Recent content by nickwellings

Yes, I may in fact just get more of the fractionated oil, say 30ml or so, rather than drops. I don't have a sheen on this hat, it does feel softer, but certainly no shine. If I had vaseline, as recommended in one book, I would have tried that! Microwaved to melt a bit, then tried on the hat.

Thanks for the advice :) I put some aloe gel on a mark, rubbed it with a cotton bud/ q tip. Seemed to work well. Also tried luring as per Ermatinger and other hat care book, using coconut drops. Well. I saw on here suggesting only 5 or 6 drops. That seemed to just absorb into my improvised...

Thanks Brent, Lean. Not bothered about the colour contrast - ribbon will hide it. I do wonder what the heck you'd ever call the colour it is now - or was. Dirty sand, I'd say. Not the nicest shade, but it is what it is.

Thank you, I'm intrigued by the concept of something non abrasive being used to polish something/finish something. Final point about this hat: I realised that the area where the band had been is lighter than the rest of the hat (as one might expect). I further thought that if Woolite had done a...

PS, can you show me a link or photo of the white abrasive pad please? I'm not familiar with it. The only white sponges I know are what we call "magic sponges", very finely abrasive melamine sponge.

Thanks for the grit help. I had a stash of paper from when I used to paint guitars, but frustratingly not here with me. I was being fairly light so took off a few hairs, bit of dust. I'll know next time!

Thanks for the help, all! Hat got dunked and left for 30mins - 1 hr a few times. Woolite (cold water) then woolite lukewarm water a few times. After bucket three, the water was 8/10 clear. Good enough for me. Rinsed by dunking in cold water and a touch of shower hose nozzle. No ill effects, no...

That's encouraging! I have pink Woolite and that bare fur felt hat, no leather. Dunk and try, then rinse? Jlee, I'm tempted by Woolite: after all, technology's moved on, right? (?)

I read in the 1920 document Instructions in Hat Cleaning and Renovation (Hatters Supply House, Chicago here https://archive.org/details/instructionsinha00hatt) that an alternative to a gasoline or naphtha bath is to "use Castile soap" after giving the hat a dunking in hot water (page six on the...

How did that go, Abridged?

Curious if you found anything - sorry for a bit of a random bump! I'm a big fan of Paris for hat shopping. I'd say 95% of mine are from there.

Noted! :D

So I went on a...date...sort of coffee/meeting thing with a girl (tempted to say a "dame") and she said how she liked my hat. Hat's nothing special, a ZENIT Gentleman fur felt which has shed many a raindrop for me and kept my head warm on many a night. I gave it to her to have a look at, said...

Sure, I'd be interested in addresses. I think I have been to most places like Episode and the like in Paris, bit I could have missed some. Feel free to message me on here!

Episode is a must visit for me anytime I'm in Paris. I've done fairly well from them before, but at the old price of €20 a hat! I bought a Stetson in their Copenhagen store, a Barbisio and beautiful Roeckel in the Paris one above, plus some others. (Not all at once!) Sorry to hear about the bad...