Reshaping the Downtowner

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Fri Aug 26, 2011 7:49 pm

Ok, so the other day I posted my first thread about some "creases" or wrinkles that I had noticed when doing a dry reshape of my Coyle's Downtowner. While I still haven't figured out what caused this, I have decided to do something about the shape of the hat. With room-temp clean water I have misted (heavily) the crown and brim, opened the crown and have laid the hat on the brim on the kitchen counter. I placed double stacks of paperbacks around the brim and worked the "factory" pinch and dent out of the crown. I then allowed it to dry, only to start this same process over again. I realize that the hat may shrink a little, which is ok since its a 61 and I wear a 60. That was a mistake on my part on the order form. Anyway, I am going to try and get some pics up, so everyone can watch as I either succeed or fail trying to make a soft, quality fedora out of this rather stiff hat. Don't get me wrong, its a great hat, but not to my taste as it was out of the box. Stay tuned. Any thoughts or comments are welcomed.

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Fri Aug 26, 2011 8:10 pm

Ok, so here is the pic showing how I'm doing this.

There is nothing INSIDE the hat, which is the only thing that bothers me. Here is a pic of the hat with the books removed.

And here is a picture showing the nicely flattened brim that I have now.

So.... Comments?? How bad am I screwing up?

IndyJedi · Post by **IndyJedi** » Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:11 pm

I've never used that method but it seems to be working ok. I boil some water in a teapot and use the steam to shape the hat, this has always worked nice for me.

gwyddion · Post by **gwyddion** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:16 am

Shape wise you're not messing up. though I am quite curious where you would want to go with the brim shape now you made it that flat.

I do want to tell you that making a hat that has as much stiffener in it into a soft hat is nigh impossible

If you get it soft only some steam or some rain will re-activate the stiffener making it stiff again.

Also, when a hat shrinks it mostly tapers (turning from this : | | into this: / \.) This is due to the conical shape that hat-bodies have before blocking it into shape.

Regards, Geert

Jedirun · Post by **Jedirun** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:19 am

It doesn't look bad, it looks pretty similar to how my Fed III looked when I got it. I would strongly recommend watching John Penman's videos on shaping a hat for the next step. His methods worked well for me.

Dr. Jones

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:52 am

Ok so here's an update for this morning. Here is a pic of the hat bashed and setting flat on my kitchen counter.

And here's two of the lid on my ugly nogin. Thanks to my wife for taking the pictures. Lucky for me, ugly really won't break a camera.

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:54 am

I really wish that I had taken some "before" pictures of the hat, showing its shape and stiffness. I'm pretty sure that most of you know what the downtowner looks like, though. I did pick up a SMALL amount of taper but not much, and the hat fits better now.

Jedirun · Post by **Jedirun** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 10:34 am

That looks pretty good. Is it still soft?

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Dr. Jones

Chewbacca Jones · Post by **Chewbacca Jones** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 11:49 am

Not bad at all, especially considering the challenging "subject."

MyQuest · Post by **MyQuest** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:56 pm

Mmmm...not too bad considering. I thought the crown might taper a little more than that. Looks like you were able to get the brim to curl up again to.

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:51 pm

Jedirun wrote:That looks pretty good. Is it still soft?

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- Dr. Jones

Yeah, its considerably softer than it was. And it will now sit flat and the brim goes right back to the way you see it when placed on the head. All in all I'm pleased with the outcome. Next project will be a reblock of a black 5x beaver cowboy hat that I have.

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:18 pm

Here's my lid after a full day of tweaking and shaping. I think,this is a really good picture. This was taken under the blue-white light of my phone camera flash.

Chewbacca Jones · Post by **Chewbacca Jones** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:57 am

Looks great! Very nice work!

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 1:16 pm

Is it just me, or is the right side of the brim (left in the above photo) not cut the same as the left?

Indiana Joyce · Post by **Indiana Joyce** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:57 pm

Might just be the lighting. I wish I had gotten one of these hats, can't seem to get my size now. I had the same idea about reshaping. I really like what you did with the camel humps and the indents.

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:06 pm

Indiana Joyce wrote:Might just be the lighting. I wish I had gotten one of these hats, can't seem to get my size now. I had the same idea about reshaping. I really like what you did with the camel humps and the indents.

Thanks for the props. I think it's a great hat. It's not an Akubra, Penman, or AB, but it's a nice hat. The reshape went great, and so far the hat is still soft. It reacts like the aforementioned hats as far as shape and softness. The idea was to wind up with a LC look, and I think that I have accomplished that.

jlee562 · Post by **jlee562** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:38 pm

An improvement for sure, but to be completely honest, I don't think the blockshape is optimal for an LC hat, looks more TOD.

MS Jones · Post by **MS Jones** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:25 pm

So are you thinking a more flat top block for LC?

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