AlterEgo
A-List Customer
- Messages
- 320
- Location
- Southern USA
Richard,
I would definitely leave brim-flattening to a pro and not try to do it yourself, as changing the original flange buckles the sweat and will distort the entire hat--the more the flange, the greater the unfavorable effect on the rest of the hat.
The Akubra Federation IV has already been mentioned as a good flat-brimmed hat to shape as you please, and I would say my Fed IV Deluxe is a great hat to monkey with.
This is one of, if not the only, open-crowned Akubra made out of the premium Heritage Collection of felt, and let me tell you, you can do just about anything to that felt by simply taking a walk in the rain, shaping it as far as your imagination can reach, and then letting it air dry.
While the number of bashes is probably infinite, I've put every possible bash I can think of in mine. Most I had no interest in keeping, but I did them just because I could and for practice to assist others.
As for shaping the brim, find something rigid with the same curl you desire and use it to bend the wet brim around. With that in mind, start looking around the house, and you'll find all kinds of things you can use as curling tools, such as different sizes of wine glasses and tumblers.
Balls are particularly useful because they are a standard, defined size and are readily obtainable and easy to remember for future use. Don't ask me why I already had all these on hand, but for shaping purposes (which omits beach balls, basketballs, soccer balls, bowling balls, volleyballs, teather balls, and footballs), they are, from largest to smallest:
lawn bowling
softball
croquet
cricket
field hockey
baseball
tennis
stickball
lacrosse
handball
squash
golf
ping-pong
jacks
I used the lacrosse ball to put my preferred degree of upward curl on the rear brim of the Fed, the croquet ball for just the perfect down-curl to the front of the brim, and left the sides flat. There is no "hump" as you call it, like on my pre-creased Stylemaster.
Tennis, anyone?
I would definitely leave brim-flattening to a pro and not try to do it yourself, as changing the original flange buckles the sweat and will distort the entire hat--the more the flange, the greater the unfavorable effect on the rest of the hat.
The Akubra Federation IV has already been mentioned as a good flat-brimmed hat to shape as you please, and I would say my Fed IV Deluxe is a great hat to monkey with.
This is one of, if not the only, open-crowned Akubra made out of the premium Heritage Collection of felt, and let me tell you, you can do just about anything to that felt by simply taking a walk in the rain, shaping it as far as your imagination can reach, and then letting it air dry.
While the number of bashes is probably infinite, I've put every possible bash I can think of in mine. Most I had no interest in keeping, but I did them just because I could and for practice to assist others.
As for shaping the brim, find something rigid with the same curl you desire and use it to bend the wet brim around. With that in mind, start looking around the house, and you'll find all kinds of things you can use as curling tools, such as different sizes of wine glasses and tumblers.
Balls are particularly useful because they are a standard, defined size and are readily obtainable and easy to remember for future use. Don't ask me why I already had all these on hand, but for shaping purposes (which omits beach balls, basketballs, soccer balls, bowling balls, volleyballs, teather balls, and footballs), they are, from largest to smallest:
lawn bowling
softball
croquet
cricket
field hockey
baseball
tennis
stickball
lacrosse
handball
squash
golf
ping-pong
jacks
I used the lacrosse ball to put my preferred degree of upward curl on the rear brim of the Fed, the croquet ball for just the perfect down-curl to the front of the brim, and left the sides flat. There is no "hump" as you call it, like on my pre-creased Stylemaster.
Tennis, anyone?
