Club Obi Wan

Used a hatjack on my Adventurebilt that has always been a little too snug. {Not Steves fault but my fault in not ordering the correct size}
I left it in for 24 hours, the hat fits great now but do I need to put some kind of leather conditioner on the sweat to keep it from going back down in size?
Also I highly reccomend the hat jack, if you dont have one you might want to add one to your 'list'.

Hat stretchers are a must, some hats shrink sitting in the box and most hats off e-bay are smaller then their listed size. I like to apply Lexon leather conditioner to the inside of the sweat before I stretch a hat then I insert the stretcher tighten it up and give it some steam. Let it sit over night, sometime they will spring back no matter what and you have to repeat.
BTW. I have one like yours but prefer the 2 vintage stretchers I got off e-bay, they have bigger screws and more wood then the hat jacks.
Bob.

I'm a personal fan and user of the plastic version sold by Peters Brothers, but regardless, I am in completely agreement with cooncatbob. If you're serious hat wearer, you really need to have at least one of these items in your closet.

Regards! Michaelson

2 oh, please say 2..............please please please please please say 2.................

Sorry.........coffee still brewing...............almost there..............DONE!!!

Oh, ok .....2.

Regards! Michaelson

Three! Do we have a three? Going once... Going twice...

THREE!!! 8-[

Seriously, is there a source in Europe for a hat jack? Don´t want to pay the high taxes.

Check with Marc and see if he has a source.

Regards! Michaelson

Sorry to disappoint you Sven and Mark. I got my vintage stretcher from Steve as a gift once. It's one of the stretchers with the tapered halfs and in THIS case I DO like the taper

Regards,

Marc

Pooh.

Sorry Sven.

Regards! Michaelson

Thanks Bob, a leather worker friend of mine speaks highly of the Lexol. I shall order me some shortly.

Marc wrote:Sorry to disappoint you Sven and Mark. I got my vintage stretcher from Steve as a gift once. It's one of the stretchers with the tapered halfs and in THIS case I DO like the taper

Regards,

Marc

My Hat Jack is not as nice as some of the vintage ones I have seen, but the one I have does have the tapered halves.
The way I put mine in is with the wide part at the brim edge of the sweat. I hope I am doing that right.

Here is a recent photo of me wearing my Adventurebilt. I love this fedora!

Is there any risk of stretching the felt in the spot you are stretching? I'm thinking of taking the sweatband out of my Akubra and stretching it so that I don't effect the felt.

As far as I can tell the felt has taken the stretching with no harm to it.

Thanks. I figured that the sweat is what shrank, so it is what would stretch. Just need to find a stretcher. I get Michelson's point about a "thicker" stretcher. I may try and make one. Sounds fun. I'll keep ya' posted.

Either my head has become fatter from too much reading posts here or my AB has shrunk slightly. It has just been sitting in the cupboard, but I think the recent heat/humidity in Sydney has had an effect on it.

Would living by the sea have an effect on band shrinkage as well?

Do you guys know if Hats Direct sells hat-jacks... I can't find anything on their website. Peters Brothers website doesn't appear to have their stretcher online either?

Neolithic wrote:Either my head has become fatter from too much reading posts here or my AB has shrunk slightly. It has just been sitting in the cupboard, but I think the recent heat/humidity in Sydney has had an effect on it.

Would living by the sea have an effect on band shrinkage as well?

Do you guys know if Hats Direct sells hat-jacks... I can't find anything on their website. Peters Brothers website doesn't appear to have their stretcher online either?

Hey Neo... here are a couple of sites I ran across.
The first one is in Melbourne, Australia.
http://www.torbandreiner.com/hat_suppli ... etcher.htm

http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.ph ... cts_id=253

Hope this helps ya out some!

Thanks, Arkansas! Fantastic! I've just ordered the last one as the first looks a little pricey.

These things appear to be essential to owning a fedora. I can't believe I'd been so laid back about it for so long.

I went to my local (well, the only one in town) haberdashery to see if they could stretch my 7 1/4 HJ to a 7 1/2.

They told me they don't deal in hats.

I had to stop myself from stepping outside to recheck the sign.

The clerk did compliment my fedora, though.

Anyway, now I'm looking into getting a stretcher, which, after reading this thread, I see I needed to do anyway.

Been looking at vintage ones on eBay. Question: many have a hat size engraved on them. Does this mean that's the maximum size the stretcher will yield?

If so, I gotta keep looking, as it seems 6 3/4 was a very popular size in the early 1900s.

Stretch a 7 1/4 to a 7 1/2?! Generally, you can stretch a hat up a single size if done right, but you won't get the results you're after if you try to stretch it that much. In fact, you may do some damage to the hat if stretched to far, especially on a lesser quality hat.

Wow, I didn't realize that was a lot. Thanks for the tip.

What constitutes a single size? I thought increments went in quarters anyway.

A 7 1/8 up to a 7 1/4 would be going up one size. Sizing usually goes up by 1/8 of an inch by U.S. standards. When you resize a hat larger, you also naturally end up losing some of the crown height to make up the difference.

7 3/8 might fit, so I'll give that a go. I have an AB on order anyway, so I'm not all that worried about how Indyish my HJ turns out.

Anyone know about the sizing stamp on the vintage stretchers?