Club Obi Wan

WalkingEye

That pic of the hat shaper seems like the profile view, which isn't bad. Before buying I'd ask them to show you a pic of it from the front to see what kind of taper it may have on the sides. For a good reblock. Take apart the hat first! All sewn elements should be removed: ribbon, liner and importan...

WalkingEye

Foam tape used for weather stripping does the trick. You should be able to find it at any good hardware store. You can also buy cheap felt at a craft store and cut it into strips if you only need a thin bit of padding.

WalkingEye

Hollowpond,
Found it: http://radioboston.wbur.org/2011/08/16/ ... iness-jobs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

WalkingEye

I've had the reverse problem. My noggin has shrunk! 5 years ago my hat size was a tight 7 1/2. After having lost a lot of weight over the last few years, I'm down to a 7 1/4. If I were to cut my hair off i'd probably be a 7 1/8.

WalkingEye

No derail Walking Eye. Good to see you around here again! Where you been? I wonder if there is a podcast of that somewhere. I would LOVE to hear it! Travis Other hobbies have been monopolizing my time! I'm becoming quite the finhead (rocketeer fandom) and have been drawing up plans to scratch build...

WalkingEye

Hey _! About a month ago the gentleman that owns vanson was interviewed on a local Boston NPR affiliate. It was an interesting talk about the struggles of small businesses in the current economy. He seemed like a nice guy. The second the show introduced him I thought, 'man, too bad _ isn't in Boston...

WalkingEye

To be honest, I think everyone here has given up all their secrets. There just aren't any real commercial retail outlets for the goods we're all interested in. Sweatbands are really a niche product; and I know the professional hatters that frequent this board source theirs from a wholesaler. As is t...

WalkingEye

Also... When looking for hat ribbon you want a rayon/cotton blend or just rayon; not polyester. Polyester ribbon is stiff and doesn't lend itself as easily for hatmaking.

WalkingEye

Hi, Etsy is an online market-place for people to sell hand made goods. They also have a vintage section. Go to etsy.com, on the drop box next to their search bar click on vintage and then type in grosgrain ribbon. Or you can just click this link: http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=G...

WalkingEye

I've had good luck finding vintage hat quality grosgrain on etsy.

WalkingEye

Absolutely beautiful Steve!

WalkingEye

Eric, if you're gonna use pine or other very softwood make sure it doesn't have copius amounts of pitch! Also, be prepared for the wood checking from the heat and moistured used in blocking. The oak will potentially last longer but it will take far more effort to actually cut and carve the block. Po...

WalkingEye

Brains song, is that some sort of cerebral melody? Lol.

WalkingEye

Well, my guess is that the ribbon is rare. If it weren't we'd all have incredibly SA ribbon on all our hats without any hassle in obtaining it. So that would mean the ribbon they are using is most likely either vintage (doubtful) or a special order. Having this elusive ribbon adds to the appeal of b...

WalkingEye

yes you have my friend. I respect your opinion. but you gotto admit that screen grabs has helped just alittle thruout the years? well, IMO it has :TOH: but, if Ford says he only wore one jacket thruout LC then how can anybody explain this? http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g182/indianaholt/lccollar...

WalkingEye

Great stuff _! Thank you buddy!

WalkingEye

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40125

WalkingEye

Are we sure that the raiders ribbon is 1 1/2 on the dot? I've been buying vintage ribbon and have found some ribbon that is a 16th shy of an inch, some that is 16th to an 8th of an inch over. One of the ribbons i bought is antique, it is an inch and 7/16ths, in a color called bittersweet that is sp...

WalkingEye

Are we sure that the raiders ribbon is 1 1/2 on the dot? I've been buying vintage ribbon and have found some ribbon that is a 16th shy of an inch, some that is 16th to an 8th of an inch over. One of the ribbons i bought is antique, it is an inch and 7/16ths, in a color called bittersweet that is spo...

WalkingEye

Dave, great story about your doctor.

Here are some pics! they're not the best, my camera stinks. i hate point and shoot cameras! one of these days i'll buy a dslr and be able to take some nicer shots.

http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... 20Johnson/

WalkingEye

My hat just arrived! and it's HUGE! it sinks over my ears. my guess is it's somewhere between a 7 1/2 and a 7 3/4, where my head is around the 7 1/4ish range. Now this is not a problem what so ever though, as the hat has some significant taper and the extra size gives me some room for reblocking it ...

WalkingEye

Will do.

WalkingEye

Hey Dave, i just bought the brown one! thanks for the heads up! i think i can work out some of the taper (even if i have to reblock her) and make a very nice indy lid. i found some info, on the fedora lounge (some of the posts are even by Fedora), that seems to indicate that the blue labelled HJ's a...

WalkingEye

The video's are very helpful! I wonder if there could be a method to capture the shape of someones head. Perhaps even something low tech... hatters used to have a device called a conformer at their disposal to do just that. it was basically a two part machine. the first part was a large hat shaped ...

WalkingEye

not bad at all. :tup: might i suggest that if you make another block you add a bit more taper on the back.i think the dent needs to be a bit deeper though. a deeper dent should round out the arch on the top of the hat when viewed from the side. as the hat is now, the back of the center dent is fairl...

WalkingEye

i've been making hats for the last year and started by doing reblocks too. the puckering is probably just what you think it is. the block is most likely more stovepipe and or longer front to back than the shape the hat has now, causing a bit of stretching and puckering of the dry felt. when you go t...

