Club Obi Wan

Is there a way I can reform the crown of an already formed hat. The hat i have has the teardrop shape on the crown. I want to reform to more of a Raider's style crown and pinch.

Most hat makers will reblock your hat for you. Just contact someone like Bending Oaks or Adventurebilt, and they should be able to point you in the right direction.

you can do it yourself also. If it's a stiff, 'molded in' type teardrop, soak the crown in cold distilled water and work it back out into open crown condition. Let it dry, and then go to town on re-creating the bash!

That's true too. I did rebash my Dorfman Pacific myself. I just got it wet and punched it back to open crown, then bashed it right with some water.

Important note; The water trick id good, but don't do it to a cheap wool felt hat! Also, depending on the shape and stiffness, you may not need to completely soak it.

What kind of hat are we dealing with?

Kokopelli wrote:you can do it yourself also. If it's a stiff, 'molded in' type teardrop, soak the crown in cold distilled water and work it back out into open crown condition. Let it dry, and then go to town on re-creating the bash!

Question: do you soak it, put it in "open crown mode"...

LET IT DRY....

And then after it has dried, re-bash it?

I prefer to work using the steam from a tea kettle as opposed to soaking a hat. I could be wrong, but I think it's easier, there's less chance of the felt shrinking, and no question about whether you first have to let the hat dry.

Though I fully admit that I am not a professional hatter.

Used a steam to rebash my Fed. Works great. But i used a lot of steam.

jkdbuck76 wrote:

Kokopelli wrote:you can do it yourself also. If it's a stiff, 'molded in' type teardrop, soak the crown in cold distilled water and work it back out into open crown condition. Let it dry, and then go to town on re-creating the bash!

Question: do you soak it, put it in "open crown mode"...

LET IT DRY....

And then after it has dried, re-bash it?

Yes

Dave

Acually everytime I re-shape my hat I soak it in cold water, then place it on a block I made, then when it dries I spray alittle fabric startch on it to stiffen it up, and while its damp from the startch I re-shape it and it always works great for me. But my hat is a Christys Adventurer so it may work different on other hats.

The_Raiders wrote:Acually everytime I re-shape my hat I soak it in cold water, then place it on a block I made, then when it dries I spray alittle fabric startch on it to stiffen it up, and while its damp from the startch I re-shape it and it always works great for me. But my hat is a Christys Adventurer so it may work different on other hats.

How "cold" is cold? Like out of the fridge? Or room temp?

jkdbuck76 wrote:

The_Raiders wrote:Acually everytime I re-shape my hat I soak it in cold water, then place it on a block I made, then when it dries I spray alittle fabric startch on it to stiffen it up, and while its damp from the startch I re-shape it and it always works great for me. But my hat is a Christys Adventurer so it may work different on other hats.

How "cold" is cold? Like out of the fridge? Or room temp?

Well anywhere from room temp or colder acually, I've use really icy cold water before also.

Last weekend i decided to do two things - clean my hat and rebash it. So i went two-in-one route - used cold water. Hat is rebashed into TOD and clean as day one. And there is no sign of Raiders tight pinch, cold water does miracles. Another example how strond Fed IV is.

Hatsdirect has a short tutorial on bashing the Fed IV. Here is the link if you haven't seen it already:

http://www.hatsdirect.com/hat-info/shaping.html

Happy cracking,

Ryan

gsolideogloria we are talking about REbashing the hats. ;-)

Russian, the same principles hold true either way. Sorry if I offended you. I understood the nature of the discussion and was only trying to help.

Ryan

Not a problem! It is just if hat had a tight crease it won go away without steam or water. Hatdirect instructions are great for a new hat.

Thanks for the information. Will some of these techniques work on some the Indiana Jones hats from the early to mid eighties, I have two that my father bought me unfortunately one hat was smashed by something and the local western wear store said they could not reshape it.