white gas or denatured alcohol ? NOW WITH BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS!

[riccardo]

Ok Ok, no kerosene for my hat, I'll try with isoparaffin ok?
A friend of mine said that naptha is isoparaffin, isn't so!?
I live 6o km south of Catania Siracusa, a Greeke city.

Best regards.
Riccardo.

 

[Mojave Jack]

I was stationed there, near Catania, at Sigonella back in 1981 and loved living in Sicily. People there really know how to live life without getting bogged down with modern problems. It seems that in Sicilia , domani is the answer for many things that Americans must do today.

BTW .. I'd not use that kerosine...lol

Oh, a Navy man! I think Italy was one of the best places I've ever been stationed. I was on the Adriatic side of the boot, though, near Brindisi. I'd go back there in a second, without thinking twice.

Rick, you've got me thinking now. Think this trick would work on an Akubra, or do they use a different type of stiffener? How could you tell? It looks like that took quite a bit of the stiffness out. Could you tell during the process how well it was working, or did you just make a guess and take it out? Lastly, without a block, would it shrink while drying from the white gas? Oh wait, one more: is lexol a leather treatment to keep the gas from over drying the leather?

OK, I'll let you answer those before I hit you with a few more! I've been thinking about trying to relax my Akubra Flinders a bit. The wind (which never stops out here) takes that thing away two or three times a day out in the field.

 

[rockyj]

I also agree

I'm with the rest. Nice Fedora Rick. Ya did a great job!

 

[GentlemanFarmer]

Nicely done Rick.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Thanks Fellas

Think this trick would work on an Akubra, or do they use a different type of stiffener? How could you tell? It looks like that took quite a bit of the stiffness out. Could you tell during the process how well it was working, or did you just make a guess and take it out? Lastly, without a block, would it shrink while drying from the white gas? Oh wait, one more: is lexol a leather treatment to keep the gas from over drying the leather?

OK, I'll let you answer those before I hit you with a few more! I've been thinking about trying to relax my Akubra Flinders a bit. The wind (which never stops out here) takes that thing away two or three times a day out in the field.

Please bear in mind, these are purely my anecdotal observations & I defer to the pros ten times out of ten.
I should think this would work similarly on any hat with a solvent based stiffener, but I am just experimenting, this is very much a "work in progress"
I happened to use a large trash bag rather than my usual 5 gal bucket due to the brim width and this further gave me the advantage of being able to palpitate the brim to get some notion of the degree to which it had "loosened up" .
Lexol was introduced to me as a leather treatment to use prior to stretching a hat, but I am sure it provides some measure of protection against any possible damage in the solvent. Though I have used the big three- naphtha, alcohol & white gas (coleman fuel) and none have damaged the leather in the slightest, neither have I noticed any "shrinkage".
By the way Jack, be sure to use the denatured alcohol to reduce the stiffener, I think Art established that the other two may clean but do not affect the stiffness.

 

[Mojave Jack]

OK, my test Stratton went into the alcohol tonight. Tomorrow I'll check it out and see what has happened. Here's the before pic.

This thing is stiff like cardboard, but fits great. I made a little frame out of carboard to support it while it soaks in the denatured alcohol, and am following your lead, Rick. I just agitate it from time to time, and try to massage the alcohol intothe brim, particularly. It was a $9.99 special on the 'bay, so into the alcohol it went!

 

[deanglen]

Nice job, Rick! Great hat!

dean