Ordered new rabbit fur felt hat body today in grey

[Darrell4926]

Hello All,

I ordered a new rabbit fur felt 180G weight hat body blank today in grey today, the hat body Blank
looked good I hope it looks just as good as it did when I ordered it. I also ordered a new sweatband,
calf leather in black and a white silk liner.

There must be a number of people making hats, the pickings were slim when it came to colors, weights.
I found a new place to buy hat body blanks, if all goes well I may have to make another hat after this grey.
I have found that sometimes when you order parts to make a hat, sometimes the actual item is either
to small or the color was darker or lighter than the website page ad.

The hat should produce a open crown around 6 inches and brim width of a little over 3 inches. I will check
the measurements as soon as I get it.

If there is any interest in my new project I will post photos of the new hat body, sweat and liner before
I start any work on the hat. I have a Grosgrain ribbon, I need to check but I think it is close to black or
is black. My order should be here in about 2 days, Tuesday or Wednesday, that is as long as FedEx is
running on time.

Darrell

[Howard Weinstein]

Have fun with your new hat project!

[Michaelson]

Winchester felt?

Regards! Michaelson

[Darrell4926]

Well, no it isn't a Winchester felt. I didn't know that you could buy a felt hat blank
from the Winchester hat company? I thought they made hats from starting with
making the felts and their finished product was a hat? They ship and sell hats in
just about every country. I would be surprised if they sold a rabbit fur felt hat blank
for less than a $100.00.

[jlee562]

My understanding is that Winchester will sell you hat blanks, but that they are not always accepting new customers.

Where did you get your body from? I've mostly been getting the pre-pounced FEPSA beaver bodies.

[Michaelson]

Winchester only makes blanks/cones/hat bodies. They do not make production hats of any kind at their factory. You’re thinking of the hats made under the name of the Winchester rifle company.

They’re located in the county seat of Franklin County, Tennessee, where I live, and is one of the deadest, drabbest buildings you’ve ever laid your eyes on.

Regards! Michaelson

[Darrell4926]

I bought my hat blank from a Millinery hat supply, their hat blanks look good, I will know more
when I get my order, they ship FedEx 2nd. from NY. They do have some beaver hat blanks but
all in black right now, they have some slim pickings right now.

Winchester sounds like it could be a cold place to work in the winter from your description, I thought
that the building looked ok in the YouTube video, interesting how they make the hat bodies, I think
they run each one through the rollers 16 times.

I use to buy my hat making materials at hat supply, they have order supply requirements, you can't just order
one sweatband, I had a hat that I only needed a sweatband, I found what I wanted on Etsy.

Michaelson do you know what a Winchester rabbit hat blank would cost or beaver?
I thought that the Winchester hat company made hats from the felting process to the finished hat??

[Michaelson]

No, I don't. I'm sure it changes from buyer to buyer, and the amount of bodies they sell over a years to to said hat maker.

I'm sure a buyer of, say, 10 bodies, pays more than someone who buys 50 or more over a years time. As has already been stated, they're not keen on selling to individuals or someone with no established track record. I'm also sure an established buyer gets better deals as time goes along. They just don't have time for small orders.

That said, it's also interesting how many hat companies sell Winchester felts under their own brand name. You could very well be getting a Winchester felt hat body from the NY seller. It's not uncommon.

Regards! Michaelson

[Darrell4926]

I just checked on my order and FedEx changed the delivery date to the 25th. my order is having trouble
getting out of NJ? Great so it is going to be delivered on Thanksgiving Day, according to their website
tracking which means maybe Friday. If the FedEx driver is working on the 25th, they will be making a
lot by the hour, more than what shipping cost. I don't think so.

[jlee562]

I thought that the Winchester hat company made hats from the felting process to the finished hat??

Winchester is a subsidiary of Stratton Hats, but those hats are not made at the Winchester factory. Stratton is based out of Illinois and primarily deal in uniform hats.

