New Member to the Hat Forum

[Real McCoy]

@RickP - thanks for the beach photos suggestion!
My folks are 71 years married plus hoping to make it to age 95 or longer (maybe).

Mrs. McCoy has helped me tons with my parent's move to assisted living, and clearing out their big house.

Beach photos, soon!

 

[akatim]

Hello, new to the forum. I've been lurking off and on for awhile. New to wearing hats that aren't ball caps. I like the style and need to keep the sun off my ears and neck. My first is an Akubra Angler size 59, I like it a lot but I need to get a summer hat to go along with it. I know I'll eventually end up with quite a few in the end.

 

[RickP]

Hello, new to the forum. I've been lurking off and on for awhile. New to wearing hats that aren't ball caps. I like the style and need to keep the sun off my ears and neck. My first is an Akubra Angler size 59, I like it a lot but I need to get a summer hat to go along with it. I know I'll eventually end up with quite a few in the end.

welcome aboard!

 

[Blain]

Hello, I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for quite a while now.
I wear western felt hats and have just started getting into making them.
My first hat, I made for myself. It's a 50/50 Beaver Rabbit Blend Western Weight (250g) Natural color Western hat.
The second hat, I made for my wife. It's a 100% Beaver Medium Weight (160g) Whisky color Western(ish) hat.
My third hat I made for myself again and it's a 100% Beaver Medium Weight Pecan color western hat.
And Now I'm starting on the 4th hat which will be for my wife and is going to be a 100% Beaver Medium Weight Natural Color Western(ish) hat.

Being that I mostly make/wear Western hats, I like my brims on the longer side.
For the Medium Weight Felt that I'm getting the Brim is just barely wide enough to hit 4.0" so that leaves me having to use an alternative hat band since I don't have enough brim left over to make a self band.

I noticed that the classifieds seem to be geared towards vintage postings.
Is there a place that I can post a "Wanted to Buy" for Brim Trimmings?
If a lot of folks here are making Fedoras, then it's pretty likely that y'all are discarding a lot of left over brim trimmings, I would think.

Thank you all for all of the great posts. They've been inspiring as I've been getting into this new Hobby, and I look forward to interacting with you all more soon.

Blain

 

[RickP]

Hello, I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for quite a while now.
I wear western felt hats and have just started getting into making them.
My first hat, I made for myself. It's a 50/50 Beaver Rabbit Blend Western Weight (250g) Natural color Western hat.
The second hat, I made for my wife. It's a 100% Beaver Medium Weight (160g) Whisky color Western(ish) hat.
My third hat I made for myself again and it's a 100% Beaver Medium Weight Pecan color western hat.
And Now I'm starting on the 4th hat which will be for my wife and is going to be a 100% Beaver Medium Weight Natural Color Western(ish) hat.

Being that I mostly make/wear Western hats, I like my brims on the longer side.
For the Medium Weight Felt that I'm getting the Brim is just barely wide enough to hit 4.0" so that leaves me having to use an alternative hat band since I don't have enough brim left over to make a self band.

I noticed that the classifieds seem to be geared towards vintage postings.
Is there a place that I can post a "Wanted to Buy" for Brim Trimmings?
If a lot of folks here are making Fedoras, then it's pretty likely that y'all are discarding a lot of left over brim trimmings, I would think.

Thank you all for all of the great posts. They've been inspiring as I've been getting into this new Hobby, and I look forward to interacting with you all more soon.

Blain

I think a lot of us only trim enough the brim of a second hand hat to clean up the edge a bit or correct wonky brim dimentions. Most of my trimmings are only about 1/8"... not really enough to make a band with. Have you considered things like braided horsehair with a tassel, or really finely braided leather? I know American and Resistol do a lot of felt hatbands on some of their hats, but it just never rang my bells. If youre already doing some shaping and blocking, its a short leap to include a really personalized hatband treatment. ( as long as its not one of the 70's guitar strap or bandana hatbands that some of the bohemian folks seem to favor. Feathers can add a bit of flair ( something unusual like a spotted guinea feather)... Just please, please, please dont hang a foot long buzzard feather in there lol

Welcome aboard and I look forward to seeing some pictures

 

[RickP]

Lots of nice semi exotic leathers out there that can make nice hatbands. If you play with the leather route, just be sure to bevel , dye, and burnish the edges..... nothing says " My Cub Scout made this for me" more than a raw unfinished leather edge lol

