An Open Crown Block For Us Amateurs?

[Brad Bowers]

Thanks, Fedora!

Turns out my eye hasn't been too "eagle" lately. I've just learned that an old 52 block turned up on eBay recently. It was won by one of us Loungers ... and for an excellent price, too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280003624116


.

Uh oh, looks like the competition is going to heat up...

Brad

 

[Visigoth]

By the way, is it possible to stretch the crown height with one of these? If you pull a vintage hat, wet, over the mold, can you add half an inch or even an inch?

 

[Fedora]

By the way, is it possible to stretch the crown height with one of these? If you pull a vintage hat, wet, over the mold, can you add half an inch or even an inch?

I am not sure I understand. Are you asking if you can stretch out a 4 1/2 inch hat, to 5 inches if you used one of the above blocks? If so, then I would say, it depends. Some felt will stretch, and maintain the stretch, and some will not. And felt can be stretched, in the hot, wet state, but as it dries, it will pull up, or shrink up on the block to what it is comfortable at. I have even seen a hatter that places cinder blocks on the bottom of the block to keep it shoved up in the hat while it dries to alleviate the natural shrinkage that occurs when you over stretch felt. Of course, what will happen when the hat gets wet, from a rain, is the felt will shrink back to the height is comfortable at maintaining. The artificial "set" will be lost. Not a good way to block a hat.

The best way to determine if the hat will keep the stretch, is to just do it, and see. Hatters get used to the felt they use, and learn how to work it, as felt will vary in the way you have to work it up. Trial and error, until you learn what you can do with the felt, and what you can't do. All felt is not the same, from a hatters viewpoint. You just have to learn how to work a particular felt, not only in blocking, but also in pouncing. Hope this helps. Fedora