The more you shop for an answer - the more answers you'll get.
Delmonico used to shape hats for a living - not many can say that, so there are hundreds of hats he's done that someone paid him to do.
For me, that's endorsement enough.
Scouts Out!
DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING
aaaaaannd the winning answer is from St George! Give Him a Cigar!
(gonna have to make a sticky list of hat stuff....)
Not only did Delmonico "shape" hats for a living, he used to actually "rebuild them" . links will follow below.
I have used his methods to VERY GOOD effect.
I myself am a Hat Nut. I generally favor wide brim fedoras, and wear them daily. For CAS I had to find a hat style that passes the Spousal Lafter Test.
Mostly these hats are "felted" - that is the fibers are short and just matt together and are held kinda loosely by some sort of stickum and the natural "hooks" in the fur itself.
Any time you overly saturate a fur felt hat with too much water you are running the risk of separating the fibers.
I ruined one cheap hat by using the "dunking method". It now looks like a fur felt hat blank. I am going to have to get a proper hat block/mold and reshape it.
I myself have been
acquiring collecting getting hats by haunting the flea markets and "used stuff" stores to get cheap hats for 10 years. I have amassed a pile of about "TOO MANY HATS"
I have about 8 "good hats" all quality fur felt or quality panama leaf. I bought these at real stores and had the fur felt hats sized by the proprietor, who used STEAM.
I have about 6 or 8 "everyday hats" , good felt or cheap panama. I managed to get them all to fit with few problems, but used Del's methods. In one case I carefully wet a mishapen panama hat with mist, put it on a form, and carefully redried it. It came out ok.
I have over a dozen fur felt stetsons I got from shops for less than $12 a pop. These I am slowly working thru to reshape or rebuild using Del's methods of STEAM and Hat Shellac.
I
had a really nice, well worn, plain 4" brim fedora ( think Indian Jones), wore it every day, had a nice bone choker hatband, and some great burns where my Sharps Paper Cutter blew gas out of the breech onto the brim.
It Got stolen while at a Denny's in Taos.
I have been breaking in the 4x beaver replacement my wife got me for the last 8 years. Still working on it.
I do try to keep some hats "nice" -
the Sunday Go To Meeting 5x Stetson, The Banker Silver Belly Stetson, the Short Victorian Topper, The Bowler, and the summer "dress palm leaf hats".
elsewhere I mention:
"You may hear from any number of people such interesting things as
soak the hat in a stock tank, shower, tub, sink, then clap it on your head, stuff it on a maniken, wig dummy ,blah blah blah.
You will also probably hear "I've soaked hats like this all my life" or "I've done dozens of hats" blah blah blah.
Those methods probably work, kinda. And they apparently gave results the owner was happy with. but it's like putting oatmeal in your radiator instead of fixing the leak. The outcome will eventually be less harmonious....
I myself have completely redone 4 hats so far. I have many more to do. Before I leanred from Del, I used the "soak it" method and ruined 2 . They look sort of like hats but are not anything I would wear further than mucking out the yard. I am now treating them like "hat blanks" and will start from scratch, I figure "no loss" .
A Hat Blank:
I followed Dell's tutorial and brought two 4X beaver Stetson's back to life. I removed the hatband and sweatband, resized, reblocked, reshaped and made new sweatbands, hatbands, and liners for them following Dell's tutorial. Folks who see them think they are new old stock. His instructions are a tish of work but I believe the outcome is well worth it.
I beleive it is a grand idea to follow the advise of real experts, as opposed to "shade-tree experts".
Dell did this for a living, worked with Stetson people, and had a number of honest-to-gawd famous folks heading all the way down to the store in Nebraska just to get him to fit their hats. When it comes to camp cooking or hats it is hard to go wrong if you listen to Delmonico."
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Making Your Hat Fit Your Head
http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=11542.0he does mention using water in a spray bottle ( lightly)
Hat Question
http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=36118.20Another Hat Question
http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=36391.5Flattening a Hat Brim
http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=11520.0 Adjusting Hat Size (Fit)
http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php?topic=710.0BTW don't use spray starch, it screws up your fur felt. Yes, the marine DI's use it, but Marine DI's do a lot of things... not all are good. GI's also spray their boots with Women's Hair Spray ( spray Lacquer) for a fast shine. - not good for leather
yhs
prof marvel