To Ride the Hat Lightning or Not Ride the Hat Lightning...
Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:25 pm
Okay guys and dolls, until recently with my current work and home project schedule (honey do's and personal sanity) I had resigned myself to scrimping and saving and "someday" choosing a lid from one of our fine hatter's here on COW...or this guy on Etsy who does some nice looking work, and just being able to put it on and go. Then chaos struck.
Saturday I came across a great old cowboy hat at a thrift store in a beautiful brown color (don't believe the crappy cell phone pic, there is actually more russet/ cocoa in there which is totally non existent in the picture) in a fur felt, (the sweat says "3X Quality", so it's rabbit) and in my Size! I couldn't walk away, so I bought it.
So here comes the questions for the group I guess, is this able to be converted to a fedora or would it be wasting my or somebody else's time?
Some specs on the hat; It's Bailey B bar B in a 7 3/8, the top end of the size I wear depending on the hat. Open crown height is about 5 3/4 or 6 inches, I couldn't tell for sure. The sweat is in great shape and so is the liner, so those could be reused I'd think. The determents; who ever owned this hat at one point took their pocket knife and put a couple of holes in the brim next to the crown to run a lanyard through. I don't know if it's possible to fill those holes at all in any way. The holes are pretty small and uneven, and actually after rubbing a little bit with my fingers one almost closed up. If I were to measure I'd say 1/8 of an inch give or take. I was wondering if some of the brim trimmings couldn't be put in there and then lightly pounced or something, to kind of re-felt the area. But that's just me kicking the idea around. Any thoughts on that would be helpful.
I guess I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I haven't ruled out converting it to an Indy fedora myself, but I'm trying to decide how much time energy and effort I'm able to put into it right now. Making or purchasing hat blocks and flanges and the like, (hat block and flange lending or rental? Just a thought) And then following the tutorials on here. Is there a tutorial on refurbishing an existing hat here that I missed or is it closer to starting with a raw felt than I think it aught to be? One of things that scares me the most is trimming the brim correctly. I might consider making my own block if I could get the brim flattened and trimmed correctly. Do I steam it? Do I iron it? Anyway....
Or if it would be better just to take my money and see if someone else can do it.
I'm just starting to consider my options here, so any thoughts you have on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
Saturday I came across a great old cowboy hat at a thrift store in a beautiful brown color (don't believe the crappy cell phone pic, there is actually more russet/ cocoa in there which is totally non existent in the picture) in a fur felt, (the sweat says "3X Quality", so it's rabbit) and in my Size! I couldn't walk away, so I bought it.
So here comes the questions for the group I guess, is this able to be converted to a fedora or would it be wasting my or somebody else's time?
Some specs on the hat; It's Bailey B bar B in a 7 3/8, the top end of the size I wear depending on the hat. Open crown height is about 5 3/4 or 6 inches, I couldn't tell for sure. The sweat is in great shape and so is the liner, so those could be reused I'd think. The determents; who ever owned this hat at one point took their pocket knife and put a couple of holes in the brim next to the crown to run a lanyard through. I don't know if it's possible to fill those holes at all in any way. The holes are pretty small and uneven, and actually after rubbing a little bit with my fingers one almost closed up. If I were to measure I'd say 1/8 of an inch give or take. I was wondering if some of the brim trimmings couldn't be put in there and then lightly pounced or something, to kind of re-felt the area. But that's just me kicking the idea around. Any thoughts on that would be helpful.
I guess I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I haven't ruled out converting it to an Indy fedora myself, but I'm trying to decide how much time energy and effort I'm able to put into it right now. Making or purchasing hat blocks and flanges and the like, (hat block and flange lending or rental? Just a thought) And then following the tutorials on here. Is there a tutorial on refurbishing an existing hat here that I missed or is it closer to starting with a raw felt than I think it aught to be? One of things that scares me the most is trimming the brim correctly. I might consider making my own block if I could get the brim flattened and trimmed correctly. Do I steam it? Do I iron it? Anyway....
Or if it would be better just to take my money and see if someone else can do it.
I'm just starting to consider my options here, so any thoughts you have on the subject would be greatly appreciated.