Looking for help-creasing my open crown!

[Zanzibarstar]

Alright, this was my first time working on an open crown. It started as a simple center crease(or dent? I'm still learning the proper terms), but I couldn't get the felt to smooth out, so I kept fooling around with it. This is what I ended up with, and wore it out like this last night, but am still not satisfied with it. The felt is all lumpy, and would not smooth out. What am I doing wrong? This is such a nice hat(a vintage Churchill Ltd. Beaver 50) that I want it to be perfect. Should I keep trying myself, or send it to a pro? And if so, does anyone have any recommmendations? Thanks!

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[Chinaski]

Z -

There's a few threads here on the Lounge that deal with this topic, notably, a Jimmy the Lid tutorial on creasing hats. I don't have that link, but take a look at this video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6hq2sNrU4g&feature=related

I think what this shows best is you don't really have to baby a hat too much. You can work the felt a bit and you're not going to hurt the hat. Also keep in mind felt stiffness differs, and you may or may not want to use steam, or spray some distilled water on your hat to make it more workable. Some use the side of a wine glass to put a nice curve in the side dents. It's your hat - have some fun with hit and make it just how you want it.

 

[Zanzibarstar]

Chinaski,
Thanks for the link. I was using steam on this, which seemed to help soften the felt and make it more workable. I'll go check out that link today.

 

[rrog]

Here's the link to JTL's tutorial. It's very thorough:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=40203



Good luck,
rrog

 

[Zanzibarstar]

Once you check the other threads you will have lots and lots of ideas. Meanwhile, I just want to say that those dimples don't look bad to me. In my view, they add life and character. Some people, it is true, want perfection, or something like it, in a hat crease. There's even a thread on this very topic. And quite often, the so called perfect crease does enjoy loud applause.

But consider too the hat in this photo. It has lots of movement and character. It is obviously hand creased and full of imperfections. You may hate it, and I'm not saying that your hat should like it or that your hat should look like this. But know that when I posted this hat before I got lots and lots of compliments on the crease.

If you want machine like perfection, go for it. For what it's worth, I'm in the camp that allows (and even likes) various imperfections in a crease.

Zetwal,
Thanks for the positive reinforcement! Your hat does look great. And yes, I am a bit of a perfectionist. I certainly don't HATE the job I did on my hat. I just think it could be better. I'll probably want to mess around with it some more and see what I can pull off...which leads me to another question: How much of this messing around can a hat withstand until the felt starts to pay for it? This is probably a pretty arbitrary answer I'm looking for, but if anyone has any experience, I'd love to hear it. Thanks again, Loungers.

 

[mayserwegener]

If that Churchill was mine I would give it center crease, no side dents (optional) and snap the brim (optional). Steam the top of the hat for a couple of minutes and restore to a open crown (bowl shape). Steam top of the hat a couple more minutes and apply soft steady chop dead center from front to back. It should be a V shaped and fairly deep (depends on crown height). Your crease is currently not V shaped.

 

[Zanzibarstar]

If that Churchill was mine I would give it center crease, no side dents (optional) and snap the brim (optional). Steam the top of the hat for a couple of minutes and restore to a open crown (bowl shape). Steam top of the hat a couple more minutes and apply soft steady chop dead center from front to back. It should be a V shaped and fairly deep (depends on crown height). Your crease is currently not V shaped.

Mayserwegener,
I started with a center dent, which kept going crooked on me, and was still bumpy. I couldn't get a crisp dent with even, rounded curves. And I have a vintage resistol stingy with just the center dent, so I ended up just wanting to experiment a bit. The bumping may also be a factor of the felt? It's not quite as beefy as my Resistol or my Dobbs. The Dobbs I've had to reshape before, and had no trouble. This Churchill is buttery soft and just a little on the thin side. I'd call it an 'elegant' felt. Not as tough as the Resistol or Dobbs.

 

[mayserwegener]

Might want to keep it open crown and experiment with different creases and dents. The bumpy felt might be hard to over come though.