Which custom hatter?

[tonyb]

I notice that many mention the wonderful signature blocking of Art and Optimo, and others. Can I assume that by this we mean that these hats are made with stiffening agents and that the crown shape is set by the maker in question?

Doesn't anyone out there buy open crown custom made hats without stiffeners and just bash 'em to taste at home?

Or am I missing or miss understanding something? E

It appears that you're not so much missing something as finding your way to it.

Different blocks and flanges produce different crown and brim shapes and sizes. What a hat maker can do is determined to a significant degree by his equipment and his skill at working with it.

I'd imagine that Art put considerable thought into christening his hat business "Vintage Silhouettes." He is better at conveying that vintage hat "vibe" than anyone I'm familiar with. Yet his hats always look like his hats, if that makes sense. And I really dig some of the wilder stuff I've seen him produce of late. I'm thinking Not Bogart's chocolate-body-with-green-ribbon lid, for one, and a homburg Art made for Weegee a while back, the one with the multi-colored bow. Yes, these are hats whose dimensions would have fit right in 60 or 70 years ago, but the ribbon work says "something Art Fawcett made quite recently."

To answer your questions, though ...

The custom hat maker gets his bodies from the felter in a decidedly unfinished condition. The bodies are quite fuzzy and only vaguely hat shaped. The hat maker determines the sort of hat any particular body will become by his choice of block and flange and trim. And, of course, how he executes each of the many steps along the way.

You can indeed get a custom hat made with an open crown, to shape to your own liking. But the sort of look(s) that hat will yield (degree of taper, fullness of crown, etc.) is largely determined by the blocking.

Hat bodies (new ones, obviously) usually have enough stiffener when they leave the felting plant. I occasionally come across old hats with little stiffener left in them (I happen to have one; a stiff breeze would change its crown shape), but usually even very old hats are plenty stiff enough. Refurbishing them usually involves reblocking and ironing. The heat from the iron often reactivates the stiffener. So, the reblocked old hat is not only made smooth and wrinkle free, it has also had its "integrity" (there's a better word, no doubt) at least somewhat restored.

 

[zetwal]

I take it then that the amount of stiffener does not change when ordering an open crown rather than one blocked by the hatter? is that correct?

And what exactly do you mean by fullness of crown and taper? I notice that some crowns shoot straight up from the brim and that others taper in a bit at the brim-crown junction, and that some are more peaked at the top than others, etc. Are these the sort of measurements you're talking about? or are you going beyond even that to stress that no two blocks are exactly alike?

Let's say that I can specify what I want in terms of crown height, felt weight and texture and color, brim size, and ribbon and edge finish. Would fullness of crown and taper still be a variables that I could choose? I'm not saying that I would surely want to control that myself. I'm just trying to better understand the variables involved in producing one shape or look over another.

Thanks again for your patience and enlightening comments.