Thank you for sharing your experience. I think I would prefer a cloud effect to make it not so solid, but a more raw appearance. Do you remember the kind of dye you used? I was thinking of buying a powder dye and doing an ‘ice’ effect.
Nope. 5 inch crowns aren't for me. Pure Beaver Hat Supply has felts. He's on Instagram.
Yes, I bought my Millinery Whse felts primarily to make women's hats. I have some Fepsa coming from PureBeaver but the difficulty is the expense if you are making a custom for resale.....you have to put a high sticker price to get your money back out of it.
I just received my Millinery Whse felts. Now my review is in terms of comparing other felts made for the women's millinery market. I like these felts a lot. They are thick and plush and I look forward to making a hat with them For the money I think they are better quality than the others I have sourced that have all come from Czech Republic...assuming they are Tonak but cannot say for certain. Looking at the 180 grams Western they advertise a 5.3" crown and I pretty sure I can coax another 1/4 to 3/8" out of them so I think I will place an order just to see. I am not crazy about the colour palette but they have a grey I can make work.
Ciba Washfast Acid dye in powder form. I used black at half strength to get a nice medium grey with blue tones. Maiwa has great directions on their website. I used Glauber's Salt as a levelling agent to promote even dyeing and Acetic Acid to achieve the correct pH level
and the Lounge is supposed to a safe space too!This whole thread "Distresses" me.................Poor, poor, abused hats......yes, quite distressing.........
I'm not sure the OP has access to the industrial machinery & indeed, know-how required to coax a little extra felt from those hat bodies. From what I understand, he is a first timer & will simply be forcing the things over a block. There are prehaps, fewer foreseen problems in sending something to a professional to take care of, than actually doing it one's self in the kitchen with minimal equipement.
I don’t see what’s wrong with trying?
I coaxed an extra 1/2" out of a Tonak felt yesterday by pushing it further down my 6" block and using one of the Guy Morse Brown blocking springs (a precut rubber ring to use instead of a cord). I managed to get a fat 5 12" out of the crown instead of just the 5". One of the things I love about the learning to make hats is the challenge of the 'work around'. Given that I am never going to spend the $$ to buy the equipment (in an ideal world and unlimited resources I would) I love the challenge of figuring out ways to make it work within my budget constraints.I'm not sure the OP has access to the industrial machinery & indeed, know-how required to coax a little extra felt from those hat bodies. From what I understand, he is a first timer & will simply be forcing the things over a block. There are prehaps, fewer foreseen problems in sending something to a professional to take care of, than actually doing it one's self in the kitchen with minimal equipement.
Oh, note to Tucker.....steam is your friend....lots of steam!
Yes, I was thinking the same except....put in a temp sweat band and loan it to a gardener for a month or two. You would get back one highly lived in hat. Put in a new leather sweat and you can sell a legit distressed hat and you didn't even need to do the work.
Yeh, even when young and foolish not sure I would be wearing one such hat.....but then I did wear bell bottoms (but not tie dye!)
