Club Obi Wan

i made myself a new indy hat... the felt is really poor quality rabbit and i didn't bother putting in any stiffener, i did treat it with a good saturation of waterproofing though. So this hat is very floppy, like a strong breeze will change the bash floppy. after i took these photo's i put a bit of starch on the brim to make it a bit less floppy.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... CF1679.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... CF1673.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... CF1671.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... CF1682.jpg

here's the link to some more pics
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... ndy%20hat/

and here's the links to pics of the first hat i made and a stingy brim hat i made for a friend:
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... rst%20hat/
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa16 ... gy%20brim/

New Pics below!

I realy like that hat! Extra floppy? Extra awesome!

Dave

I think it looks good, don't sell yourself short, alot of people cannot make hats, you did a good job.

Looks GREAT!!!!....I like the bow work....keep it up!

Great work, looks like your very ready to move up to the good felt

bigrex wrote:Great work, looks like your very ready to move up to the good felt

HA

If he can source it.

Sorry, we've had an ongoing search for felt. I've given up trying to find quality felt. No one will sell to individuals so we're relegated to inferior felt.

Randy

thanks guy!

Randy, i haven't given up. i'll find good felt. it will happen. i'll make it happen.

Ohio, it's my best bow yet. each one keeps getting better and better.

Nice work, WE!

Oh, in my frustration, I forgot to mention.. it looks good! Nice work!

Randy

theinterchange wrote:

bigrex wrote:Great work, looks like your very ready to move up to the good felt

HA

If he can source it.

Sorry, we've had an ongoing search for felt. I've given up trying to find quality felt. No one will sell to individuals so we're relegated to inferior felt.

Randy

Should've known, that has to stink.

360 stovepipe Walking Eye? Turned? Looks good. All you need is a brim flange.

3thoubucks wrote:360 stovepipe Walking Eye? Turned? Looks good. All you need is a brim flange.

not quite. it has an asymetrical side profile. the back radius is lower than the front radius which itself is lower than the side radii. and there is a bit of taper on the back side.... and a tiny hint of it on the front. yes it is turned, about 13/16ths of an inch. i have a brim flange, and i did flange the brim but the felt is so light and floppy that just sitting on the block (or my head) the brim goes all wavy. any suggestions?

Maybe hit the brim with steam just before you flange it?

Wow, the very good shape. I would like to see picture of your hat block.

Thanks

Wow! WalkingEye, you've done an astounding job!

Thanks Canyon!

can you take us step by step on how you flanged this hat. Maybe I could help.

BendingOak wrote:can you take us step by step on how you flanged this hat. Maybe I could help.

i ironed the brim flat after blocking the crown.
i sprayed some water on the brim... both sides mostly the underside.
i put the hat in the flange and used an old tee shirt to cover the felt.
i started to iron the brim against the flange pulling the shirt/cloth tighter over it as i went and securing it (the shirt cloth) to the underside of the flange until the shirt was taught against the flange. i ironed the brim alot until the water was no longer saturating through the cloth. and the brim contoured to the shape of the flange. then i ironed some more for good measure. i let it sit for a while before i removed the hat from the flange.

i think it's just a matter of not having any stiffener in it.

Stiffener is not what keep the curl in a brim after you flange it. The felt shrinks to the flange is what keeps it's curl. Do you tie the shirt down over the brim? It could be your iron is not hot enough to shrink the felt.

Deleted by Ranger36

BendingOak wrote:Stiffener is not what keep the curl in a brim after you flange it. The felt shrinks to the flange is what keeps it's curl. Do you tie the shirt down over the brim? It could be your iron is not hot enough to shrink the felt.

yup, i tie down the shirt... i've used this method on five other hats successfully. this is really bad felt, very light... not dense at all. you can feel it condense when you gently squeeze it in your fingers. it's not that it didn't take the flange. it's that even with the flanging it's very limp under it's own weight and goes kinda wavy.... i just re-ironed the sides flat and left the back flanged and it helped quite a bit. maybe i'll take off the ribbon and just give it a retry... maybe iron it longer and see what happens.


my iron actually died while making this one and i had to buy a new one... the new one seems to get just as hot as the old one. i think i should find an industrial use iron to make hats because the one i'm using is just a black and decker from the department store. i'm sure certain things take me much longer to do because it doesn't get as hot as a professional iron.

