Flattening a Hat Brim

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Cool, pard!

[Professor Honeyfuggler]

I learned something interesting about flat hat brims while talking to hatmakers about a special hat I was looking for. If you happen to want to keep a brim really flat, ala the Wyatt Earp hat in movie Tombstone, its important that the crown be the correct shape to fit your head. If you have a long oval shaped head, like I do, and put on a hat that's shaped to fit an oval or round head, the front and the back of the brim will droop. No amount of brim pressing will correct that

That's why to get a real custom fit, the best hatmakers measure the shape of your head, along with the size, with a device that looks like a medieval torture hat. Then they block the hat form to the dozens of measurement it takes, so the hat will conform precisely to the shape of your head without stressing the brim to cause it to deflect or buckle.

And learning that fact solved the mystery of why most stock hats, at least the stiff ones, don't fit me well, even when the tags say they're the correct size. Pulled down tight against the front and back of my head there's sometimes a 1/4" of airspace on the sides where it doesn't touch my head at all.

 

[Buffalow Red]

so were is the hat store Delmonico

[Shotgun Franklin]

I worked with a retired Soldier who had been a DI for awhile. He really missed his hat. He told me about that press they used on the brim and said that they'd spray the brim with starch, like you use for ironing. He claimed that the starch helped hold the shape.

[Angel_Eyes]

Del, what do you use as 'hat stiffener'?
Is it commercially available or is it your own recipe?
One of my hats resists all attempts at shaping, (I think it may be wool felt and I may be wasting my time).
It looks like something a hillbilly may have thrown away.

AE

[Professor Honeyfuggler]

Del, what do you use as 'hat stiffener'?
Is it commercially available or is it your own recipe?
One of my hats resists all attempts at shaping,

I've heard tell that some of the special forces folks that wear berets, with an upswoop for their insignia, swear by hairspray. They say it's more water resistant than starch. 

[Delmonico]

I work at The Fort Western in Lincoln Newbrassky in The Old West Shop.

Hat stiffener is nothing but white "natural" shellac mixed with enough denatured alcohol to make it go through a spray bottle.

Hat fit is very important, got a thread around here ot that somewhere.

[Delmonico]

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,11542.0.html