My only concern is the repeated stating of "great quality" beaver felt and yet we are seeing a few of these taper pretty badly. I would think a great quality felt-even new- would still take a bit more abuse or moisture without tapering that fast.
Shawnkara hit on this point but let me expand, just a little. The statement "great quality felt" is a factual statement. If one equates a very high quality felt with the taper element, then, there is no high quality felt being made today, anywhere in the world. A case that comes to mind is the Heritage quality Akubra. Now, this body is made from the best rabbit felt, or hare felt availiable today. But, with that said, all of my Deluxes tapered faster than the Imperial line. Was the felt finer than the Imperial line? Yes!! But, it also tapered quicker. Now, with that said, my rabbit hats will always taper quicker than the beaver.
You can make any felt less taper prone if you load it down with stiffener, and the PB is a good example. But, even the stiffener will not alleviate the taper demon. I have reblocked scores of PBs that were tapered like a witches cap.
So, stiffener will slow it down, but will not stop it.
Fedora- does it maybe have to do with hat size? Are there different sized "cones" used for different hat sizes? Meaning that if a hat has to be stretched more for a larger hat, than a larger 'cone' is used, and smaller hat, smaller 'cone'. So if too small a 'cone' was used, the hat tapers quickly.
You are dead on in the body size affecting the final product. From my manufacturer one body size makes two different sized hats. That is, I use a red string body to make a 7 1/4 and a 7 3/8. I use a yellow stringed body to make a 7 1/2 and 7 5/8. Now, it would be very difficult to make a good looking hat say a size 7 by using a body that was intended for a size 7 1/2. Why? Well, I cannot shrink a beaver body down enough. And one of the major reasons that I scratch my head ever so often with the taper stories. Here in my hat shop, I have tried to save time by just shrinking a hat that the customer thought was too tall, by using steam and heat and water and fast drying. I cannot get the beaver bodies to shrink down in crown height by just using steam and heat. And I have an industrial steamer!! Gobs of heat and steam. I have to literally remake the hat, with the brim break being relocated and the excess hat trimmed off of the brim. Now, if I cannot get the crown to shrink down, how can this same felt taper as quickly as I have heard a couple of folks refer to? Not that I doubt the accounts, it is just that I cannot repeat this extreme taper in my shop using the same bodies. And this puzzles me to no end. Of course, a felt body does not have to shrink much to show a bit of taper, but normally a slight taper can be creased out of a hat. It is only when the taper becomes rather conish that the restyle job has no effect.
Don't sweat it TR. There are no dumb questions. I have been where you are at now, and most old hands here have been there as well. I chased after that "taper proof" felt for years. So far, it has escaped my search. I have owned scores of Akubras and they all tapered. Each and every one of them. The nature of the rabbit felt is when it starts to taper, it goes into overdrive and does it very fast, while beaver generally tapers at a slower rate. There is a difference in the rate.
I have to look at the overall snapshot when I am evaluating my hats. To date, I have made over 400 of these hats. By and large, I get no complaints. I have seen pics of my hats that still looked great, and I have seen pics of my hats that show a good bit of taper. In almost every case of the really tapered ones, something adverse to the felt has happened. Like a saturation with water, or an overuse of steam and heat in a restyle attempt. The hats did not taper sitting in a vacuum. I have as I stated earlier, received hats in for a reblock that had so little taper that I could not see it. Some of these hats were really worn in the inside, with dirty liners and sweat ladened sweatbands. SO, it was apparent the hats had been worn, and worn alot. But no taper. And I have received hats that were tapered, while looking unworn. I think the difference was the steam used by the owner. The worse thing you can do to a felt hat is steam it. Steam relaxes the felt, and does away with the "set" placed into the felt using a dry, hot iron. The next worse thing is saturating the felt with water. As much as we would like them to be, a felt hat is not rain gear, although it can be used as rain gear, but you must live with the taper afterwards. To the old guys of yesteryear and the cowboys, the taper issue was not an issue at all. The most felt friendly block shape is a tapered block used to make a tapered hat. You see lots of these. Only when you stretch the cone into a straight sided hat do you run into the taper issue. And that is because the body is a stretched out cone. It will always revert to that shape, but tends to do it less over time and reblocks. regards, Fedora
this is posted for my dear Texas Rider, hard believer of the brown hat in the airplane scene in raiders
euro I have no idea the exchange of money. If you do please let me know.
