German & Austrian Hutmachers

[mayserwegener]

Dieter, Yes this definitely fills in the missing gaps. That is interesting info regarding your grandfather. I would like to get more information on the JHS Ratibor location. I haven't worn the Dreispitz yet. Maybe today?

 

[mayserwegener]

Collins Wien Salzburg

This is a very nice modern production hat made from a P. & C. Habig block. Collins aquired some of P. & C. Habig's blocks when they went out of business back in the late 1980s. Unfortunately Collins also went out of business a couple years ago. The custom vintage ribbon/double loop bow work is from my friend Herbert Jennissen at Hut Neubarth, Augsburg.

 

[Joshbru3]

Excellent, Steve! Very cool ribbon and the felt looks to be very nice quality.

 

[mayserwegener]

Thanks! It is really too bad Collins went out of business because they made a really nice hat. The felt and over all quality is very similar to what you would see from Habig back in the 1970/80s.

Hut Neubarth does really nice ribbon/bow work. The owner Herbert Jennissen actually passed the Vienna hutmachers certification but doesn't make hats anymore. Here is a modern gray Mayser City Finale they put a vintage ribbon on plus some other related photos.

 

[DRB]

Steve: That gray hat is absolutely beautiful.

Robert: I have bought 40 beaver skins from Montana, Oregon, and New York this year. The fur (guard hairs cut away) always comes out looking gray and white with a little black.

On the left side of the tub is an unshorn beaver pelt awaiting it's turn for the barber.

Perhaps they have different beavers over there in Portugal. I have no knowledge of that. I know that the population of beavers has dwindled since they were hunted so much. I am just guessing that they import some beaver from Canada and the U.S.

The pictures on the website you sited, (which btw Thank you for the the link, I really enjoyed looking at it) I believe are dyed beaver fur which has been dried and turned into fluff (carded wool/fur). Then it is ready to be made into batting or roving, which in turn, gets made into felt.

If one was to try and dye fluff, it would wind up as a big knotted ball. I have learned that from experience.
Here is a picture of me working with my gray/white beaver clippings (the beaver pelts start out dark brown until I remove the guard hairs) which I have dyed a dark brown and am inspecting for foreign objects and giving it's first crude carding. I learned to shear when I was a young man and had my own flock of sheep.

This of course is just all postulation on my part.

 

[bowlerman]

Amazing ribbons, all of them!

DRB-- all I can say is wow!

 

[mayserwegener]

Thanks!

Dennis, Are you planning to make felt? During my visit to TONAK I saw the steps taken to prepare the rabbit and hare pelts. The trimmed pelts were placed in acid baths, dried and then special shearing machines were used to remove the fur for further processing. I did see some dyed fully processed fur which I assumed was for heather felt.

 

[DRB]

Steve, I thought I would try to make my own hat from scratch. We'll see how it goes.

 

[rlk]

The acid baths are the modern carroting step. For very light color hats they would be using parts with lighter natural color separated from dark portions. The Portuguese felt is cleaned and likely separated for certain parts but is not dyed in the photos. The white is likely both selected and bleached.

 

[mayserwegener]

Robert, I did see natural white rabbit fur be sorted at TONAK. I see Cortadoria has natural white rabbit fur (probably similar to what I saw at TONAK) and bleached white hare and beaver fur.

 

[mayserwegener]

Steve, I thought I would try to make my own hat from scratch. We'll see how it goes.

It will be interesting to see if the fur felts properly without the processing steps. I have a video you might be interested in taking a look at that shows the manual felt making process (from processed fur) although it's in German but the visuals should be helpful.

 

[rlk]

Not the right place for detailed discussion, but I suspect you are shearing guard-hairs with the underfur, hence some of the darker color portions. Here's underfur from a black(not just dark) dog:

 

[mayserwegener]

 

[Brad Bowers]

Not the right place for detailed discussion, but I suspect you are shearing guard-hairs with the underfur, hence some of the darker color portions. Here's underfur from a black(not just dark) dog:

Hmmm, I'll bet a hat made from that will smell really pleasant in the rain. lol

Brad

 

[rlk]

White/Gold/Red Dog underfur

All over 2 years old--some signs of felting. Both dogs were 1/2 German Shepherd so they should be OK for this thread

 

[mayserwegener]

18th Century Der Huthmacher

 

[mayserwegener]

Continued

 

[DRB]

Robert, I believe I was indeed correct. I just got an email from them (I was inquiring to purchase hat bodies) which states:
Dear Dennis,

Nice receiving your inquiry. Meanwhile we inform that we produce only hatters fur, not hat bodies.

We can recommend that you contact ricardo.figueiredo@fepsa.pt

Regards

Nuno Oliveira Figueiredo



Cortadoria S.A.

Zona Industrial 1 P.O.Box 8 Tel. : + . 351 256 815 030

3700-317 S. Joao da Madeira Fax.: + . 351.256 831 810

Portugal www.cortadoria.pt
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I believe that was just fluff ready for batting and felting. Interesting subject.

Steve: awesome pics of the process they used back in the day.

 

[DRB]

One last thing then I will leave this alone. The "acid bath" that has worked for me is nothing but VERY hot water and vinegar.

 

[Dreispitz]

Steve, interesting to see how Dreispitzes were made Great historic material!

Superb finds and thank you for posting!

P.S. Thou still owe us thy Dreispitz picture, btw!