The Conversion Corral

[jswindle2]

I wasn't going to say anything, but you are right on point @milandro . There's no one for miles who could even pretend to know how to work on a hat, western or else. Which is a sad thing to say living in Texas. Luckily, we have a shoe repair place here that has been in the same family for over 100 years and they do great work, but I'm well aware they is a rare luxury these days. I've had to learn how to do things myself if I want to get the hats I want. Since I'm a guy with a 7 5/8 LO and pointed head, finding a high crowned fedora is almost impossible. Therefore, I'm having to convert any western I can find that fits. The only thing I have yet to tackle is sewing a sweatband. I guess I'll have to continue on my search for a good set of instructions. Until I see you again, thank you for your help.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Unfortunately, the situations in different parts of the world aren’t always comparable. We don’t all have the benefit of availing ourselves of people able or willing to do the work that needs to be done.

The closest shop that I have that can do anything for me would be at 75Km and very likely it would require two trips in order to bring and collect the hat (or spending at least €16 on top of whatever they would charge me).

I am afraid that these days for this and many other things Do It Yourself is not so much an option rather than being an imperative.

Soon there will be no one to repair shoes (which means that there will be no one to repair bags and leather coats too, shoemakers are the last bastion really).

When I was young , in Italy but also here in the NL and in England where I spent several years as a young man, every self respecting clothes shop would have an in-house service which would provide alterations free of charge. Shop attendants wore a tape measure around the neck and had chalk in their pockets to mark the things which needed being altered.

These days are, gone. Done and dusted.

I have briefly worked at A&N in Victoria St. in London I can assure you that it was every bit as in " Are you being served?”

I don’t have anyone local. I’ve been sending most of my hat work to Art Fawcett at VS, and that’s almost 700km from me. I ship them and Art ships them back.

I recently tried a more local hatter and was very disappointed in the quality of her work.


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[milandro]

I have seen some videos and I’ve shown them to my wife (which stitched my only sweatband replacement) .

I think this was the video in question. Watch it all but the relevant part starts at 12’. The sweatband gets first basted ( by hand) and then sewn (with a machine)

 

[J Williams]

@bond here on the lounge or finevintagefedoras on etsy sells pre-sewn sweatbands to your size specifications. Just have to tack them into the hat. They are very nice and reasonably priced. I can’t see shipping being that crazy maybe for you @milandro but certainly not to Texas


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[Steve1857]

'The Conversion Corral' has a ton of stuff in it that may interest you. Here's a few of my conversions...

Biltmore: it was originally a size 6 5/8 before I blocked it up to a 7 1/4 and converted it to a fedora...

After:

Resistol Stagecoach (tan color): this started out as a too small and moth eaten Stagecoach that I sized up and converted.

On the head:

Beaver Brand Western that I sized up and restyled: I also added a new ribbon and brim binding

Resistol Western that I converted to a thin ribbon Strat clone:

Bradford Western that I converted to, yet, another thin ribbon Strat clone:
It was originally the same western style as the Resistol above...

On the head:

Resistol 3X Western that I reblocked and restyled to a Montana Pinch crease with a more curled brim:

These are only just a few examples of the conversion projects I did.

Terry, you truly are the conversation king. You always do a great and thorough job. I always end up thinking, how did he do that? Take one, nice looking hat and turn it into a stunner? A mystery to most of us. An art form to you. Cudos, friend.
Hope your wife and your back are feeling better.

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[jswindle2]

@bond here on the lounge or finevintagefedoras on etsy sells pre-sewn sweatbands to your size specifications. Just have to tack them into the hat. They are very nice and reasonably priced. I can’t see shipping being that crazy maybe for you @milandro but certainly not to Texas


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Yea, I've already contacted him. Once I learn how to sew in the sweats, I'll be ordering some from him.

 

[BobHufford]

" Are you being served?”

For some reason this reminded me of a 1935 Stetson Catalog ad I ran across when searching "Arminto" styles.

