Photos of hatters tools

[John Galt]

Here's another new puller-downer (that I made today for A&A out of an antique oak drawer). It still needs polyurethane, but is otherwise done unless he wants stain.

I wish I had a vintage one to compare. I traced the curve from a 7 1/4 brim flange, though, so it is good. I am getting much better at fabricating these precisely. The first one was a lot less symmetrical.

 

[Alive'n'Amplified]

Looks awesome!! :thumb:

Wow. I'm really looking forward to it. This will save my thumbs, for sure!! Did vintage tools have stains on them? Does it seal and preserve the wood for longer use?

 

[John Galt]

Looks awesome!! :thumb:

Wow. I'm really looking forward to it. This will save my thumbs, for sure!! Did vintage tools have stains on them? Does it seal and preserve the wood for longer use?

The hatters here will pipe in, I hope. Typically, hatters had a light colored set of wooden tools and a dark colored set to avoid staining light colored hats. I don't know if they were stained though - I think just different colored woods. I personally like this the way it is. I didn't sand all of the old stain color out of the wood, because it still brings the grain out a bit. I don't think it really matters much whether it is stained or not when you have a protective poly coat, because the color is sealed.

Whatever you want is right. I can stain this a red oak/mahogany color, English oak, etc., but I'd just put spray polyurethane on it if I were going to keep it.

 

[TheDane]

There's no need to have dark tools for dark hats and light for light hats. The color doesn't matter, as long as you can distinguish them from eachother.

Most wood turns darker over time. Nearly all of the old dark blocks you see on EBay were made from popular which is very light - almost white. To be safe, I wouldn't stain the wood. After all, lacquer wears off

 

[John Galt]

Back to topic, I thought I'd better deliver. I found these online.

 

[John Galt]

More.

 

[John Galt]

Still more, trying not to duplicate.

 

[John Galt]

 

[John Galt]

 

[TheDane]

Lots of nice shackels and tollikers

View attachment 4172

That looks like felted edge irons(?)

 

[John Galt]

(Note the thumb groove on the above foot Tolliker. I have not seen this reproduced on modern copies).









That's all for now, but I think we're fully on topic ;-)

 

[John Galt]

The Dane wrote:
"That looks like felted edge irons"

Yes, I don't quite know how these worked, so if anyone can elaborate...

Also, note the two manual crown irons.

 

[TheDane]

Also, note the two manual crown irons.

Yup, they are not necessarily for fedoras, but probably for toppers(?) For fedoras they would have been a lot heavier.

The irons for felted edge were used to iron brims, that had a felted edge - like the Cav-Edge or the Mode Edge. You could iron the brim while still keeping a nice rounded edge on it.

I couldn't help noticing this listing on The Bay. It's an old Knox with an underwelted brim with an underside-only stitching. On the top it was obviously ironed with an iron that pressed down the brim - but let the welting stand up in all it's rounded beauty

The hat is in quite bad state, but looking at the brim from above, it's one of the best faux Cav-edges I've seen. It could be done with one of those irons

 

[TheDane]

Hmmmm ... I guess it's from the time that Resistol was called Knox

Bull! Of course it's a Resistol ... sorry

 

[HardHeartHats]

That initialer is AWESOME. I am coveting it.

 

[John Galt]

The irons for felted edge were used to iron brims, that had a felted edge - like the Cav-Edge or the Mode Edge. You could iron the brim while still keeping a nice rounded edge on it.

I couldn't help noticing this listing on The Bay. It's an old Knox with an underwelted brim with an underside-only stitching. On the top it was obviously ironed with an iron that pressed down the brim - but let the welting stand up in all it's rounded beauty

I follow. Very cool. What about the rounded brim iron with the straight groove?

 

[TheDane]

If it's not for ironing the brim on a Straightoliner, I have no idea

 

[John Galt]

If it's not for ironing the brim on a Straightoliner, I have no idea

Funny!

I wondered if the notch was to run the brim through while the iron was hot, to shape it up...

 

[Hatter4]

Tolliker with Thumb Grove

I have a couple of tollikers with a thumb imprint in my collection. If someone could tell me how to post pictures in here-I could show them. Checkout my webpage for some of my tools: http://19thcenturyhatmaker.com

 

[John Galt]

Oliver, that is a very nice collection of tools!

Here are the photos, nabbed from your website: