Softening a hat

[MCrider]

"(Another crazy, but off-topic, factoid from the same source: felt was once made from almost anything that would walk by a felter's door, and many things that did not. Dog, cat, every kind of rodent, and monkey were sources for felt at one time or another.)"

Lefty,
Where in the world do you come up with this stuff??? That's just tooo funny knowing that I may be wearing vintage monkey on my head!

 

[Lefty]

Go to this site and buy Hat Talk and The Handmade Felt Hat. The site is run by the author, Debbie Henderson, who is extremely friendly. The price on the site includes fast shipping.

I learned more about the history and manufacture of hats in the couple of hours I spent on those books than I have in over two years of reading posts on the Lounge. You can learn a lot by the threads here, but much of the information is disjointed and based upon us looking at our hats, boxes, and ads, and trying to look back at what the hatters may have been doing. With these books, Henderson uses primary resources - works by, or interviews of hatters - to provide a nice, cohesive work on hat history. The books are far from being encyclopedic. For every question that they might answer, they raise several more. However, with so little out there, they're the best resources I've seen, and I intend to order Cowboys and Hatters sometime soon.

I'd also highly suggest reading the Mallory book that's available to read for free on the web. Check out the thread called Free Hat Book!! for the link.

Oh, and unless your hat is well over 150 years old, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's monkey-free.

"(Another crazy, but off-topic, factoid from the same source: felt was once made from almost anything that would walk by a felter's door, and many things that did not. Dog, cat, every kind of rodent, and monkey were sources for felt at one time or another.)"

Lefty,
Where in the world do you come up with this stuff??? That's just tooo funny knowing that I may be wearing vintage monkey on my head!

 

[MCrider]

No monkey hat for me!

That's good news then! I'm REALLY glad that the monkey/dog/rat hats are true vintage hats. (Wipes imaginary sweat off brow)