[Darrell4926]

Well my new hat blank was delivered on time, it is 180g weight and Smoke Grey,
rabbit fur felt. I have managed to get a little work done on it since the 24th.

This hat is going to be tuff to work with, it took me an hour just getting it
down onto my home-made hat block. I do have a very old hat flange that
I use, I purchased several off of someone on Ebay years ago. I wish that
I had a hat block for each one.

I am not real sure about how I am going to bash this hat? I haven't
decided that yet. So far it has a 6" open crown and the brim is 3.25 inches.

I might just make this a wide brim and cut it to 3.25 inches flat with a tear drop
top and a pinch front or a round crown, flat on top, like a gamblers top.

Maybe I will buy a granite color 160g for my next hat?

[Darrell4926]

Here are some photos of my homemade hat brim rounding jack.
It's not pretty but it gets the job done and it was the best that I
could do with a limited selection of tools, wood and items just
laying around.

[Darrell4926]

Hello Everyone,

Well, I am still working on my hat, I have had to steam it and soak it a couple of times to get it fully
seated on my crown block and I have made a few things to help with the battel, I made a puller
downer and a pusher downer. I have had to resort to using thumb tacks on the outer edges of the
brim to help with ironing out some wrinkles in the hat brim and block. The thumb tacks are placed
out as close to the edge of the brim as I can get them. When I use my rounding jack the holes made
by the tacks will be cut off. The pusher and puller downer aren't as nice looking as the tools being
sold on the web, but they do work. I also have a large piece of aluminum with a oval hole cut out
in the center that I will use to iron out the brim, top and bottom. So far, the open crown will be 6"
and with the cord in place, keeping the brim wet and using a steam iron I have been able to stretch
the brim out to 3 1/2".

Darrell

[Darrell4926]

My hat is just about dry, and I checked the measurements of the crown and brim.
The open crown is 5 7/8" and I will have to cut the brim to 3.25". I guess my hat
is going to be a wide brim Fedora, smoke grey, this hat has been a challenge, 180g
Western weight, pre pounced and stiffened. I did do a bit of sanding, pouncing inside
and out and the hat still weighs 180g. This felt repels water like beaver, but is suppose
to be pure rabbit. I still need to iron out some very stuborn wrinkles on the under side
of the brim, cut the brim down to size and work on the sweatband, I will be following
Steve Delk's instructions concerning the sweatband, then I will have to decide on the
hat band......

[Darrell4926]

Yesterday I had to rework my crown block, my block was close to 7" tall and I
was having trouble getting the brim break fixed properly, so I cut 3/4" off the
bottom and sanded down any high spots on the side of the block. After reworking
the block it is now 6" tall and 23 3/8" in circumference top to bottom. I had to soak
my felt and rework it completely again and put it on the block, this time it was easier
to get the felt on the block and flush on the top of the block. The felt has been drying
for 24 hours and it looks a lot better now. Working with a block that was close to 7" tall
made the hat work process harder.
So far this hat will have a open crown of 6" and a brim of 3.25", I ordered a few sweatbands
yesterday from a store on Etsy, calf leather, I checked out the leather before buying, smooth
feeling and comfortable. So, it will be a little while before I get to put the sweatband in.
I will bash the hat, either a Indy or a flat top. Not sure about the hat band yet, I could
make a leather hat band or use black grosgrain ribbon.

Anyone have a suggestion on the bash and hat band?

[Darrell4926]

I am waiting on a new sweatband to be delivered, looks like it will be here on the 27th.
I also order some materials to make a blocking spring for hat work, and that could be
delivered before Christmas, we will see. Looks like my hat project is on hold for a little
while, and that is ok, gives me time to work on a hat band and plans to make a new
hat block and do some touch up work or replace the wood that I have been using for
my work. I may even be able to do a little work, making my own Tollicker.

