Wannabe hobby hatmaker – first reblock – but what now?

[Briscott]

First of all I would like to thank Marc and Mark Brody for their great hat making tutorials. I would not have even bought myself a hat block without their help.

This weekend I received my hat and crown block from hatblocks.co.uk .



The guy who made these is Owen from Guy Morse-Brown Hat Blocks and I must say that he did a wonderful work! He was never tired of helping me with all specifications figured out in many many emails and with the help of even more photos.

I followed the steps of the tutorials as good as I could, but perhaps some of you could look over my reblocking to give me some hints of what I could make better.

First step was, of course, removing ribbon and sweatband from my HJ (yes, thats a Poet, after lots of rain ):



Then I steamed the hat:



Followed by the blocking procedure:



After half an hour I did the Brim break with the Iron:



After everything was dry next day I flanged the brim:



... just to do it all over again, because the crown was not heigh enough. Although a new Poet has a very high crown it was impossible to get about 14cm with the first try. I pulled as hard as I could, but no chance, because the brim got to small.

So after another day this was the result:



The crown is now 14cm and the brim a bit smaller (sides 6cm, front and back 7cm). I really like it that way, just the color is a bit washed out now.


And now the problem: This really got me hooked on hatmaking and I'm really excited to go on now, but.... I can't. I need sweatbands, ribbons, linings, raw bodies, know how and ... talent!!! I don't wan't Marc, Steve or Oak to reveal their sources of course, so don't get me wrong! I just want to make my own Fedora, not with the intention to sell hats, just to say: „ Yes, I made that fedora myself.“. I know there are several members here who did so already, so perhaps they can help me finding sources for these things? Yes? Please?

I also thought about making a new forum :„howtomakeoneselfafedora.com“ or something like that where hobby hatmakers can compare notes and things like that. What do you think?

Thanks for hints, comments and dissuasion in advance.

[BendingOak]

The steps you see in Marc's Why it takes so long thread is just the giants steps or oval view of hat making. There are a lot of steps not shown in that thread and every hatters does the in-between steps ( lets call it) differently. Those are the steps you wont see a lot about but you made the first step.

[Indiana G]

ah yes, the incredible shrinking HJ felt.......no matter what, if you start out with an HJ in your size, you will lose some brim in getting the crown's taper out....no way around that.

i've been toying with buying a size 60 or 62 hat and shrinking it down to a 57 (my size) and reassembling her with a better sweat and liner.

my bottom line: why pay $300 for cruddy HJ felt? i'd rather spend $200 (if that) on an oversized fed iv and reblock that........or just use the current supplier

[Briscott]

Never thought of shrinking a HJ down, thanks for the idea.

I bought this 59cm HJ some years ago for about US$220,-. When I got that reblocked acceptably, I'll try blocking some new hat bodies. Just ordered a few unexpensive ones. Yes, better sweat and liner, that's my problem, where to get that.. but my search seems to go forward.

More between-steps... which could that be, perhaps stiffener or waterproofing steps, gotta think about that. But I'll find out! (someday)

[BendingOak]

Never thought of shrinking a HJ down, thanks for the idea.

I bought this 59cm HJ some years ago for about US$220,-. When I got that reblocked acceptably, I'll try blocking some new hat bodies. Just ordered a few unexpensive ones. Yes, better sweat and liner, that's my problem, where to get that.. but my search seems to go forward.

More between-steps... which could that be, perhaps stiffener or waterproofing steps, gotta think about that. But I'll find out! (someday)

a lot more , a heck of a lot more. I wouldn't even know where to begin to start. a lot more.