Wolfbrae Custom Hatters

[tamz0r]

Robert your bow work is beautiful! (just wanted to pop in real quick and say that lol)

 

[belfastboy]

Robert your bow work is beautiful! (just wanted to pop in real quick and say that lol)

Thank you, I appreciate your kind words.

 

[belfastboy]

Funny how things go in cycles or waves. I have had 2 FEPSA felts in Black cherry in my stock for close to a year....no takers. Today the second one in 3 weeks went out the door. Do I buy more?
4 1/4" at the pinch, 2 1/2" brim. Vintage grosgrain in charcoal, vintage Japanese silk on the liner. Roan, veg tanned leather in natural on the sweat.

 

[Judgmentalist]

It is straw season! I received my order of Panama straw hat blanks from Ecuador early this year so I am hitting the ground running. Here are 4 hats headed out tomorrow. They show the two base styles I can make up. First is a fedora styling, centre dent or teardrop, 2 1/2 to 2 3/4" brim. The second is a Gambler/Plantation style, centre dent or telescope crown. Any crown ribbon or? treatment you want I can likely do for you. The first two pics show Japanese silk cloth supplied by the customer that we fashioned into a shark's gill bow treatment. Or a braided horsehair band. And a red leather band with an antler concho View attachment 693867 View attachment 693868 View attachment 693869 View attachment 693870

Can you talk to me about this fedora style a bit? You can message me privately if you prefer. I’m interested in the quality of the straw, cost, anything else I’m not thinking of. Sorry if that is vague.

 

[Judgmentalist]

Today saw the debut of my Wolfbrae Panama. Plantation style with a ribbon made from silk kimono fabric that we provided. I’d seen Robert recommend getting the shape of your head using a flexicurve. I decided to do so, and what I discovered was that I am not, in fact, a size 59, but a 58 long oval. I think I lost just over half a cm by shaving my head. The new hat is a great fit.
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The hat looks awesome! I want one. I’m curious how it went with the Flexicurve. That looks like something I could easily mess up.

 

[belfastboy]

Can you talk to me about this fedora style a bit? You can message me privately if you prefer. I’m interested in the quality of the straw, cost, anything else I’m not thinking of. Sorry if that is vague.

The straw in the picture is aclassic fedora styling in a grade 2 straw. $250...leather sweat...vintage ribbon. Grade 2 is a nice weave. I prefer it as it offers a refined weave without breaking the bank.

 

[The Shoe]

The hat looks awesome! I want one. I’m curious how it went with the Flexicurve. That looks like something I could easily mess up.

I repeated the measurement several times, just to be sure. It resulted in two of my best fitting hats, and a better understanding of my head size and shape.

 

[Judgmentalist]

Every once in a while I get a commission for a true classic. A black fedora, 2 5/8" brim, centre dent with 5 1/4" height at the sides. Black grosgrain on the brim and crown. It is on its way to Florida View attachment 724182

My kind of hat

 

[jeffgarf]

My kind of hat

Thank you! I still have it and wear it several times a month. @belfastboy did a fantastic job.

 

[Judgmentalist]

Well done, indeed!

I wore my newest Wolfbrae Homburg to work today. I'll post a few pics tomorrow.



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Love all your hats

 

[Rmccamey]

Thank you.

Love all your hats

 

[Judgmentalist]

Love all your hats

Well I have now officially read every post in this thread. Lots of beautiful hats. I have some questions for Mr. Gault that can easily wait until he gets back from vacation, but I am fairly certain a few Wolfbrae hats are in my future. I’m also pretty sure he isn’t charging enough, but if he would be so kind as to wait until after I get my hats to raise prices it will be much appreciated.

 

[Darrell2688]

I was fortunate enough to receive a hat from Robert last week, but ended up out of town on a family camping trip and hadn't gotten any "after" photos until today.

Robert built this one for me on a lightweight (90 gram, I think?) chestnut FEPSA felt, with vintage charcoal ribbon. The ribbon almost matches the felt in indoor lighting, but the gray really stands out in direct sun.