[Darrell4926]

This afternoon I started work on a leather hat band 1 1/4" wide, I cut down the ends for a belt buckle
and made an embossing design, applied antiquing to the band. Tomorrow I will do some more work,
sanding it down some, burnishing the edges, then dying it a buckskin dye, then apply a edge coating.
Should be ready by the time I get finished with the hat. I hope?

[Michaelson]

I know there’s been little comment, but I’ve enjoyed watching your progress. Nice project and you have a lot more patience than I do.

Regards!Michaelson

[Howard Weinstein]

I know there’s been little comment, but I’ve enjoyed watching your progress. Nice project and you have a lot more patience than I do.

Regards!Michaelson

Agreed! I hope you're having fun working on this ambitious project.

[Darrell4926]

Hello Everyone,
It has been a while since I have been on the forum, but after a lot of
trial, error and reworking, I am finished, I think?
In the process I made a couple of tools, I ordered some items and made
a crown blocking spring. I also made a Tollicker to make the crown brim
break. I made a leather hatband; it is 1.25" wide, silver center bar buckle.
I had to wait on another sweatband, I decided to go with a brown 2" wide
leather sweatband. I put a white silk liner in the hat, in the photo it isn't
stitched into place, I had to cut off 1" of the height, then stitch it in place.
I steamed and formed the crown and brim a couple of times. The first time
the crown was flat with a pinched front. The second time is called the
Cattleman style, but my hat brim has a slight curve up on the sides and
curved down in the front and back.

[Darrell4926]

This hat has a 3.25" wide brim, and the open crown was almost
6", the leather sweatband is soft and very comfortable, I sized
the sweatband to my head size, I cut the sweatband to 23 3/8"
long, then taped the ends together and checked the fit, I had to
cut off an additional 1/8" of the sweatband and recheck the fit,
all looked and felt right, I added the Ferule to the sweatband and
stitched it up. I sewed the sweatband into the hat, once below
the reed and then the reed tape, so it is secure. My hat size it 7 3/8"
or 59.2cm. I hand sew everything, so I have some sore fingers.

I know that it isn't a Fedora, but it is finally finished and I
made a few hat making tools along the way, I have a few
more tools in mind and I need to add some water repellant finish
on the tools. The puller downer works great and so does the
crown blocking spring.

Here is the Cattleman style hat. I think this will be the final
style for this hat. I could be wrong?

[tubasthebest]

Great work! You have made a beautiful hat. Thanks for sharing the process as you went along, it was fun to follow.

[Darrell4926]

Thank you, it was a little bit of a learning as you work project,
the fur felt is 180g for western hat styles and I discovered that
the felt has a lot of stiffener applied and this felt acted like beaver
because it seemed to repel water. The next hat I think that I will
get the 160g western weight, it has less stiffener applied, and it
might be a little easier to work with, I might be able to get a little more
brim width to go with my 6" tall crown block. If I can find the correct
materials I may have to make some new crown blocks.
The fur felts are already pounced so part of the work has been taken
care of for you, which is nice, cuts down on the work that you have to do.
I like making hats, it is interesting, fun to see what you can create
and how to get it done. I never knew anything about a blocking spring
or a Tollicker until I made this hat, the puller downer that I made was
a big help also.

[Darrell4926]

Check back later, I am going to make a new hat band for my hat, the one that I have on it
right now, is too big so I will be making a new hat band. More work, more changes, I have
to be the only person around that can turn a project into a career. Actually, a great teaching
process, I have made hats before, but I am trying something new and learning a lot. I will
be back to post photos as I make progress.

[Darrell4926]

It has been longer than I expected or wanted to take, but I have completed
the work on my new hat band. I looked a long time to find the buckle set
and the leather, but I managed to find everything and do all the embossing
work on the leather. Here is the hat with the new hatband. It is more of a
western style with the cattleman shaped crown.

[Illinois_Jones]

Looks good. Kind of has a Raylan Givens thing going on.

[Cimmerian]

That's a great looking hat. I second the Raylen Givens vibe - was that intentional?

