The owner of Standard Hat Works in Waco has had some personal issues, and has sold the business to one of his employees, who has actually been "carrying" it for some time now. Cameron Morris is the new owner and is as passionate as anyone I've met about his vocation. I'm having him make me a new 100X, and here are some pics of Cameron and some of the early parts of the process. I'll post the finished product when it's done.
The raw blank being prepped for blocking:
The blocking process:
Burning the courser hairs from the blank after setting the brim size; it was amazing I actually got this pic:
Plating:
The sanding and smoothing:
Getting ready to cook:
The blank about ready for detailing and finish work:
Yes, I've seen that. Neither Lenny nor the other maker in the video are with the company now. For all practical purposes, it's my understanding Lenny essentially abandoned the company and left Cameron to run the store. Don't know any details and don't want to, but Lenny was apparently having some personal issues. Be that as it may, Cameron's a laid back guy to work with and I can't wait for the new hat.
Actually, what you see is in my pics was the better part of an afternoon. And when I left, the hat was still cooking and would stay in the machine over night. The last pic is actually out of sequence, as it hadn't actually gone into the cooker at that time. But I didn't want to spend the night just to get a good last shot.
Also, all of the steps in the video were taken with this hat. The photo editing to get these posted was hard enough. I left out the "ironing machine" (where the hat is spun vertically and gone over with a flat iron) and some of the extra sanding steps, as it's really boring watching all the sanding being done.
Cameron doesn't use the propane torch to burn the fibers...too easy to get a hot spot.
The transition of the "feel" of the hat from raw blank to the end of what you see here was pretty amazing.
They finished up the seamstress work (thanks Katherine) and I was finally able to make my way back to Waco this past Saturday for the by hand crease work (thanks Cameron).
Here we go (the band is camel too, I just couldn't get the color right in the pics).....
The brim is 3 1/4". I've always enjoyed the classic Open Roads and Stratoliners, and wanted something along those lines in a custom hat.
I asked them if they could do a classic "tied" bow. Check the stitching joining the sweatband ends.
The 6 ply ribbon was on a roll date stamped 1974. They've got a wide assortment of 6 ply from that era. Some of the other grosgrain they have dates back to the '50s and maybe earlier.
Last year I added two Standard Hat Works hats to my collection. They were both NOS. The fedora was still open crown and never creased. The gray lords hat is the only hat I own that has kept its feather...it just seems right.
The Sahara colored fedora is the only fedora I wear exclusively brim up. Both these hats are nice, but the fedora is a step up. The felt is decent, the sweatbands are nice, and they have some individuality that I like in a hat. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another if one came my way.
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