Free hat resto

[Mr. B]

Just got a free wool felt fedora short crown, grey, narrow ribbon.

i want to reshape it to indy style and replace the band, possibly put in a liner. any ideas or suggestions on how to do this, this is my first restoration.[huh]

also how can i stiffen it up?

 

[tonyb]

Wool? Short crown?

I don't mean to be discouraging, but making anything closely resembling an "Indy" style hat from what you have there is akin to converting an S-10 pickup into a two-and-half-ton truck. I fear you just don't have enough hat body there to make a tall-crowned, wide-brimmed lid. And even if there were enough body, restyling it would require the proper block and flange, and taking it all apart and putting it back together again. That's more than a bit of work, and when it was done you'd still have a wool-bodied hat.

I'm all for keeping the hatting crafts alive, Mr. B, so I applaud your interest in learning. And you're at the right place to learn some stuff. But doing it right requires equipment (locating the stuff you really want is getting costly and time-consuming) and skills that are learned mostly through trial and error.

The basics of ribbon replacement are easy to comprehend, which ain't to say that actually replacing the ribbon is always easy. And even something as simple and straightforward as installing a liner can be tricky, especially if you do it the way it used to be done (the only proper way, in my view) and still is done by most custom hat makers, which is to stitch it in.

For a better result, I propose you find a good used cowboy hat, made of fur felt. There should be enough material there to get the Indy-style crown height and brim width. And the hat itself shouldn't be that hard to find. Cowboy hats of decent or better quality are much more common than fedoras in the thrift stores and vintage shops. At least they are out here.

 

[Torpedo]

Hi,

Photos would be of much help!

If you want an Indy style, maybe you are off to a bad start, because you mention your hat to be low-crowned... the hat in Temple of Doom is a little lower than those in the other films. It is also more tapered. Maybe this one would do.

The thin ribbon has to go, the Indy hats have wider ribbons.

Take a look here... this I found in the Indy Lounge forum. Lots of Indy hat photos!

http://www.kennydrew.com/Indylounge/indyfedora.htm

Regards!

 

[Torpedo]

Hi again,

Tony adressed the question in more detail than me, almost simultaneously...

Regarding material, it is true, the Indy hats were always felt: rabbit felt in the original trilogy, beaver felt in the fourth film.

Regards!

 

[John in Covina]

Have fun!

It's a free hat and an inexpensive one so have fun playing with it. First read the top threads in this hat section marked "sticky" they will give you some insights about hats and some about shaping. Also search in here for "cowboy conversion" that may give you some more insights.

The stiffener is a type of shellac and if there are any NEARBY Western shops handling cowboy hats and duds, they should have both HAT cleaning supplies and a spray stiffner that is used to renew cowboy hats.

Just remember it is a wool hat so you don't want to get too nuts over it. Wool is serviceable but not worth a lot of attention as it has a limited life span.

Finally: there is an other group out on the web called 'Club Obi Wan' and they will have a lot of info on the Indy hats too, so you will probably want to read some of their info about the HAT. If you see a reference to COW in these FL threads that is a reference to Club Obi Wan.

 

[bolthead]

Good, sound advice John.....

It's a free hat and an inexpensive one so have fun playing with it. First read the top threads in this hat section marked "sticky" they will give you some insights about hats and some about shaping. Also search in here for "cowboy conversion" that may give you some more insights.

The stiffener is a type of shellac and if there are any Western shops handling cowboy hats and duds, they should have both HAT cleaning supplies and a spray stiffner that is used to renew cowboy hats.

Just remember it is a wool hat so you don't want to get too nuts over it. Wool is serviceable but not worth a lot of attention as it has a limited life span.

Finally: there is an other group out on the web called 'Club Obi Wan' and they will have a lot of info on the Indy hats too, so you will probably want to read some of their info about the HAT. If you see a reference to COW in these FL threads that is a reference to Club Obi Wan.

....and with that being said.

I don't mean to be discouraging, but making anything closely resembling an "Indy" style hat from what you have there is akin to converting an S-10 pickup into a two-and-half-ton truck.

Sorry, I don't mean to laugh at what Tony said here, but it really did make me spit my gum out.

 

[Mr. B]

Sorry for the delay in response time, i have been in chicago. i think tonyb may be right. but heck i'll play with it and see what happens. thanks everyone.[huh]

 

[Al_Ojeda]

Sorry for the delay in response time, i have been in chicago. i think tonyb may be right. but heck i'll play with it and see what happens. thanks everyone.[huh]

Hey Mr. B, if you want to play more maybe can help you to have one on this hat block they are not wooden but they look interesting...
http://www.hatshapers.com/Product%20Pages/Quickview.htm