Recent content by jviss

Thank you. Yes, it's a shame that there's no industry standard for this. This website says it's beaver fur felt, 1000X, but the price is so low it's hard to believe.

I recently bought a 6X Western hat by Resistol for about $300. Today I found a website, in the title, who are showing a 1000X Western hat for only $61. How can this be? Anyone have any experience with this vendor?

Excellent, Eric. Thanks for the update. BTW, I saved my used cleaner, I will try re-using it, even though I bought the three bottle package. I poured the whole bottle in. My nozzle is new, so no issue there.

Did you get and use your Jiffy cleaner?

I like it! And, it's my size!

Now to find a nice piece of mahogany or oak to make a platform for my aluminum head block. I want something with a long tongue on it, with a slot cut in it as a hand hold, and to hang it up when not in use. I probably have something in the basement, else a stair tread from Lowes or Home Depot...

On soaking a crown, I would work my way up to that. First steam, then try a very fine misting of water (distilled, always), then a more heavy misting, and so forth. I'm no expert, that's just my intuition for a conservative approach.

Eric, if you haven't already, check out Kevin's youtube videos. He's a lifelong hat salesman, now at JJ Hat Center in NYC. They are long, but entertaining. He has at least one on stiffening hats. The secret ingredient: hairspray. You can buy hat stiffener for a lot more money, but why bother?

Thanks, Eric. The crown block is "out for delivery," should have it by 2:30 p.m. or so, Eastern time. We'll see! My steamer sputters at start-up, but not after. I'm getting a full head of steam in 80 seconds from cold! (Just timed it. Yes, I'm an OCD engineer.)

So, in case anyone's interested, I poured out and saved most of the cleaning fluid, It removed some black flakes; I don't know what they were. I rinsed a couple of times with distilled water, and then filled the jug and turned it on. It steams great! The distilled water was cheap, 98¢ per...

And another thing... I just poured an 8 oz. bottle of Jiffy cleaner into my J-2 steamer. I will leave it for 3 hours. Should I recover this fluid and re-use it, or just dump it? But here's the big question. The cleaner, in quantity 3 of 8 oz. each, is $18 plus about $18 UPS shipping - so...

I received my Jiffy Steamer parts and supplies today. Their service is excellent. I had made two orders, and they agreed to combine them and refunded me excess shipping. I bought their cleaner, as it's acid-based but not vinegar, and apparently vinegary can harm the unit (maybe the brass...

That's great! I swear, I was racking my brain, looking around the house trying to find something to use, and the stainless mixing bowls never occured to me!

I like this, I will try it.

Thanks very much for your reply! I did take the lining out and will try to carefully wash the areas with the stains. I'm not attempting a re-block, I just want to smooth the old creases as well as I can, clean them and then crease it to my taste. Not taking the sweat or the ribbon yet. My...