Robert builds a really fine hat. He listened to exactly what I wanted, and worked with me to make it all come together. I wish there was just a little more height on the crown, but we knew it was chancy going in, as my big 62 head size eats up a lot of felt! I'm still pleased with the way it turned out after shaping.

The finish on this hat is perfect- very evenly pounced with a nice soft hand. The felt itself is soft - I've never had a hat this light in weight before, or this soft. This is not a working hat, but a dress hat, so those are qualities I wanted in this one. And it is LIGHT on the head!

The ribbon and bow work is just what I wanted, and is very well done. Robert picked a lighter sweatband and a very nice silk material for the liner. These too are well done, and make everything on the hat come together nicely.

Here's a shot of the hat as received, and a few after some shaping:

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Thank you, Robert, for a very fine hat!

That is a really nice looking fedora. What color is the felt? It looks brown in low light, but looks like a shade of red in the sunlight?? Beautiful work.

 

[Darrell2688]

Here is a fun project. The beaver felt came out of an ironing with white splotches that I could not get rid of. They rendered the felt unsaleable. So, I decided to attempt to cover it with silk. I have never done this before and I deemed it a worthy experiment. Here are the pictures so far. Next step is to p View attachment 757464 View attachment 757465 View attachment 757466 View attachment 757467 put on a brim binding and sew in the leather sweat. I will put it up for sale on Ebay. I am leaning toward black for the binding so the contrast is on the top side against the felt. A black crown ribbon to match.

Nice work and a great idea, how did you secure the secure the silk to the bottom of the hat brim? Very interesting work, securing the silk to the brim had to be a challenge with the black/white line pattern.

 

[belfastboy]

Nice work and a great idea, how did you secure the secure the silk to the bottom of the hat brim? Very interesting work, securing the silk to the brim had to be a challenge with the black/white line pattern.

Hand stitched it in place. Laying the silk was easy but it required two sets of hands. One set to hold it taut as it was laid down. The other pair of hands to keep it straight.

 

[Darrell2688]

Hand stitched it in place. Laying the silk was easy but it required two sets of hands. One set to hold it taut as it was laid down. The other pair of hands to keep it straight.

Stitching the material in place by hand, you had your hands full, pulling the material tight and straight by hand as you stitched it in place. That is a lot of work and a real challenge. Really nice work for sure.
Did you sell the hat on Ebay?
I might have to give that a try, maybe using a different print on the material, should be interesting and a chance to work on my brim binding. I have blocks that I can use for 7.5" hat sizes, I am going to check on some 62 & 63CM hat blocks to add to my hat block selection.

 

[belfastboy]

I

Stitching the material in place by hand, you had your hands full, pulling the material tight and straight by hand as you stitched it in place. That is a lot of work and a real challenge. Really nice work for sure.
Did you sell the hat on Ebay?

Posted it on my Instagram account
..a customer saw it...he lives 10 mins away. He bought it....it was sold 15 mins after I posted it.

.

 

[jeffgarf]

I

Posted it on my Instagram account
..a customer saw it...he lives 10 mins away. He bought it....it was sold 15 mins after I posted it.

.

@Darrell2688 and @belfastboy - seeing this discussion on the lining of hats ie. Tuxedo hats, I wanted to point you on the direction of the social media accounts of B.M. Franklin from Atlanta. Coincidentally, they just did a reel with a wedding hat made for one of their clients, using what looks too be a paisley jacquard fabric as the underlining of the hat. Not my look, but very interesting to see.

 

[Darrell2688]

I

Posted it on my Instagram account
..a customer saw it...he lives 10 mins away. He bought it....it was sold 15 mins after I posted it.

.

That is great news, I am glad to hear that you were able to sell to someone close by and not on Ebay.

I would rather sell to my customers direct & away from Ebay if I can, that way both of us save money, plus I can sell at a lower price, if anyone is interested in a hat that I have listed there, please contact me here. The Ebay fees and taxes are crazy, I sold a hat on Ebay to a customer in California & the taxes were crazy, close to $50.00 plus shipping.

 

[Judgmentalist]

How do I find you on eBay?