should i buy or not hat moulds and last.

[tonyb]

Envious as I am, 59Lark, it's heartening to know that that equipment went to people who will make good use of it. We certainly could use another hatter, man. I wish you the best, and I look forward to hearing how it works out for you.

 

[suitedcboy]

$200 American = $162 Canadian, at the moment.

I find 1 US $ = 1.2331 Canadian Dollar.
That makes 200USD= 246CAD

1 CAD = .811 USD

 

[himelator]

Dear loungers; i have a chance to purchase the tools of a hatmaker, his mould wooden to shape and block the hats, last, brushes basically all his tools, and probably not as much stuff as a big shop but enough to clean and block my own hats, all his stuff for $200. is that outragous or shut up and buy the hatmaker has had a stroke and is in a walker and unable to use these tools anymore. ps he is a old friend that moved away and havent seen much since. Anyone give me an idea what moulds and lasts,and hat strechers are going for and how hard to find. 59Lark.

lol Rotman agreed to sell, better get in there fast!

 

[himelator]

Hats

Yesterday we borrowed a friend and his gps and went to the big city and went to go get the hat blocking stuff. The stuff included 7 large burlap sacks of wooden moulds over 80 moulds, a table with a motorized spinner. A ancient metal , head steamer etc , boxes of banding, ribbons, liners. etc. stretchers. lasts. The moulds were bought 4o years ago from a 80 year greek hatmaker in London ontario. This man is 85 years ago and now i am 45 years old oh oh. We will post pictures soon. The stuff took up the whole back end of my van. NOW the basement which was already full is fuller and now we need to go to the dump and get the scrap metal dealer in , too make room to set up the hat shop. A long way too go and no intention of taking over the world just would like to be able to clean and block the occasional hat.

Its funny the guy you bought the stuff from was my neighbor for 20 years, his family was in the hat business for ever. Its a sad story in a way. I should take some pictures for you guys at the lounge. Interestingly if you want to learn about hatmaking you should really go speak with the owner of Lilliput hats at the corner of college and Bathurst, she bought all the vintage womans hat blocks years ago and is actively making vintage women's hats in the store. There are 4 employees making hats in full view, she could definitely teach you something. Also the big hatter Biltmore went out of business again and they may be selling off their assets. Why dont you guys all rush over there and see if their hat blocks are for sale?

That is all the leads I'm offering up for the day

Himelator

http://vintageleatherjackets.blogspot.com/

 

[59Lark]

mould were in woodstock

Had to go to kitchner to get moulds, were in woodstock for forty years and only came to kitchner last 4 years. Dont think its the same stuff, my friends name was george. He advertised the equipment in the kitchner paper and didnt get one call, really. Biltmore was heathly last time , i was there, will ask my brother to go over and look, he lives a block from the factory. 59Larkfftopic:

 

[Ordinary Guy]

Now if I could only talk you into moving to Pittsburgh for your new hat store..... You would not have any competition at all....

Good luck on your new venture.......It sounds like fun....

 

[himelator]

Had to go to kitchner to get moulds, were in woodstock for forty years and only came to kitchner last 4 years. Dont think its the same stuff, my friends name was george. He advertised the equipment in the kitchner paper and didnt get one call, really. Biltmore was heathly last time , i was there, will ask my brother to go over and look, he lives a block from the factory. 59Larkfftopic:

I guess all the old hatters are croaking at the same time...Well I will keep you informed if there becomes more available items

 

[59Lark]

beware of sharks wearing newsboy caps.

So the last chapter thus far in this saga, herman the german was called and he told us about using the chemicals in our basement. He told me that my insurance agent would flip. The upside to this was, that he could do this work at his house due he has better location. if we could lend him the moulds and blocks he would show us how, not knowing how to answer this. We went along , he came over on thursday and inspected the stuff and said, well you know that all of this is only for fedoras, there is no cowboy or large hat moulds here. He even slipped a sentence such as there is nothing that i want here. All of a sudden the offer to take home a old fedor and the moulds to block and clean one hat disappeared. He told us no one wears fedoras and too get rid of the moulds and blocks. He generally pissed off everyone here, the general feeling is that he is a snake. I have know this man for twenty years and he hasnt changed its him first and is he a crook he walks that line as close as he can leaning over that fence. This business with the hats has hardned me with his whats in it for me. Beware the slippery hatter. ITS really a shame as he probably does know his business, he even did clean and repair return hats for biltmore in the early 70s. So he has the knowledge, we think he is ticked that we bought the stuff in his town, he looked at the moulds twice , and said that there was more stuff then, i know that some amish bought the big stuff off george some years ago and that where the big stuff went. So beware folks nothing is as it seems and nothing comes easy and the transmission in my van is now going. So wonderful , wonderful. 59Lark.

