Tool ...for trimming hat brims

After joining this forum I learned about trimming hat brims. I know that many members are good with scissors but I am not. I discovered a useful tool for trimming a brim that takes the difficulty away. I use a "Craftool Strap Cutter" from Tandy leather. It is an inexpensive tool used to cut evenly measured strip of leather. It follows an edge exactly trimming only the amount you desire. It works the same way for a hat brim. There is a ruler that slides in and out allowing the blade to be fixed a set distance from the straight edge. If you would like a 1/4" removed set it to that.. perhaps only a 1/6" that too is easy and accurate. Drag the unit with the straight edge pressed against the edge of the brim and go all the way around the hat. The fixed razor type blade removes 1/4'' perfectly. It even keeps the old shape of the brim so a dimensional remains a dimensional and so on. I have trimmed four brims and all have worked out the way I wanted. One caveat: go slowly. Here is a photo of the trimmer. If somebody has already posted this I apologize for taking up your time with old news but I just wanted to share because I appreciate all that this forum has given me. Cheers

Do you have a bigger picture?

Try this

much better!

Does the brim have to be flat for this to work? What if it's a snap-brim like a Federation?

I have used it to trim a bound edge and two western hats one of which was shaped drooping front and back and swept up sides. The only thing to be careful of is to go slowly so that the edge of the trimmer does not slip and cut in too much or too little. The first hat I trimmed had to be cut down and extra 1/8" to compensate for a slip that took too much off one spot. I was cutting in a hurry and made a mistake. When I have operated it slowly I had no issues at all. Once trimmed all that I had to do was sand the edge to give it a nice rounded look rather that the squared off cut edge. Remember if you use one of these go slow and it works really well. Cheers

Edit to add:
PS: I originally purchased this to make leather laces for my boots. I will cut through 1/4" thick leather so felt up to 1/4" is no problem. Not quite like a hot knife through butter but easy all the same.

Great idea:eusa_clap

Thanks Akubra Man

Wow, have we finally found a brim trimmer that works?

kaosharper1 said:

Does the brim have to be flat for this to work? What if it's a snap-brim like a Federation?

Click to expand...

Nope - I have used it to trim shaped brim hats. Cheers

Just used one of these bad boys on my Stetson Temple, and it worked like a charm. I'm thrilled-- thanks again for the lead on this.

I understand this is an old thread but there aren’t any specific newer tread on the ALTERNATIVE use of strap cutters as hat brim cutters (although a few refer to this in some posts here and there even recently).

I am aware of the Western Brim Cutter but that only cuts fixed sizes ( 1/8” or 1/2”)


So you will pardon me, I hope, If I revive this. OP hasn’t been around for at least 5 years otherwise I would have messaged him. Maybe you are not familiar with this instrument. So, this is it.




So, as you can see from the video, this instrument’s primary use is to cut leather straps with it , yet it looks like it is possible to reverse the action of this cutter and to use it to cut hat brims (as inferred in this thread many years ago)

I know there are many members who make beautiful hat jack trimmers but they are necessarily expensive ( and I also know that several members hold the thought that you have to “ invest” good money if you want to pursue hats as an hobby) .

So, pardon me if I would like to pick your brains to use the leather strap cutter as a very cheap brim cutter, perhaps for the occasional cutting of a brim.

One think that I think is necessary is to put a curved guide on the other side of where the blade is, to follow the rounding of the crown. I understand that this means that you can only cut a brim with an equidistant size from the crown.

I was thinking that it wood be possible to repurpose a wooden boomerang or tu put an arched piece of wood and doing the same thing.

What are your thoughts? Please stay positive. In Dutch we say something like : “ Nay you have it already (so there is no need to rub it in) and Aye you may get “ (if you ask nicely.... I am).

If anyone has successfully trimmed a brim with THIS implement , would you mind making a video to show us how you did it?