What Hat Are You Working On Today?

[HatsBySam]

This hat belonged to a friend’s grandfather. Grandad was evidently a street performer and used to wear this while performing and pass it around for cash at the end, lol. I’m gonna try to get it fixed up for my friend.

Luckily the brim binding is in good shape, and I’m gonna try hard to keep it that way. Should be able to put in a new sweatband and re-use the original bow.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

 

[moontheloon]

Question for the vintage hat altering mind hive.
I want to add a pencil curl to the brim of this 50s hat... to give it a more Josey Wales inspired feel.
The brim actually feels like it's begging for it to me.

I'd love to hear from those who have done this before... that's what matters most to me... if you've done it or do it regularly.

...anyway... I see the tool available.
Do you recommend the heated iron version?
The non heated version using just steam?
Any educated info would be greatly appreciated.
I've been working on hats for many years just never applied a pencil curl.
Looking forward to hearing from you

 

[Hurricane Jack]

I'd love to hear from those who have done this before... that's what matters most to me... if you've done it or do it regularly.

DD used to do some nice ones using the edge of a cook pot, moving it around to adjust for the radius. I could never master that method. I tried a short piece of surgical tubing but you can’t iron against surgical tubing so I could never smooth out the waves & ripple in the curl.

 

[shopkin]

You could iron against a metal spring like the old tme screen door spring. They come in 0.5 and 0.35-inch diameter

 

[HatsBySam]

Question for the vintage hat altering mind hive.
I want to add a pencil curl to the brim of this 50s hat... to give it a more Josey Wales inspired feel.
The brim actually feels like it's begging for it to me.

I'd love to hear from those who have done this before... that's what matters most to me... if you've done it or do it regularly.

...anyway... I see the tool available.
Do you recommend the heated iron version?
The non heated version using just steam?
Any educated info would be greatly appreciated.
I've been working on hats for many years just never applied a pencil curl.
Looking forward to hearing from you

View attachment 798732 View attachment 798733 View attachment 798734

I have the Guy Morse-Brown curling iron and have really been happy with it, especially on thinner felt. I haven’t tried heating the iron, I just use a steam iron to soften the brim edge and then press the brim between the iron and wooden form. I just do a little bit at a time and work my way around the brim. It takes me about 10 minutes or so, but ends up producing a really nice, tight curl. The slotted curling blocks out there work ok as well, especially on western weight felts, but I pretty much use the Guy Morse-Brown for everything as you can really get a sharp looking curl by hand pressing.

Hope this helps! I think RickP is pretty happy with this tool as well. I’d love to see some “After” pics, I love the Josey Wales hat!

 

[HatsBySam]

I have the Guy Morse-Brown curling iron and have really been happy with it, especially on thinner felt. I haven’t tried heating the iron, I just use a steam iron to soften the brim edge and then press the brim between the iron and wooden form. I just do a little bit at a time and work my way around the brim. It takes me about 10 minutes or so, but ends up producing a really nice, tight curl. The slotted curling blocks out there work ok as well, especially on western weight felts, but I pretty much use the Guy Morse-Brown for everything as you can really get a sharp looking curl by hand pressing.

Hope this helps! I think RickP is pretty happy with this tool as well. I’d love to see some “After” pics, I love the Josey Wales hat!

I’ve been playing around with this really light weight dress felt, I wanted a wide brim fedora, but it has such little stiffener, the brim just didn’t look right. So, I bound the brim and gave it a pencil curl today. It’s holding its shape nicely now. “Before”

 

[HatsBySam]

I’ve been playing around with this really light weight dress felt, I wanted a wide brim fedora, but it has such little stiffener, the brim just didn’t look right. So, I bound the brim and gave it a pencil curl today. It’s holding its shape nicely now. “Before”

“After”