[Howard Weinstein]

It has been longer than I expected or wanted to take, but I have completed
the work on my new hat band. I looked a long time to find the buckle set
and the leather, but I managed to find everything and do all the embossing
work on the leather. Here is the hat with the new hatband. It is more of a
western style with the cattleman shaped crown.

Wow, you do the leatherwork, too?! You put your creative talents to good use on this hat!

[Darrell4926]

Thank you all very much.

Yes, a Raylan Givens style hat is what I was going for, my wife and I really liked
that series. I was born in Harlan County, and I really like the hat that he wore in
the series. I did a little research on the hat and color; I think the hat color was
silver belly, but under different light conditions the hat color looked Beige, it
also had a sand color to it, then it also had a lite grey close to white. I had
trouble finding a fur felt hat in a Beige and the silver belly looked white, so I
settled on a smoke grey color.

I have often thought about making the Indiana Jones fedora that Harrison Ford
wore in Raiders of the Lost Ark in the Steel Grey color.

I only have one crown block, the right size for me, a size 7 3/8.

The leather hatband in this size is a bit of a challenge, but always fun to work
with leather.

Thank you all,
Darrell

[Illinois_Jones]

Yeah, Raylan's hat was a heavily modified Stetson. Not sure which model exactly, but I know the replica Stetson sells isn't great -- I think it's even wool.

FYI Justified is coming back.

[Darrell4926]

The hat that Raylan wore in the series was a Stetson with a 4" brim turned
down slightly front and back and turned up slightly on the sides, it was a
6X Beaver Felt and the hatband was 1/2" wide with a basket weave pattern,
the embossing tools that I have are too big to create the basket weave pattern
correctly, so I settled on the barbed wire stamp embossing tool and applied
Antiquing Jell to the leather to color and get the pattern to stand out a bit.
The Silver Belly color in Beaver is something kind of unique, it seems to change
color with the amount of light exposure.
This was just information that I was able to find on the hat.
The nice thing about a beaver felt is it repels water naturally, you can fold it up
sit on it, crush it and you can put it back into shape with ease, but it is expensive
and black was the only color that I could find.

Thank you for the update, Illinois-Jones, I didn't know that Justified was going
to be back at all. My luck it will be on a tv channel that I don't have access to.

[Chose Poorly]

Not to start a debate, but the hat Timothy Olyphant wore in the series wasn’t actually a Stetson, though it was modeled after one. In the Elmore Leonard stories, Raylan Givens wears a Stetson Open Road as stated in the text of the first appearance of the character. As many of you know, this is a very common model of hat still worn by many US lawmen (and hipsters) today.

For the series, Raylan Givens’ hat was custom made by Baron Hats of Hollywood, loosely based on the Stetson Open Road, but with a wider, raw-edge brim and a leather band in place of the ribbon. Baron has a hat on display in their shop signed by Timothy Olyphant, accompanied by a photograph of him wearing it. The hat is available as a custom order on their website for $700 in pure rabbit and $1,100 in pure beaver (insane prices, I know). https://baronhats.com/collections/shop- ... -justified

The closest, currently available, factory Stetson I’ve seen to what Baron made for the show is the Stetson Carson in Silver Belly from their New Frontier Collection. It is 6X Beaver Felt as you mentioned, and comes with a color-matched, braided leather band. I used to own one and had replaced the band with a saddle brown basketweave tooled leather band like the one from the show, but I found the crown too short and didn’t like the fit for my head shape, so I sold it. It’s available at Billy’s Western Wear for $239. https://billyswesternwear.com/stetson-f ... lverbelly/

[Darrell4926]

Thank you for the update, I checked out the two-web links that
you posted and I was able to get a better look at the basket weave
pattern and the shape of the hat without the shadows. I guess
when you're doing research on the web, you need to triple check
everything.
My hat had an open crown just slightly under 6" before bashing,
it sits a little higher, I don't like a low crown hat and I think the open
road style has a low crown height, maybe 4.5". I could be wrong?

[Chose Poorly]

You’re right. That’s what I didn’t like about the Carson. Your hat looks great by the way!

[Darrell4926]

Thank you, Sir,
I was thinking that maybe I need to do a little more bashing on my hat, however, I just changed my mind.
I like making hats, but with one size block in good condition, you can only do so much.
My son liked the hat, so he tried it on, I think that he must wear a size 7 5/8 or bigger, the hat sat about
1" above his ears.
It might be time to make a larger block. My other block needs a bit of work, I think it is big enough to
make a size 7 1/4 with a 6" open crown. I really like the high crowns.

[Darrell4926]

I started working on another hat, I don't know how it will turn out or if
it will work out. The rabbit fur felt hat is sitting on the crown block drying,
this hat is going to be open crown, almost 6" and a 3" brim, and I am going
to try to put a pencil curl in the brim, soft brown leather sweatband and
maybe a 3/4" wide hatband, black silk liner. So far, this project has been
a real challenge.

[Howard Weinstein]

I started working on another hat, I don't know how it will turn out or if
it will work out. The rabbit fur felt hat is sitting on the crown block drying,
this hat is going to be open crown, almost 6" and a 3" brim, and I am going
to try to put a pencil curl in the brim, soft brown leather sweatband and
maybe a 3/4" wide hatband, black silk liner. So far, this project has been
a real challenge.

That's great that you keep trying and learning new techniques as a challenge!

[Darrell4926]

I have some photos of my new hat that I am working on, I am moving a little slow
with this hat project because I am learning some new hat work in this process.
What I have in mind for this hat is a size 7 3/8 open crown, 3" wide brim that
I am learning how to make a pencil curl by hand. I dyed the hat a couple of times
and the results gives the hat an old look and I have had to stretch the brim out
to the size that I wanted to start with. The sweatband is a brown color and I had
to hand sew the reeding tape and new reed into place by hand, I need to learn how
to use a sewing machine and get the right needle and black thread for the machine.
Work in progress, tonight I cut the brim down to 3", next step sew the sweatband
in place. Then the pencil curl, maybe by the time that I get the curl done I will be
able to work on a hatband.

[Darrell4926]

I started out with a chocolate-colored rabbit fur felt hat that I had used to make a Indy style Fedora,
I stripped it down to the bare rabbit fur felt hat body, my plan was to use hair dye to change the color
of the hat, I wanted to change the color to a grey color, so I used a couple boxes of blonde hair dye and
after the first box the color was a sand color, the second color created a mottled color, sand and lite
colors along with some dark colors. So I decided to re-dye the hat back to brown, the results was a red
mottled color. I decided to just give up on the hat, however after the hat a mottled look to it, so I decided
to see what I could do with the hat. I decided that I wanted a hat with a high crown and a 3” wide brim.
The brim was the biggest battle because the brim was tapered on the sides, the front and back were cut to 3”
and the sides were cut down to 2 ¾”, so I had to soak the hat and stretch the hat down over the crown
block and use a block spring, then I put wet heavy cloth on the brim, used a steam iron and I ironed the
brim, then stretched the brim out as far as I could pull it, then used push pins to anchor the brim edges
in place. Then waited until the hat felt was dry and measured the brim width, I found out that the brim
was not as wide as I wanted it so I had to wet the brim and use the iron again stretching the brim out to
a little past the 3” mark. I repeated this process three times to get the width that I wanted and after the
third time I put a blocking cord around the block and felt.

