on hats for many years just never applied a pencil curl.
Looking forward to hearing from you

 

[Hurricane Jack]

I'd love to hear from those who have done this before... that's what matters most to me... if you've done it or do it regularly.

DD used to do some nice ones using the edge of a cook pot, moving it around to adjust for the radius. I could never master that method. I tried a short piece of surgical tubing but you can’t iron against surgical tubing so I could never smooth out the waves & ripple in the curl.

 

[shopkin]

You could iron against a metal spring like the old tme screen door spring. They come in 0.5 and 0.35-inch diameter

 

[HatsBySam]

Question for the vintage hat altering mind hive.
I want to add a pencil curl to the brim of this 50s hat... to give it a more Josey Wales inspired feel.
The brim actually feels like it's begging for it to me.

I'd love to hear from those who have done this before... that's what matters most to me... if you've done it or do it regularly.

...anyway... I see the tool available.
Do you recommend the heated iron version?
The non heated version using just steam?
Any educated info would be greatly appreciated.
I've been working on hats for many years just never applied a pencil curl.
Looking forward to hearing from you

View attachment 798732 View attachment 798733 View attachment 798734

I have the Guy Morse-Brown curling iron and have really been happy with it, especially on thinner felt. I haven’t tried heating the iron, I just use a steam iron to soften the brim edge and then press the brim between the iron and wooden form. I just do a little bit at a time and work my way around the brim. It takes me about 10 minutes or so, but ends up producing a really nice, tight curl. The slotted curling blocks out there work ok as well, especially on western weight felts, but I pretty much use the Guy Morse-Brown for everything as you can really get a sharp looking curl by hand pressing.

Hope this helps! I think RickP is pretty happy with this tool as well. I’d love to see some “After” pics, I love the Josey Wales hat!

 

[HatsBySam]

I have the Guy Morse-Brown curling iron and have really been happy with it, especially on thinner felt. I haven’t tried heating the iron, I just use a steam iron to soften the brim edge and then press the brim between the iron and wooden form. I just do a little bit at a time and work my way around the brim. It takes me about 10 minutes or so, but ends up producing a really nice, tight curl. The slotted curling blocks out there work ok as well, especially on western weight felts, but I pretty much use the Guy Morse-Brown for everything as you can really get a sharp looking curl by hand pressing.

Hope this helps! I think RickP is pretty happy with this tool as well. I’d love to see some “After” pics, I love the Josey Wales hat!

I’ve been playing around with this really light weight dress felt, I wanted a wide brim fedora, but it has such little stiffener, the brim just didn’t look right. So, I bound the brim and gave it a pencil curl today. It’s holding its shape nicely now. “Before”

 

[HatsBySam]

I’ve been playing around with this really light weight dress felt, I wanted a wide brim fedora, but it has such little stiffener, the brim just didn’t look right. So, I bound the brim and gave it a pencil curl today. It’s holding its shape nicely now. “Before”

“After”

 

[HatsBySam]

Didn’t like how the liner looked on my 7xCB refurb. So I deconstructed the liner and replaced the sides, and got rid of the ripped crinkly plastic.

 

[HatsBySam]

Just finished up a complete refurb on a Stetson 3x cowboy hat. I’ve started deconstructing the old stained liners and just saving the top, and adding some new satin for the sides. Not sure why I didn’t start doing this sooner, lol.

 

[wsmontana]

Just finished up a complete refurb on a Stetson 3x cowboy hat. I’ve started deconstructing the old stained liners and just saving the top, and adding some new satin for the sides. Not sure why I didn’t start doing this sooner, lol.

Great job Sam! I really like how you preserved the sweatband information.

 

[Judgmentalist]

Just finished up a complete refurb on a Stetson 3x cowboy hat. I’ve started deconstructing the old stained liners and just saving the top, and adding some new satin for the sides. Not sure why I didn’t start doing this sooner, lol.

I love this. That may have started life as a cowboy hat but it ain’t one now. I believe the technical term is “mine” lol

 

[HatsBySam]

Great job Sam! I really like how you preserved the sweatband information.

Thanks! I used to cut the markings out of the old band and just tuck them in the new band, but I definitely like the idea of showing them off way better.

 

[HatsBySam]

I love this. That may have started life as a cowboy hat but it ain’t one now. I believe the technical term is “mine” lol

The 3x western weight Stetsons are some of my favorite felts to play with, they’re so versatile!

 

[thekiyote]

Probably not the typical type of hat that gets posted here, but I just finished this guy. It was my first attempt at aging.

Next few hats of mine are definitely going to focus more on ribbon work

 

[thekiyote]

First time using my millinary ribbon board! It's going to have NO puckers this time! (I hope...) *Cackles maniacally*

Edit: It had puckers. I have a lot of work to do on my brim binding, and machine sewing in general... xD

 

[RickP]

One of my older cattle rancher, morning coffee co-horts brought me one of his hats for a bit of steaming and maintenance. Its a bit large for me, but I couldnt resist putting such a nice hat up top. Its a nice custom made low crown western by Capital Hatters in Stephenville, Tx. He said he had it made about 1970. It was his dressy go-to-auction-barn hat for several years. Beautiful 100% beaver.... absolutely wonderful felt. Fortunately Its not intimidating to work on such a nice lid because im not going to have to do much more than some brushing/ cleaning and a little steam to level out a bit of a side dip on the front brim. Appears that the leather sweat has drawn up just a bit over time.... just needs a bit of convincing to get it down closer to his ears. The fellow really has taken good care of this one..... a privilege to have it in my hands for a little bit.

 

[thekiyote]

Just finished the finishing on this hat! 100% Nutria body from Sunrise. It was honestly a dream to work with, dense, soft and able to be hand bashed (I didn't steam this teardrop shape in, I can change it up on demand)

I had a lot of fun working with the ribbon board to shape the brim binding. I still have a LOT of work I need to do to get better at that process (I've done a lot of hand stitching but not much machine stitching), and it shows a bit. Does give it a bit of a vibe, though.


I also played around with doing a contrasting color bow. The first version had a whole pink bow, but I felt the balance was off, so I ripped it off and added a blue keeper to it.

 

[Blare]

Just finished the finishing on this hat! 100% Nutria body from Sunrise. It was honestly a dream to work with, dense, soft and able to be hand bashed (I didn't steam this teardrop shape in, I can change it up on demand)

I had a lot of fun working with the ribbon board to shape the brim binding. I still have a LOT of work I need to do to get better at that process (I've done a lot of hand stitching but not much machine stitching), and it shows a bit. Does give it a bit of a vibe, though.


I also played around with doing a contrasting color bow. The first version had a whole pink bow, but I felt the balance was off, so I ripped it off and added a blue keeper to it.

It is beautiful!

 

[thekiyote]

It is beautiful!

Thank you! I’m at that stage of learning where I both feel like I’m starting to get a hang of hat making as well as seeing more and more where I can do better xD