Not sure I want to "get the service" ...

 

[Steve1857]

Unfortunately, the situations in different parts of the world aren’t always comparable. We don’t all have the benefit of availing ourselves of people able or willing to do the work that needs to be done.

The closest shop that I have that can do anything for me would be at 75Km and very likely it would require two trips in order to bring and collect the hat (or spending at least €16 on top of whatever they would charge me).

I am afraid that these days for this and many other things Do It Yourself is not so much an option rather than being an imperative.

Soon there will be no one to repair shoes (which means that there will be no one to repair bags and leather coats too, shoemakers are the last bastion really).

When I was young , in Italy but also here in the NL and in England where I spent several years as a young man, every self respecting clothes shop would have an in-house service which would provide alterations free of charge. Shop attendants wore a tape measure around the neck and had chalk in their pockets to mark the things which needed being altered.

These days are, gone. Done and dusted.

I have briefly worked at A&N in Victoria St. in London I can assure you that it was every bit as in " Are you being served?”

Milandro, I grew up with that cheesy comedy show back in the 70s in the UK. Thanks for bringing back the memories [emoji4]

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[T Jones]

Terry, you truly are the conversation king. You always do a great and thorough job. I always end up thinking, how did he do that? Take one, nice looking hat and turn it into a stunner? A mystery to most of us. An art form to you. Cudos, friend.
Hope your wife and your back are feeling better.

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Thank you Steve! I really appreciate that. I'm just finishing up another one that I'll be posting here in the Conversion Corral in the next day or so. This one took me a little while to do because of some back issues. I'll probably be taking several weeks off from doing more conversions until it gets better. It's back into PT again.

 

[Steve1857]

Thank you Steve! I really appreciate that. I'm just finishing up another one that I'll be posting here in the Conversion Corral in the next day or so. This one took me a little while to do because of some back issues. I'll probably be taking several weeks off from doing more conversions until it gets better. It's back into PT again.

Sorry to hear about the back issues, Terry. Hope the treatment helps.

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[T Jones]

Sorry to hear about the back issues, Terry. Hope the treatment helps.

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Thank you Steve. This will make my third round of PT.

 

[T Jones]

I finally finished up a project that took me a while to get through. Back issues are going to have me sidelined for several weeks so this will be the last conversion I do until I finish PT again. Anyway, this started out as a too small size 7 Bark Brown Resistol Stagecoach that I blocked up to a size 7 1/4 and converted. I reused the original liner and sweat bow. Here's the specs on it:



Crown:
1. Open - a very straight sided 5 3/4 inches tall.
2. As creased - teardrop crease with a high and tight pinch at 4 3/4 inches with a rake sloping back to 4 1/4 inches. Overall crown height, as creased, is a tall and vertical 5 inches.
3. Longhair finish.

Ribbon:
The ribbon work is black at 1 1/2 wide.

Brim:
The brim is raw edge at 2 3/4 inches wide and was flanged on a #19 brim flange.

Sweat Band:
New


Before:

On the block:

Brim cut to size with my handy dandy Rick Walker brim cutter @ 2 3/4 inches. Also used my handy dandy Rockwater band block for the cut:

After:

 

[Steve1857]

I finally finished up a project that took me a while to get through. Back issues are going to have me sidelined for several weeks so this will be the last conversion I do until I finish PT again. Anyway, this started out as a too small size 7 Bark Brown Resistol Stagecoach that I blocked up to a size 7 1/4 and converted. I reused the original liner and sweat bow. Here's the specs on it:



Crown:
1. Open - a very straight sided 5 3/4 inches tall.
2. As creased - teardrop crease with a high and tight pinch at 4 3/4 inches with a rake sloping back to 4 1/4 inches. Overall crown height, as creased, is a tall and vertical 5 inches.
3. Longhair finish.

Ribbon:
The ribbon work is black at 1 1/2 wide.

