dawgvet
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 95
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- Waleska, Ga
I meant hat shrinkage. LOL!
carldelo said:OK, I went by Manhattan Wardrobe on Friday and picked up some hat stuff. It's a great place that caters to the theater world - lots of backstage stuff, clothing steamers, sewing stuff, stage blood, etc. - pretty much fun to look around. My haul for the day is shown here:
http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l234/carldelo/Hat stretching/
I wound up buying a size 7-1/4 hat stretcher for $69 which felt like a little bit much. As you can see in a bunch of the photos, it is 2-1/4" thick vs. 1-1/2" thick for the hat jack. More importantly, I measured a 1.5 degree taper to the sides, vs. 8 degree taper for the hat jack - certainly important for straight crowns. It also has a better curve profile on the ends, and in general is much nicer than the hat jack.
It is very heavy, with a 1" diameter knurled sleeve on 5/8" diameter threaded rod. It is made from 3 layers of some kind of hardwood - it looks like it was glued up as a single piece, then sawed in half and the hardware added, as the grain is continuous across the cuts. From the pictures, you can see that there are some gaps in the joints, and everything isn't 100% flush (I used raking light to accentuate this). It looks like things warped after it was cut. In any event, it is very solid and sturdy and isn't moving now, and it weighs a couple of pounds at least. When fully closed, it has a circumference of 23" exactly, or size 7-3/8.
In one photo, I show it inside my size 7-3/4 Stetson Chatham - it slides in easily and takes several full turns to stretch up to my size. It looks like it will work OK to stretch my Chrystie's Trilby. It's a 7-5/8, but it has shrunk and my head is bigger now, so it needs some serious work. It just barely slides on the stretcher when closed, so I guess it's shrunk two full sizes over the years. In the pictures you can see the annoying flat sides left after doing some intial stretching with the hat jack.
While there I also bought a brim brush, some Lexol Neatsfoot dressing, spot remover and a hat sponge - all were pretty inexpensive. Now if someone can tell me whether I have to worry about staining the felt with the Lexol, I'll start the stretching.
Oh, I also bought one of those crappy plastic hat rests, which is just barely big enough for my lid. I'm going to design something of my own - I don't want my hat sitting on tupperware - those things just suck.
Almost forgot, I tried the 4-way stretcher that they sell (for $89). But it's too small - by the time I had it almost big enough to fit in my Stetson, the pins had come out of their slots and the thing fell apart on me. It was also not as chunky feeling as the single action stretchers.
The webpage that started me on this expedition is here:
http://www.wardrobesupplies.com/store/m2_mjsupp.html
Cheers, Carl
Ordinary Guy said:It seems that most of you do agree on using something on the sweatband and that is usually Lexol....
A quick google of lexol show a ton of products,,, I am assuming that when you say Lexol, you mean the " Lexol original formula leather conditioner" .
Am I correct????
Lefty said:Yep. It's quite a cautionary tale, as it's title, Fried Pork, suggests.
Carlisle Blues said:Thank you for the dispositive dissertation on the on Manhattan Wardrobe.
After being seeing the prices of used (vintage) on ebay I am considering a new one from Manhattan.
Anybody have any experience with Manhattan Wardrobe Supply hat stretchers? [huh]
tm3 said:i shopped vintage stretchers on ebay for several weeks before buying the one from manhattan wardrobe. although i heard that stretchers on ebay were available "cheap," my experience was that the ones in the size i needed were ending up selling for very close to the price of the new one from MWS.
the MWS stretcher worked well for me on the hat that needed stretching. i did get some distortion above the hat band but i'd rather have a hat that fits and looks a bit off than one that looks good but does not fit.
Ordinary Guy said:How did that happen??? Did you just spray it on and it dried like that?
Okay, I read the whole post;........ Guess it is a check it out and move forward carefully as what to use and how to do it...........
Mama didn't tell me wearing hats was going to get so complicated......