 

[Blain]

I think a lot of us only trim enough the brim of a second hand hat to clean up the edge a bit or correct wonky brim dimentions. Most of my trimmings are only about 1/8"... not really enough to make a band with. Have you considered things like braided horsehair with a tassel, or really finely braided leather? I know American and Resistol do a lot of felt hatbands on some of their hats, but it just never rang my bells. If youre already doing some shaping and blocking, its a short leap to include a really personalized hatband treatment. ( as long as its not one of the 70's guitar strap or bandana hatbands that some of the bohemian folks seem to favor. Feathers can add a bit of flair ( something unusual like a spotted guinea feather)... Just please, please, please dont hang a foot long buzzard feather in there lol

Welcome aboard and I look forward to seeing some pictures

Hey RickP,

Nice to meet you.
I actually emailed a Hat Maker fairly close to me last night and was able to arrange picking up a Pecan Felt trimming today after I got off work.
I had purchased a leather hat band for the hat, but I really prefer the felt self band look for a western cowboy hat. Although this one isn't going to technically be a "self" band, but it'll at least have the look that I'm after.

I'll put some pictures up after I finish making the new band for it.

Have a happy 4th!

 

[RickP]

Hey RickP,

Nice to meet you.
I actually emailed a Hat Maker fairly close to me last night and was able to arrange picking up a Pecan Felt trimming today after I got off work.
I had purchased a leather hat band for the hat, but I really prefer the felt self band look for a western cowboy hat. Although this one isn't going to technically be a "self" band, but it'll at least have the look that I'm after.

I'll put some pictures up after I finish making the new band for it.

Have a happy 4th!

A friend once made some bands from brim trimmings and he said the easiest way he found to straighten out the curve was to thoroughly steam/ wet the felt and hang it vertically with just enough weight clipped to the end to let it hang under tension till more or less straight ( I work with leather and have done the sale thing to straighten wavy leather strips) Cant wait to see the results

 

[Blain]

That's a great tip.
I had just finished trimming and straightening it up before I read this, but I'll give that a try next time.
For this one, I steamed it up real good and then draped it over the round towel rack in the bathroom and grabbed each end of the felt strip as I ran it back and forth over the bar of the towel rack.
It seemed to work ok, but I think if I would have trimmed the piece a little thinner first it would have been easier to straighten. It was about 2.0-2.5" wide initially.
For the most part it was fairly straight and once I trimmed it to 3/8" it straightened up after that no problem.

 

[RickP]

Hello, I'm new to the forum but have been lurking for quite a while now.
I wear western felt hats and have just started getting into making them.
My first hat, I made for myself. It's a 50/50 Beaver Rabbit Blend Western Weight (250g) Natural color Western hat.
The second hat, I made for my wife. It's a 100% Beaver Medium Weight (160g) Whisky color Western(ish) hat.
My third hat I made for myself again and it's a 100% Beaver Medium Weight Pecan color western hat.
And Now I'm starting on the 4th hat which will be for my wife and is going to be a 100% Beaver Medium Weight Natural Color Western(ish) hat.

Being that I mostly make/wear Western hats, I like my brims on the longer side.
For the Medium Weight Felt that I'm getting the Brim is just barely wide enough to hit 4.0" so that leaves me having to use an alternative hat band since I don't have enough brim left over to make a self band.

I noticed that the classifieds seem to be geared towards vintage postings.
Is there a place that I can post a "Wanted to Buy" for Brim Trimmings?
If a lot of folks here are making Fedoras, then it's pretty likely that y'all are discarding a lot of left over brim trimmings, I would think.

Thank you all for all of the great posts. They've been inspiring as I've been getting into this new Hobby, and I look forward to interacting with you all more soon.

Blain

I did some digging around here and I do have some 5/8" trimmings if you still need any. Most are western weight felt and pretty much all fur felt. Just let me know


Rick

 

[Real McCoy]

Welcome, Blain! Your own designs or hat work sounds so interesting.

Your creations will be fun to see in photos, later.

 

[Blain]

I did some digging around here and I do have some 5/8" trimmings if you still need any. Most are western weight felt and pretty much all fur felt. Just let me know


Rick
View attachment 715698

Thanks for the offer Rick.
For the time being, I should be all set since I was able to get what I needed from the local hat maker.
I love those lighter tones that you have. That's on my list for a hat one of these days. Something like sand, etc.