If the felt isn't dense should make it easy to flange. I think it's the iron. Try this soak the t-shirt in cold water. Stretch it over the hat while it's on the flange. Tie it down reel tight. Iron it as hot as you can. Then water down the edge with cold water iron again. let it sit over night 12 hours and see what happens.

BendingOak wrote:If the felt isn't dense should make it easy to flange. I think it's the iron. Try this soak the t-shirt in cold water. Stretch it over the hat while it's on the flange. Tie it down reel tight. Iron it as hot as you can. Then water down the edge with cold water iron again. let it sit over night 12 hours and see what happens.

Thanks Oak... I'll give it another shot.

I reflanged the brim... took much better this time. i'll take a picture after work today.

Oak, i soaked the shirt and set the iron as hot as it gets. it did the trick, though i didn't bother letting it sit on the flange for 12 hours. i popped it out after 20 minutes and it looks great. Thanks.

WalkingEye wrote:I reflanged the brim... took much better this time. i'll take a picture after work today.

Oak, i soaked the shirt and set the iron as hot as it gets. it did the trick, though i didn't bother letting it sit on the flange for 12 hours. i popped it out after 20 minutes and it looks great. Thanks.

You need to let the hat sit for a lot longer than 20 minutes. It may seem dry but it's not.

BendingOak wrote:

WalkingEye wrote:I reflanged the brim... took much better this time. i'll take a picture after work today.

Oak, i soaked the shirt and set the iron as hot as it gets. it did the trick, though i didn't bother letting it sit on the flange for 12 hours. i popped it out after 20 minutes and it looks great. Thanks.

You need to let the hat sit for a lot longer than 20 minutes. It may seem dry but it's not.

well, it's been off for hours now with no ill effect. i guess i'll find out. honestly, i'm not concerned as it's a 'practice hat' just to see how the felt blocked. it's cheap stuff and no more than costume grade felt... i will definitely leave hats on the flange longer when i find some good quality felt. Thanks for the time and info Oak. much appreciated. it's a blast learning how to make these.

here are some new, better, pics of the hat after about three weeks of wear. the flanging has held well even though it only rested on the flange for 20 minutes.

Your hat is very beautiful same after 3 week.

It's holding up VERY nicely WalkingEye!

nice work WE.....i might just have to play with the real floppy stuff in the future....you guys are getting me curious

nice bow work btw.

Indiana G wrote:nice work WE.....i might just have to play with the real floppy stuff in the future....you guys are getting me curious

nice bow work btw.

thanks G! the floppy stuff blocks so incredibly easy. too easy. the first floppy body i blocked just slid right on and didn't get any of the rippling near the brim block that needs to be ironed and shrunk out that happens on the thicker denser felt. in fact, it kept stretching and stretching.... no good. it's very easy to over-stretch this stuff, so you need a light touch. then lots of additional wetting and ironing to compress the felt. this stuff is airy. i also totally soaked the hat while it was still on the block with a teflon based waterproofing, hopefully this, along with all the extra ironing, will slow the inevitable shrinkage. i have a couple of much thicker/denser bodies on the way, i can't wait till they arrive and i get to make a couple more hats. one of the bodies is pecan.... i'm joining the pecan hat club.

you know it would be really cool if all us home hatmakers could meet up and trade techniques and tricks.... like a hatmaking symposium. there are alot of us popping up these days.

i finally nailed down the way to make the flying v bow. just a center stitch in the middle of the bow, bunching it and then a couple of little folds radiating from the stitch and a couple quick passes of the iron the keep the definition of the fold and you're good to go. and my stitching is not nearly as embarrasing as it was the first few attempts.



and thanks mitch and jason!

Not bad man, I had a similar experience with a gray scala with a teardrop shape; second fedora I worked on after my raiders replica (which I'm still working on, but what the hey!). Good project hat though, always messing with it getting that front bash right

i have to say that lid is very nice