 

[Fletch]

I don't quite understand, Lark. Do you need Herman if you're going to do anything in the hat line?

And I don't get Herman. If he says none of the stuff is worth a damn, then acts pissed off that you have it and he doesn't, he is a dog in the manger. You can tell him I said so.

Ask him - is it his craft, that he is proud of and wants passed on? Or is it only his meal ticket? Did he spend years learning the trade so that the knowledge would die with him?

Some do, or at least think they do. This jewelry maker in California had to ask that same question before anyone would refer her to a silversmith and teacher. She loved learning and made a career of it.

 

[59Lark]

more on this line of thought.

[huh] Herman ; what disappointed that we didnt have the large moulds and blocks that could be used for the amish and mennonites and cowboys hats. The bottom line is, he said we couldnt do any part of the craft here due to the basement workshop and the equipment would be better at his place. When he found out the cowboy hat moulds were gone. His interest vanished, so the truth is, he was out to steal or extremely borrow the moulds, when he found out all we had was fedoras, he left. IT would have been nice to get some expert advice but hey, better now than half way through and stealing my blocks and moulds would have really pissed me off. I am going to do some trial and error and read some advice on net. When someone says you cant do it here and you cant do it without my knowledge and says you should sell them cause no one wears fedoras, kinda makes you peeved, gonna try doing this just to rub it into his face some day, nicely kinda. 59Lark. fftopic:

 

[Belegnole]

Yup sounds like his intent was to take advantage of you and your property. While a basement may not be the best place to make hats I don't see why you couldn't. You can ventilate your basement in numerous ways including venting out your roof. Lighting can also be installed, so unless it is a headroom issue I think he just wanted your toys at no charge.

Go, make hats and we will wear them....lol

You can always send him the pictures of various Fedora Lounge members in your hats.

 

[feltfan]

Sounds like you dodged a bullet.

I wonder if you've contacted any of the
full service hatters (who clean hats) we know of
(Batsake, North Valley, Optimo, Gary White, Rocky Mountain, etc)
to see if they would consider training you in person
for a week? I don't think you'd constitute competition
and you could probably do some work for them in return.

 

[59Lark]

apprecitate all advice and help.

I really do appreaciate all the advice and help, but my life is too busy right now to do too much of this anyway. We have a fulltime business, sewing machine shop, the basement has 25 repairs probably now. The service van transmission is shot, and its spring clean up here, so we as a family are cleaning out the basement. That is no small ordeal, I carried loads of cast iron stuff and junk out yesterday for hours, my wife has moved most of my office out and boxed up 30 boxes of reading material. So how the blank, that i figured that i would have time for this, but hey i am going to make room for the moulds under my cutting tables, try to organize them, and catalog them, and going to fix the spinning table, rewire the steamer, and put a new light up over the spinning and work table. Then hopefully when I am slower in the summer i can experiment on the fedoras, have a few that i can practise on. So onward and upward, herman go jump in the lake. 59LARK.:rage: :eusa_clap

 

[himelator]

Hatmaking

Once again

lilliput hats in Toronto at the corner of College and Bathurst is actively making hats, in the open. The owner is a very nice woman and would probably be happy to help you learn the hat making trade. She is a custom haberdasher for almost 20 years and is in her 40s. Just a though

I really do appreaciate all the advice and help, but my life is too busy right now to do too much of this anyway. We have a fulltime business, sewing machine shop, the basement has 25 repairs probably now. The service van transmission is shot, and its spring clean up here, so we as a family are cleaning out the basement. That is no small ordeal, I carried loads of cast iron stuff and junk out yesterday for hours, my wife has moved most of my office out and boxed up 30 boxes of reading material. So how the blank, that i figured that i would have time for this, but hey i am going to make room for the moulds under my cutting tables, try to organize them, and catalog them, and going to fix the spinning table, rewire the steamer, and put a new light up over the spinning and work table. Then hopefully when I am slower in the summer i can experiment on the fedoras, have a few that i can practise on. So onward and upward, herman go jump in the lake. 59LARK.:rage: :eusa_clap