Wolfbrae Custom Hatters

With the permission of @belfastboy I’m starting a dedicated Wolfbrae Custom Hatters thread.

I know the regulars here already know most of this, but as we always have new folks showing up, members and lurkers, I thought I’d start at the beginning:

The hero of our story @belfastboy has a love of hats. He has custom hats from many of the best hatters as well as a collection of custom hats. He’s enjoyed hats for many years so when he retried he decided to try out hat making (he makes hats for men and women). At this point he’s just starting out, but his work is solid and his hats are very nice. He can take on most any project from a complete custom build to a simple leather sweatband replacement. He has a decent, and growing, selection of blocks and flanges and vintage grosgrain ribbon. He has access to a wide range of felt hat bodies. The postage from Canada is a bit more than I’m used to with domestic hatters, but shipping from BC to California is only about a week, the his most reasonable prices more than offset the increased shipping. Hopefully @belfastboy will be able to post a price list at some point. I’ve done all my commissions via email and the responses are quick and progress updates are regular: just how I like it.

I hope everyone who gets a Wolfbrae has work done by Wolfbrae on their hats posts it here. I’m happy to support a great guy and I’m very pleased with all his work.

Here’s a hat to start off:

This was a rebulid of an existing hat that really counts as a new build. The hat was reblocked to my size, the crown height was increased and the brim width decreased (stole from the brim to increase crown height). The brim was flanged, a new sweatband was sewn in, a new vintage ribbon and bow sewn on, and the original liner was put back in at my request:

 

This is a Wolfbrae custom build from a bottle green hat body I bought from the Millinery Warehouse. It’s a firm/stiff western felt that really came out great. Throughout the process I was given updates and allowed to choose block profiles, heights, widths, etc. I went with a black ribbon because in certain light the felt looks black and the black ribbon contrasts and brings out more of the green. This was a hoot to see come together.

 

This is my first Wolfbrae: It was a wide brim Borsalino made for the religious market. It was several sizes too small for me, but after reblocking to my size there was still plenty of brim with left for a fedora. I chose the ribbon for a bit of contrast and to move away from the orthodox look. This was my first time with a custom hat that required stiffening...I usually want them less stiff. @belfastboy added real hand mixed shellac until the stiffness was perfect:

 

I have two hats ready to ship and three more in queue.

Jonathan @TheOldFashioned I know you have one to post here too.

 

Here’s a 1950s Stetson No. 1 Quality. It arrived with a sweatband that had severe dry rot and the felt had some soiling. Wolfbrae cleaned it, reblocked...well he completely remade it into a usable hat. The two-cord ribbon was replaced with a wider grosgrain contrasting ribbon and given a different style bow.



The felt is still 65 years old and it didn’t come out looking brand new...and that’s how I wanted it. It keeps some character while not looking filthy.

 

This O’Farrell looked to be in decent condition, but the sweatband shriveled up the first time I sweat wearing it. The dreaded dry rot. A complete rebuild by Wolfbrae got me an awesome hat:

 

This is an interesting hat. It’s an American Hat Co. 3X Clear Beaver. I’ve yet to find anything conclusive as to what “Clear Beaver” means from this company. It’s a typical western from its era and rugged and in great shape...aside from the sweatband!
It was completely rebuilt and the two cord ribbon replaced with a wider grosgrain ribbon.

 

My last (for now) Wolfbrae. This is a 150g 100% nutria felt in the color called “gunmetal.” It’s a gorgeous blue-gray. The felt it very soft, but also thick and dense. It’s definitely a winter weight felt.

 

And the the Smithbilt is ready too, right? Very excited to see how these turned out!

 

Very cool! Let me know when the suede finish felts arrive; I’m really interested in your initial impressions.

 

The heather looks nice.

My next hat will be the suede finished felt in silverbelly.



Waiting on an initial blocking to see how much brim we’ll have to work with.

 

I’m not sure when that debossing went out of use. The labels behind the disintegrating sweatband and the size tag looked 1950s to me, but I’ve repeatedly proven that accurately dating hats is not one of my strengths.