How a factory hat is made - Resistol

Post by **Dalexs** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:41 pm

This was recently posted over on Fedora lounge. I thought it was kinda cool.
Yeah, they make cowboy hats, but what the hey, it's still interesting!

http://www.resistolhat.com/video.php

Indiana G · Post by **Indiana G** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:41 pm

give me some of those machines and i'll open up my indy g hatshop!!!!

thanks for sharing dalexs....very informative!!!!!

Weston · Post by **Weston** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am

That was amazing! I'll be looking at my Stetson hats a little differently now, and at the same time I have renewed and increased admiration for the craftsmen here that do so many of those automated functions by hand, one at a time.

Weston

Indiana G · Post by **Indiana G** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:01 am

Weston wrote:That was amazing! I'll be looking at my Stetson hats a little differently now, and at the same time I have renewed and increased admiration for the craftsmen here that do so many of those automated functions by hand, one at a time.

Weston

when i saw them sew that sweat in, in like 6 seconds.........i wept a little

IndyFalco · Post by **IndyFalco** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:14 am

That as a GREAT video. I love watching episodes of Modern Marvels/How it's made on the discovery channel and this video fell right into that place for me

Thanks for the post

Post by **Michaelson** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:31 am

Watch the coning operation when it first creates the cone. THAT'S why we brush our hats the way we do, as it re-tightens the fibers in the way the hat cone originally spun the fur into it's shape.

Regards! Michaelson

Indiana Strones · Post by **Indiana Strones** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:36 am

I remember a very similar video of the Akubra factory. Anyone has the link?

Jakob Emiliussen · Post by **Jakob Emiliussen** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:38 am

A very nice insight! Love it!

Regards
Emiliussen

Post by **Dalexs** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:53 pm

Indiana G wrote:
Weston wrote:That was amazing! I'll be looking at my Stetson hats a little differently now, and at the same time I have renewed and increased admiration for the craftsmen here that do so many of those automated functions by hand, one at a time.

Weston
when i saw them sew that sweat in, in like 6 seconds.........i wept a little

I've noticed that my local, small town shoe repair shop has a sewing machine that would probably work very well for that operation.
It's an older guy, and looks like its been around forever.

I thought I heard somewhere that back in the old days, shoe repair shops also did hat repairs. This could explain it.

Post by **Michaelson** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:55 pm

There was one in my home town back in the 1960's, and had been around for decades.

Also, Peters Brothers started out as a dual shoe repair/hatmaking shop when they first opened. The demand for shoe repair slowly died, and they converted the shop to nothing but hats. So yes, the two have gone hand in glove for years.

Regards! Michaelson

MustangLoverMex · Post by **MustangLoverMex** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:12 pm

I always wanted to know this!! Thank's a lot for sharing this!
Best Regards,
-Alfonso

Long John Tinfoil · Post by **Long John Tinfoil** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:57 pm

That was fascinating. My hats are off to all the makers here!!

LJ

Canada Jones · Post by **Canada Jones** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:30 pm

Thanks so much for this post. That video was very very interesting.
best
Canada

BoilermakerJones · Post by **BoilermakerJones** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:58 pm

Strones,

I saw that Akubra video too. The link where I saw it went dead a while back.

It was interesting that Akubra forms the cones with a wet slurry of fur, more like making paper. Resistol uses vacuum to attract the dry fur to the cone and then gets it wet afterwards. I cringed seeing that worker without any kind of mask with all that dry fur in the air, but then I think they opened the normally closed chamber for the video.

Thanks for the link Dalexs!

Matt

twilekjedi · Post by **twilekjedi** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:01 am

How interesting. Each hat goes through a lot before it gets to the consumer, doesn't it?

BoilermakerJones wrote:I cringed seeing that worker without any kind of mask with all that dry fur in the air, but then I think they opened the normally closed chamber for the video.

I did the same thing, too. In fact, there was a lot of particulate matter flying around in the air throughout that factory. I only saw one worker wearing a protective mask in that entire video. My hometown's major industry was fabrics so I know a little about byssinosis (brown lung disease) which is caused by breathing in dust from processing of hemp, cotton and flax, but is there a similar disease from fur particles? The only disease I'm familiar with that occurred in hatters was "mad hatter's disease" but we don't see that in modern times because we don't use mercury in the felting process anymore. By the way, does anyone know why mercury was used in felting? What did it do?

Long John Tinfoil · Post by **Long John Tinfoil** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:27 am

It made the hatters crazy.

twilekjedi · Post by **twilekjedi** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:37 am

Well, I know that -- hence the name mad hatter's disease, but I mean why did they use it in the felting? Isn't heat and moisture all that's needed to bind the fur? Did it strengthen the bond somehow?

Indiana G · Post by **Indiana G** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:02 am

from what i understood, mercury maximized the intertwining of the fur. it made for a very stable felt once processed in that manner....very resistant to shrinking and tapering.

i'd love to find a felt body that was treated with mercury.

Fedora · Post by **Fedora** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:30 am

Yeah, the mercury actually ballooned the fur itself. I saw a Wild West Tech series on tv, that stated the ladies on the evening in the Old West used mercury nitrate as mascara. This same chemical puffed up the eyelashes so as to appear fuller and more noticable.

It had the same effect on fur. Sorta like popcorn. This also raised the scales up on the fur that made for much better felting. Mercury felted hats have a particular feel to them that you don't experiece anymore, unless you luck upon one from ebay.

One reason beaver fur was the most desired fur, long, long ago, was because it would felt well without mercury. Once it was discovered that mercury would make the cheaper and more plentiful rabbit fur, felt really well, giving it a luxurious feel to boot, this was a boon to hatters who could offer really nice hats at a fraction of the cost of a pure beaver hat. And mercury was the reason. Once mercury was outlawed, in the late 40's, the quality of rabbit hats sunk. Hydrogen pyroxide was its replacement, but this chemical never really did the job that mercury did.

Today, mercury could be used, safely, but of course, hats are not in fashion. It would not be feasible to do so. So, we get subpar felt, as compared to the mercury felt. But, that is all that we know. We were not around when the good felt was being made.

I got a few mercury bodies a few years ago from a guy, and Renderking owns one of those. How's that mercury felted hat holding up Renderking? My only regret is that I did not keep one of these for me!!! A big mistake. Fedora

twilekjedi · Post by **twilekjedi** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:34 pm

Fedora wrote:Yeah, the mercury actually ballooned the fur itself. ... This also raised the scales up on the fur that made for much better felting. Mercury felted hats have a particular feel to them that you don't experiece anymore, unless you luck upon one from ebay.

Thanks, Fedora, that makes sense. Sorry, I'm a little obsessive about knowing how and why things are done. I can go to sleep tonight, now!