[Darrell4926]

While the hat felt was drying, I worked on another problem, I wanted to put a pencil curl in the brim of this
hat, something that I had never done and didn’t have the tool that I would need to make the curl. I decided
to use what I had on hand to either make a tool out of wood to use when I made the curl or find something
else to use. I decided to bend a piece of brass rod that was ¼” in diameter, all I needed to do was to bend
the rod into the shape that I needed, I used a small table vise and muscle to bend the brass into the shape
that I wanted, when I finished, I needed to test my new hat tool, so I used a old stripped down hat felt and
a fabric steamer. I steamed the edges and using the brass I created a curl in the brim of the old hat by bending
the edge of the brim over the edge of the brass rod, I had to work my way around the hat brim twice to get a
decent hat curl, the brass rod seemed to work just fine.

[Darrell4926]

The next problem that I had to tackle was to make a leather sweatband for the hat, I had a piece of soft leather,
however, I had to find some reeding tape and a new reed, I checked out a few places on the web and order some
reeding tape 1-1/4” wide, new reed, silk liner. I had to hand sew the reeding tape to the leather, I didn’t have the
proper sewing machine needle or the thread, plus I am not good at using a sewing machine, so I had to hand sew
everything, I used my leather tools to make the holes in the leather and started sewing, everything worked out.
After the felt was dry and the brim was a little over 3” wide, I used my rounding jack and cut the brim to 3” wide,
then I stitched the sweatband into place and the hat liner.

I wanted a woven leather hatband, I searched a number of places and ordered nine feet of woven leather from a
seller on Etsy. I cut two pieces of leather and sewed them together side by side and then sewed the ends together
and made a band that would fit around the joint, then I found a Celtic concho to put on the hatband where the ends
of the hatband are connected, I stitched the hatband into place.

[Darrell4926]

The last thing to do was to work on the hat curl, so using steam and brass rod, I steamed and worked the curl into the
Brim, after finishing the brim curl I steamed the brim front and rear and gave the brim a slight downward turn.

I like the way the hat turned out. My first attempt at making a pencil curl and I made the curl by hand with a piece
of 1/4" brass rod. I am thinking about selling this hat and try to make another mottled hat and maybe try my hand
at brim binding. This hat is a size 7-3/8", 3" wide brim before I made the curl, the open crown is 5.5".

[Darrell4926]

Well, I have purchased two more 100% rabbit fur felts and two black silk liners. One of the felts is a
Camel color the other a Granite color. I am thinking about trying to create another mottled color hat
with the Camel color, just haven't decided on the color of the dye to use. I was thinking about using a
dark brown with a touch of red. Planning on a 6" open crown and a 3" wide brim, 1" wide dark brown
grosgrain hatband and 1/2" wide grosgrain brim edge binding. Of course, I could just skip the dye
color and make a camel color with a 6" open crown, 3" wide brim, dark brown hatband and brim edge
binding, 1/2" pencil curl and almost a flat brim except for the pencil curl.
The sweatband will be a light brown leather and I will either hand sew everything again or learn how to
use the sewing machine.

I worked on my rounding jack, hat crown block and puller downer tools this past. My rounding jack has
a larger curved bottom piece and the utility blade housing is larger and angled at 50 degrees so the blade
tip doesn't poke into anything; I made a crown block stand that will making putting the felts on the block
easier and gave everything a couple of nice coats of Varathane.

I am open to suggestions, does anyone have any ideas for either of these two projects?

[Darrell4926]

well, I am a little surprised to see that all of the photos of my hat work has been removed.
I guess this means that no one is really interested in this type of hat work?
There are different styles of hats, not all are Fedoras. Sometimes it is good to venture outside of a
certain style, when you do when making hats you actually learn new techniques, and with a little
research you gain knowledge.

[Illinois_Jones]

well, I am a little surprised to see that all of the photos of my hat work has been removed.
I guess this means that no one is really interested in this type of hat work?
There are different styles of hats, not all are Fedoras. Sometimes it is good to venture outside of a
certain style, when you do when making hats you actually learn new techniques, and with a little
research you gain knowledge.

There was a hosting issue last week and the forum was offline for several days. Basically a programming language conversion was forced and some things got jumbled up. It's still a work in progress, but I'm sure your stuff like is still around and will pop up eventually.