WalkingEye

interesting idea. though you should always be cautious when introducing steam to the sides of your hat. personally i would avoid doing this as the amount of steam needed could cause taper on the hat. especially on thinner rabbit felt. good luck should you try it. i'd be interested in seeing pictures...

WalkingEye

That has to be one of the craziest hats i've ever seen! i love it. kind of looks like a caricature of a Tom Baker Dr. Who hat. Yes with a 6 inch crown and 4 inch brim you'll be able to block it up a size or two and still have enough brim for an indy fedora. though, as is, it is a neat hat in its own...

WalkingEye

Show the pics. i've seen a couple of #52's come up on ebay that could make a good Indy hat.

WalkingEye

That's true. In 10 short years the car companies went from bragging about their overhead 'hat' room of their cars (a BIG selling point in 1950 Plymouth/Dodge ads, and literally catering to men and women and their headwear) to no head room what so ever! Regards! Michaelson How true. You can ask my w...

WalkingEye

I don't think that somebody could tell you :-k As in adults, children have hugely varying head sizes and shapes, so the only way of telling would be measuring. A quick note on measuring the one year old: within the first 2 years of our lives our head grows at an alarming rate (as does the rest, we ...

WalkingEye

I'm making a couple of Indy fedoras for my friends young sons. As the hats will be a suprise gift and not having any children of my own, i can't determine their head sizes. One son is a year old and the other is three. can anyone help me out with a rough estimate of what the average head sizes would...

WalkingEye

Hey, I've worn my fedora and leather jacket twice to the Houston Rodeo, and never got a second look from anyone. ;) As a sidenote, stingy brim wearers, 'help' may be on the way. I've seen several commercials of a new show on SciFi (or SyFi, what ever they're calling themselves this week :roll: ) wi...

WalkingEye

you could try the lampshade trick.

WalkingEye

a good friend of mine, an older gent, (he was also a good friend of my grandfather and is quite the hat afficianado) saw me wearing one of my lids that has a raiders bash and commented, "ahh great hat! I've always loved that icebreaker pinch." Further evidence that people actually wore our...

WalkingEye

throw a proper grosgrain ribbon on it and you'll have yourself a fine SOC.

WalkingEye

petersham has an open scalloped edge while grosgrain has a closed bound edge. interestingly, many retailers/sellers of ribbon i've found refer to petersham as 'petersham grosgrain.'

WalkingEye

Can you enlighten us with a description or photo of the Cavanaugh edge? I have a vintage hat with an unusual edge treatment. I'm not sure if it is what you are referring to. Indiana Jake the cavanaugh edge is like a welted edge only rather than being stitched in place the fold (welt) is felted to t...

WalkingEye

i found this:

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/6822 ... r-Men.html

not into western hats myself but this ones on sale. 40 bucks aint bad.

never mind didn't notice it was sold out.

WalkingEye

my assumption would be that it's fairly close to wool felt. found this on the web: In the last 18-24 months the price of the raw rabbit fur has gone through the roof due to the Chinese clothing manufacturers using more real fur. For this reason, RHE Hatco who makes hats for Stetson, Resistol, Dobbs,...

WalkingEye

As a sort of adjunct to this what can I use as felt stiffener? Is there something I can use to partially 'set' the bash once I have something I like? stiffener is really just shellac diluted in alcohol. you could buy some clear shellac and make a solution by thinning it with denatured alcohol. if y...

WalkingEye

if you do a search you'll find a couple topics about this already. if i remember correctly he wore Akubras until recently, he's since replaced them with a custom clint eastwood replica and an adventurebilt.

WalkingEye

Do you know if your father bought his hat from somewhere in the US, or was it in Europe? Do you know how long ago he bought it, and if it might still be available (with the center crease)?

http://www.villagehatshop.com/dorfman-p ... hable.html

WalkingEye

Great job Gil!

WalkingEye

yes, you have to take out the ribbon, sweat and liner to re-block a hat. a good reblocking will remove tight pinch creases. i'm not sure about the discoloration though... i suppose it could depend on what kind of discoloration.

WalkingEye

Great job Jason!

is that the felt from caliqo? is it the dark brown or the cocoa?

WalkingEye

how stiff is the hat? you could cover the inside of the hat as well with clingwrap then paper mache the inside to make it nice and stiff. you would need to build up enough thickness of paper mache to make it rigid.. though that would be rather time consuming. or you could try tightly bunching up new...

WalkingEye

Ohio is right, make a mould of the outside of the homburg. if you want to make a reusable negative mould you have to make it in two pieces. you have to make a ### at the middle of the crown that is the same shape as the contour of the hat then make the mould of one half, remove the ### and carve in ...

WalkingEye

Just a question. What are you willing..or better yet...what do you want to pay for a rounding jack? I have made a few in the last year or so. Regards, Ohio the one's i've made function perfectly fine so i'm not in need of one currently. if i wanted, i could make a copy of a vintage one like De coup...

WalkingEye

De coup makes beautiful tools... just way too far out of my price range. especially when it's more fun just making it yourself. DIY! I think the price is relative. The only other man who makes new rounding jacks is JW of JW Hats. He gets 750.00, for one! Or at one time he did. I paid 250.00 for the...

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