I recently had an issue with a chocolate brown rabbit fur felt, there was a soft spot in the brim close to the bottom of the crown, I wet the brim in that area and then used a steam iron on the soft spot and the area of the brim that I wet, roughly one third of the brim, then let the brim dry, that seem to fix the problem for me. Are you dealing with soft spots or stiff spot in the felts?
I have shopped the world for hat blocks. The ones from Guy Morse Brown and HatBlocksPoland are works of wooden art.
Is it a problem with the dye color or the shellac in the felt that you have noticed?
Felt, even from the same factory, can vary in stiffness. Your supplier should be able to tell you the degree of stiffener in the felt. Often it is a separate number for brim & crown. Many of the UK suppliers I have come across serve the millinery trade and those felts tend to be floppy and lighter weight felt.
Shellac (Super Blonde or Clear) dissolved in denatured alcohol is what I use. It is the time tested way for hatters to stiffen the felt. At the factory they use shellac but in a slightly different mixture/carrier. I use a tablespoon to a cup of alcohol which makes a very light mix as I prefer to put on multiple coats rather than one thick one. Multiple light coats gives me more control as I fear putting too much on the felt and getting it too stiff.
Thankyou, that’s interesting. I’ve had 3 from GMB. A grey and a sage green. Both had good stiffness and the flanged brims had a good snap to them. I then bought a bone colour which had very little stiffness in the brim.
I have used hat shapers and they sorta work....not great but they do work. If you have a skil saw you can cut off the base of the hatshaper form, then cut a piece of wood to match the footprint of the form and extend it by how ever much you need. I attach it using yellow vinyl painters tape. It works.
Were they all from their men's felts at 159cm or the cheaper lighter ones?
All from the men’s hat range but the shorter brims. I’m not going over a 7cm brim atm, on a 60cm block.
I suspect the 159cm felts would be stiffer. It might be worth the extra money. I use the Usst (Ukraine) dress weight at 160grams it is a substantial felt and the brims don't need any stiffening even for western style brims. Check out the Millinery Warehouse out of NY. Pricing is good but you may get whacked with import fees in the UK.
Hi thanks again for the info. Yes import duty is always going to be an issue when importing from USA. But since UK left the EU it’s made importing from anywhere more expensive.
Thank you for this wealth of knowledge!! I have tried hairspray and spray shellac (on wool felts) and the results were ok but not what I was going for. Also have found they can easily leave a white residue that I don’t like. I just got my first rabbit and rabbit/beaver blend felts so I’m excited to try those. Some of them were sold “pre-stiffened” so I’ll have to see how those turn out.
Thank you so much!! This absolutely helps a ton. I was actually just looking at the hat blocks Poland shop on Etsy! I definitely want to invest in the proper tools. Thank you for the info on sizing and shapes too. I had a decent idea on those but wasn’t totally sure if I was on the right track.
I have 6 sets of blocks. Regular oval in #51, #52 and a flat top bolero style. Then I have that replicated in Long Ovals. Then if you want to make fedoras with snap brims and decent cupping you need flanges. That is where it gets tricky as flanges are even more expensive and you need way more flanges than you need blocks if you want to make a variety of hat styles.Thank you so much!! This absolutely helps a ton. I was actually just looking at the hat blocks Poland shop on Etsy! I definitely want to invest in the proper tools. Thank you for the info on sizing and shapes too. I had a decent idea on those but wasn’t totally sure if I was on the right track.
Thank you so much!!! Appreciate it
