The Conversion Corral

[DOGMAN]

Maybe it's the camera angles but to me thats a LOT of crown. At least the brim is nice and full.

It's not the camera angle.It is a lot of crown 5 1/8"in the front,2 6/8" brim.

 

[DOGMAN]

Looks nice. It might be the photo but it looks like the ribbon needs to be swirled as it seems that at the front, opposite to the bow side, it's not flushed against the crown.

The ribbon is not as tight as I would like.I think that I will have to take it off and try again,as this was my first try at bows and ribbons.What do you mean when you say swirled?

 

[danofarlington]

Maybe it's the camera angles but to me thats a LOT of crown. At least the brim is nice and full.

I bought a high-crown beaver hat from an excellent custom maker in Southwestern Virginia with a brim like that. It is a big crown, and a big hat. But it's a very serious style, elegant. Someone once speculated on this forum that a high crown is a Southern thing, and it may be. It's definitely different than the usual dimensions, but once your eye gets used to it, it's good. No law that all hats have to have the same dimensions. So wear it in confidence.

 

[randooch]

Here's a tutorial that includes "swirling."

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...eplace-a-Hat-Ribbon&highlight=swirling+ribbon

 

[scottyrocks]

Maybe it's the camera angles but to me thats a LOT of crown. At least the brim is nice and full.

I lost track of whether or not Dogman's conversion was originally a western, but my Bailey western conversion wants to be really tall with any sort of front pinch in it. When I shortened it, it would only hold the faintest pinch. Mine has very thick felt.

 

[DOGMAN]

randooch,thanks for the link.scottyrocks,yes it was a Resistol western with thick felt.Open crown was about 6 1/2" and I wanted a tall crown on my hat.I had to wet it pretty good for it to hold the pinch.

 

[Aureliano]

The ribbon is not as tight as I would like.I think that I will have to take it off and try again,as this was my first try at bows and ribbons.What do you mean when you say swirled?

"Curve" the ribbon to conform to the roundness (oval-ness) of the crown. You do it with an iron.

 

[scottyrocks]

Here's the Bailey I spoke of above:

Here's what it looked like right after I converted it:

I don't know what has happened since then, but it won't hold a pinch anymore and quite frankly, looks nowhere near as good as my other hats, my daily-drivers being Akubras. Now that I've done one of these, I can see them a mile away. If anything, I won't be bothering to do any more western-to-fedora conversions unless I get a hold of a western that is thin enough to make a good fedora.

Looking back on it, I should have just reblocked it out to my size (it was a 7 1/8 and I'm a 7 3/8), and not trimmed the brim. That way I could have put the tall crease back in and it would've looked fine with the original 4" brim.

 

[scottyrocks]

Here you can see why it needed the reblock. I had previously stretched it so much (2 sizes) that the back of the crown at sweat band level was noticeably bulged.

 

[randooch]

Nice to see a good train wreck now and then. :eeek:

Thanks for posting.

 

[Joshbru3]

Josh, that is amazing what you can do with Hats. Incredible. It looks really similar to your Hat in the ads.
That is a fantastic job you done. Congrats Josh

Manfred used up all of the adjectives, so I'll just have to second what he said. Josh, you did a great job.

SWEET!!!! Damn nice job Josh...

Nice job Josh.Very cool that you made it look like the hat in the add.

Pair it up with something a bit rougher than the dress shirt, deeper colors and more texture. Very cool conversion!

:laser::rapture: Nice shootin', Tex! It looks great. I have got to get around to learning how to do ribbons and bows.

Thanks SO MUCH, Gentlemen!!! I plan on using this hat for camping and fishing trips this summer. I really needed a durable felt hat for outdoors activities and with the amount of stiffener in this hat, It could probably wisthstand ALMOST anything mother nature could throw at me.

Jeff, this ribbon I literally transplanted from a beat up 30's hat that was not worth keeping. I pretty much bought it for the ribbon, because the rest was trash. Usually though, making a ribbon/bow from scratch isn't too hard if you know the right dimensions. As many on the lounge know, I'm crazy for anything pre-1940, so I have taken exact measurements of many of my vintage hats to reproduce the vintage ribbon styles. Also, vintage hats that have been falling part, I have dissected and studied the stitching techniques of the vintage hatters. I gotta tell ya, the skill used to make hats back in the day from major hat manufacturers, doesn't even compare to today. Next time I do a ribbon/bow from scratch, I will try and take step by step photos.

Also, something that I just started doing that seems to help with pulling the ribbon taut against the crown, is steaming the ribbon itself between stitches. I have noticed that, not counting the area by the bow, many hatters used between 6 - 10 stitches around the ribbon to keep it on the crown. If your using vintage cotton/rayon ribbon (which is the best), make a stitch, then steam the ribbon and pull slightly so its flush to the crown and taut. Hold it while it cools for 30-45 seconds, and then move on to your next stitch. Repeat until you are satisfied that there enough stitches holding the ribbon. At both ends of the ribbon (area which appears under the bow), make sure that you pull/stitch these tight as well and your ribbon should be nice and flush to the crown with no gaps.

 

[Joshbru3]

[

WOW!! Dogman, that conversion is simply awesome!! I absolutely applaud the fact that you made your own brim trimmer and it turned out so well. I LOVE tall crowns and this one looks wonderful. The brim work is very nice, the crease work is flawless, and the fact that its a short-medium haired felt makes this conversion just fantastic. Your bow work is excellent too, did you fray the ends of the bow?

 

[DOGMAN]

Joshbru3 Thank you, comeing from you after seeing the awesome work you do makes me feel great.Glad you like it.Yes I did fray the bow ends, I love the look of frayed ends.Thanks for posting how you do the ribbons.I will try doing my next ribbon like you suggest.Thanks again

 

[Kirk H.]

I took an Akubra Adventurer that had to much taper in it for me and decided to try putting in a C-crown and cutting down the brim to 2 1/2 inches. Here are the results

[/IMG]

Kirk H.

 

[DOGMAN]

Kirk H,I have the Akubra adventurer that I put a shallow center dent in.I really like your C-crown,how tall is the front of the crown?

 

[Kirk H.]

Hey DOGMAN, the crown in 4 1/2 inches in the front and about 3 3/4 inches in the back.

Kirk H.

 

[bowlerman]

I can't stop screwing around with stuff, but I think this one worked out. I couldn't stand the way this Biltmore porkpie looked on me, so tried to make a center dent out of it. The modern Milan had a mind of its own, and I couldn't quite get it exactly how I wanted it, so went with a high front teardrop. I like it better this way, at least on my noggin, and it's much softer now.

From this:

To this:

The crown is in fact telescoped, and I couldn't quite alleviate the front and back taper, but I think I can live with this.

 

[Chepstow]

Jeff, good job done. Looks very good. Was it easy to shape. How do you do it.

 

[bowlerman]

Thanks, Manfred. I find straw more difficult to work with, personally. I got it VERY wet, and used some steam from a kettle. From there, I kneaded and rubbed it pretty hard for quite a long time in order to get rid of the stubborn original crease marks, and just kept working it with more water until it got close to what I wanted.
I still couldn't remove the taper all the way, but that's life I guess.

 

[Link]

Bowlerman, it looks like you did a good job on that hat.