Well, we've been flooding here in the Texas Hill Country, so I wasn't able to get some outdoor photos of my hats like I wanted to, but I did manage to get a couple of pictures of my Pecan hat with the new hat band that I just made.

This is a 160 g mid weight 100% Beaver felt from Millinery Warehouse. The 160 g hats usually have a smaller brim than the Western weight felts, so that's why I wasn't able to get a self band from this one and still manage to have a 4" brim.

The sweatband is lamb skin and I laser engraved it.
One of these days I'll either get an embroidery machine or see what it would cost to have someone embroider a logo into the liner. Even though I'm not professional, I like to pretend that I am.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July.

 

[Blain]

Welcome, Blain! Your own designs or hat work sounds so interesting.

Your creations will be fun to see in photos, later.

Thanks Real McCoy.

Once the weather clears up here, I'll try to do a photo session with what I have made so far.

I did a Natural Western hat for myself as my first hat. It's a 50% Beaver/50% Rabbit.

Then I did a 100% Beaver Mid weight in Whiskey color for my wife.

Then the Pecan that you see in the photo above which is 100% Mid weight with the "self band" that I just acquired the felt for.

And I just finished a 100% Natural Mid Weight Felt for my wife yesterday with a pencil curl brim.

Next up for me is a 100% Nutria that I'll do in a Gus Style Western with probably a Pencil Curl brim. It'll be my beater hat that I just wear and put it through the test to see what it can hold up to.

Pictures will come maybe this next weekend. I think we're scheduled for Rain through Wednesday.

 

[RickP]

Thanks for the offer Rick.
For the time being, I should be all set since I was able to get what I needed from the local hat maker.
I love those lighter tones that you have. That's on my list for a hat one of these days. Something like sand, etc.

Well, we've been flooding here in the Texas Hill Country, so I wasn't able to get some outdoor photos of my hats like I wanted to, but I did manage to get a couple of pictures of my Pecan hat with the new hat band that I just made.

This is a 160 g mid weight 100% Beaver felt from Millinery Warehouse. The 160 g hats usually have a smaller brim than the Western weight felts, so that's why I wasn't able to get a self band from this one and still manage to have a 4" brim.

The sweatband is lamb skin and I laser engraved it.
One of these days I'll either get an embroidery machine or see what it would cost to have someone embroider a logo into the liner. Even though I'm not professional, I like to pretend that I am.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July. View attachment 715810 View attachment 715811

looks great!

 

[The Spaniard]

I register some years ago, but I have not written until yesterday.
I have not many hut yet, and my first hat was a Panama trilby. Since then I felt interest on hats but here in Spain few people wear hats and find it estrange when someone is wearing a hat. Because of it I have not used hats in other season than summer. Moreover, I live in a small town. I should change it.
I have still much to learn about hats and how to wear it.

 

[jeffgarf]

An official welcome to you. I hope you enjoy this new hobby. There are actually some fine Spanish hat makers, including Fernandez y Roche from Saville (of which I own two) and others as well that may be discussed here on the Lounge. Have a long look around and enjoy.

 

[The Spaniard]

An official welcome to you. I hope you enjoy this new hobby. There are actually some fine Spanish hat makers, including Fernandez y Roche from Saville (of which I own two) and others as well that may be discussed here on the Lounge. Have a long look around and enjoy.

Thank you.
My Panama hat is "made" by Signes.
My fist felt hat (fur felt) is made by Fernández y Roché. This is a rigid hat and although I guess this is a good hat, maybe I prefer more flexible hats. Moreover, the circumference of my head is 53 cm (kid head lol) and the hat is 54 cm because it was the smaller hat they had.

 

[RickP]

Welcome to the Lounge!

 

[The Spaniard]

Welcome to the Lounge!

Thank you Rick.

 

[jeffgarf]

My Panama hat is "made" by Signes

Ah, Signes is the one I was thinking of as the other one to mention. Don't have one and always looking to pick one up when available. The good news is that if you look on America eBay there should be many sellers with hats available at good prices in smaller sizes. It is always possible to buy a size bigger than normal and size down with weather stripping or hat sizers that can be bought online.