Brim:
The brim is raw edge at 2 3/4 inches wide and was flanged on a #19 brim flange.

Sweat Band:
New


Before:

On the block:

Brim cut to size with my handy dandy Rick Walker brim cutter @ 2 3/4 inches. Also used my handy dandy Rockwater band block for the cut:

After:

Wow, Terry! You've breathed new life into that Resistol. Looks so cool.

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[T Jones]

Wow, Terry! You've breathed new life into that Resistol. Looks so cool.

Sent from my HUAWEI VNS-L31 using Tapatalk

Thank you Steve!

 

[humanshoes]

I finally finished up a project that took me a while to get through. Back issues are going to have me sidelined for several weeks so this will be the last conversion I do until I finish PT again. Anyway, this started out as a too small size 7 Bark Brown Resistol Stagecoach that I blocked up to a size 7 1/4 and converted. I reused the original liner and sweat bow. Here's the specs on it:



Crown:
1. Open - a very straight sided 5 3/4 inches tall.
2. As creased - teardrop crease with a high and tight pinch at 4 3/4 inches with a rake sloping back to 4 1/4 inches. Overall crown height, as creased, is a tall and vertical 5 inches.
3. Longhair finish.

Ribbon:
The ribbon work is black at 1 1/2 wide.

Brim:
The brim is raw edge at 2 3/4 inches wide and was flanged on a #19 brim flange.

Sweat Band:
New


Before:

On the block:

Brim cut to size with my handy dandy Rick Walker brim cutter @ 2 3/4 inches. Also used my handy dandy Rockwater band block for the cut:

After:

Another damn fine conversion Terry. Nobody does it better.

 

[T Jones]

Another damn fine conversion Terry. Nobody does it better.

Thank you Rick! I couldn't have done it without my handy dandy Rick Walker brim cutter! I love that tool!

 

[humanshoes]

Thank you Rick! I couldn't have done it without my handy dandy Rick Walker brim cutter! I love that tool!

Glad it's still serving you well T.

 

[Rockwater]

I finally finished up a project that took me a while to get through. Back issues are going to have me sidelined for several weeks so this will be the last conversion I do until I finish PT again. Anyway, this started out as a too small size 7 Bark Brown Resistol Stagecoach that I blocked up to a size 7 1/4 and converted. I reused the original liner and sweat bow. Here's the specs on it:



Crown:
1. Open - a very straight sided 5 3/4 inches tall.
2. As creased - teardrop crease with a high and tight pinch at 4 3/4 inches with a rake sloping back to 4 1/4 inches. Overall crown height, as creased, is a tall and vertical 5 inches.
3. Longhair finish.

Ribbon:
The ribbon work is black at 1 1/2 wide.

Brim:
The brim is raw edge at 2 3/4 inches wide and was flanged on a #19 brim flange.

Sweat Band:
New


Before:

On the block:

Brim cut to size with my handy dandy Rick Walker brim cutter @ 2 3/4 inches. Also used my handy dandy Rockwater band block for the cut:

After:

You’re too good to be sidelined T.
Hoping you get back in the game quickly!

 

[T Jones]

You’re too good to be sidelined T.
Hoping you get back in the game quickly!

Thank you buddy. As soon as I get through all of this I'll be right back on my conversions!

 

[Hat and Rehat]

Cheers, I am trying to get there.



The flange type is also an issue, depending on the result that I’d want to achieve and the hat, but yes, I will be needing one of those. I have as friend whom is into some woodwork and has the proper machinery he may be able to provide some assistance.

Hello Milandro,
Can I ask where those drawings came from? I'm a woodworker, of sorts, a residential carpenter. A furniture maker's skill set is probably a better fit for making these things, but I have taken on the challenge. I have two flange projects underway right now. I've been unable to find a source of design drawings like that, so have been trying to borrow from the two vintage flanges I own, and also do some designing of my own. what you shared would make my life much easier.