Hat care tools??

[Colby Jack]

I picked up one of those soft hair brushes to shine shoes...it's for applying polish. It makes a great hat brush that you can keep handy!

 

[duggap]

I can see it now, Jack, a spit shined fedora

 

[EricH]

I have a dark and light hat brush I got from aaronhats.com (also a FL sponsor). They are your good basic brushes and handle all types of hats. Worth every cent.

Eric
(too many hats so not counting)

 

[Stoney]

One for each color:

You should use a separate brush for each basic color. One for Black, one for brown, one for tan, one for blue, grey ect... Yes this sounds crazy, but you do not want to ruin your favorite hat(s), do you?

The reason for this is that some of the felt will transfer from the hat to brush as you brush it. Then as you brush the next hat some of the felt from the brush will transfer to the hat. Obviously you don't want a brown hat with grey streaks in it. :eusa_doh:

 

[carldelo]

source

I bought one from Manhattan Wardrobe Supply in NYC, it was $7.75 although the price tag on it says $10.00 I bought it in person, so don't know what shipping would run - they have other hat care products as well:

http://www.wardrobesupplies.com/store/m2_mjsupp.html

This is the standard brush about 10" long, but if you wanted it small you could always saw the handle off...

 

[Bassman]

Re: Manhattan Wardrobe Supply brushes...
Do you really need seperate brushes for crown and brim?
If not, which one from the above site will serve double duty?

 

[carldelo]

whoops

I made a mistake and didn't check out the crown brush while I was there, so I don't know the difference. I remember reading on FL somewhere that they are softer than the brim brush. I will say that the brim brush is a little awkward (big) getting into the teardrop, and I will probably pick up a brim brush someday.

 

[Colby Jack]

I can see it now, Jack, a spit shined fedora

But the spit just beads and rolls off!

 

[feltfan]

I keep a stiffer (vintage) hat brush and a softer
(newer) hat brush. I use them on all of my hats,
regardless of color. I look pretty carefully and I
have never seen colored felt from another hat
rub off. I do give my hat brushes a bit of a shake
and brushing before I apply them to my hats.

 

[ed_bollix]

Western Supply

I picked up what I would call the standard hat brush today at a western supply shop. If you don't have a proper hat store near you this might be a good source. They had light and dark available for $10.99 each.

 

[NonEntity]

Let's not get carried away here. Next thing I'll hear is the necessity of an edge-of-brim brush, in every color in the rainbow, of course.

You only need at most two hat brushes, one with light bristles for light colored hats, one with dark bristles for darker colored hats. If your hats are all either light or dark, one brush is all you ever need. In truth, if you keep the brush clean by raking in backwards across a piece of velvet every time you use it and then periodically combing it out with a fine-tooth plastic nit comb, you can get away with one brush period no matter how many different colored hats you have.

The type of brush I'm referring to has horsehair bristles arranged in a slight curve on a wooden handle, and are generally $10 to $12.

Those crown brushes that look like a paint brush are not at all necessary. Use the brush described above to clean all parts of your hats, just make sure to brush both sides of the brim in a counterclockwise direction, "against the grain" to raise the nap up as you whisk away lint and dust. If the hat is still dirty, take it to a professional to have it cleaned and blocked.

 

[Colby Jack]

Ok...I do have one light and one dark curved brush...but I also have that small brush I keep in a bag I tote around for emergencies...am I not getting overly caught up in this hobby?[huh] :eusa_doh:

 

[GentlemanFarmer]

Paint brushes

In a pinch, an animal-bristle paint brush works just fine - at half the price. I know we covered this area last year, I'm just too lazy to go searching for it.

 

[NonEntity]

Really?

I need to find out where you're shopping. I've never seen a quality, natural-bristle paintbrush for less than $25.

I just tried using my 4-inch one on my Sydney fedora. Worked pretty well. Tried a horsehair shoe brush mentioned earlier, too. It really worked well, maybe better than an actual hat brush. Tried a traditional clothes brush, also, and it worked OK, but the bristles were so soft it took a lot of effort.

Best of all was a brush designed to clean dark-colored blazers. Can you believe they make such a specific-purpose brush? It was a gift and consists of very fine, 1.5-inch-long flexible brass bristles mounted in a handle that angles up to keep your hand out of the way. It worked fantastic--much better than a hat brush--but I would not recommend using it often because the brass bristles would eventually damage the felt.

Let's see, what have we here in the kitchen? A vegetable brush. Hmmm.

 

[thefedorastore]

The key is using horsehair in my opinion. The brushes I peddle have a mix of black and white hairs, making the brush grey. Color isn't really important, and if you are brushing good hats, no need to have two brushes. However, if you are brushing a cheap black wool hat, don't use the brush on a nice silver belly hat without cleaning the brush first!

 

[Topper]

Agree, the need for a black bristle brushes for dark hats and white bristle brushes for light hats is a bit misleading.

It doesn't matter what the bristle "colour" ( or color ) you actually use.

As Stoney correctly mentions "separate brush for each basic color" is moreso the a recommendation ( though not a necessity) if you clean the brush properly then only "need" one.

The probably reason for using white for light is that it would be easier to quickly remember what colour the "brush" was assigned to when dealing with lots of hats. Even then some hatters may have used different colours ( or bristle patterns ) to differentiate between harder and softer bristle brushes .... whatever makes life easier.

 

[daizawaguy]

Hat brushes

My horse hair hat brush with asymetric rows for unidirectional strokes (sound very technical!)....

 

[Colby Jack]

That a cool looking brush Daizawaguy...The hat brushes I normally see are either an all light color or all dark hair color...Is this a Japanese hat brush....?...

 

[daizawaguy]

Yes, it is. Its made by a small 2 person home industry that makes over 100 types of specialized brushes, by the idea of the design comes from the time hats were in daily use here.

 

[Colby Jack]

That is very cool!...I bet they work really well also!:eusa_clap