Making an old hat look new.........

[Fedora]

Since some of you guys are becoming "do it yourselfers" I have a tip for restoring old faded hats somewhat to a newer appearance. The tip is to mix 3 parts water to 1 part Armorall. Get yourself a traditional hatters sponge(sheepskin with fur attached) saturate it is this mixture and then squeeze out the excess. Apply to the felt in a counter clockwise motion until evenly covered. Repeat if necessary. You will be amazed at the results. Makes a dandy water repellant as well. Fedora

 

[gekisai29]

Where can you get such a sponge?

 

[tonyb]

If this advice were coming from that fellow who isn't welcome around here, I'd think my leg was being pulled. But coming from you, Steve, I gotta take it seriously.
Is this something another hatter passed along, or did you come up with it on your own?
Would it be advisable to avoid contact with the ribbon and edge binging? I ask 'cuz I have a faded old beater I'm tempted to give this treatment, and its binding is quite discolored. Does it work on grosgrain?

 

[shoeshineboy]

will that work on the bald part of my head, too. Make it look as good as new ?

mark the shoeshine boy

 

[Fedora]

Is this something another hatter passed along, or did you come up with it on your own?
Would it be advisable to avoid contact with the ribbon and edge binging? I ask 'cuz I have a faded old beater I'm tempted to give this treatment, and its binding is quite discolored. Does it work on grosgrain?

I did hear this from another hatter who is no longer making hats. I then heard it again later on and tried it recently on an old beater of mine. But, I had the hat stripped down and therefore got none on the ribbon, and this hat was not bound. So, that is uncharted territory for me. I would think the silicone would darken any ribbons, just off the top of my head, but have no clue if it would bring out the color better in that. I shall try it if I ever get some free time to pittle. But, it worked on my hat, and since I was told it was used by some hatters in refurbs, it seems like a viable technique. I know that oil used to be used by hatters to get a lower quality felt to look more expensive, and this really is doing the same thing, just substituting a modern product, for an old one. Defractunated coconut oil would work too, but leaves an oilier feel to the hat.

I knew of the abilities of silicone in treating leather, etc and it did not surprise me it gave a new life to an old looking hat. I do know that you can mess up a guitar if you use it on it. Silicone is almost impossible to remove, and if you wanted an old guitar refinished, that had been treated with a silicone based product, you will never get a good new finish on the guitar. It will not allow the new finish to penetrate the wood enough, and causes fisheyes in the new finish. I found this out the hard way a few years ago before my vintage Fender got stolen from my car.

On the sheepskin, you can find it online I would imagine. It may not be necessary of course, as a regular sponge might work too. The only reason I use sheepskin is I try to use what the early 20th century hatters used, and it fits well with my other vintage hatmaking tools. Even my heavy iron was made in the early 50's. My rounding jack is from the 1930's. I just like using vintage hatmaking tools, and the sheepskin with fur attached is one of them. Fedora