Roninjedi
One of the Regulars
- Messages
- 140
- Location
- Central Texas
5X Stetson
Okay. Here's my first official conversion (I'm not counting a cheap costume hat I played with a couple of years ago.) This is a 5x Stetson I picked up on the Bay about a week ago. It initially looked like this:
First I filled the crown about 3/4 full with distilled water and waited for it to drain through the felt. Took awhile. Interestingly, a good deal of color showed up in the water that filtered through. It's basically a new hat, so I'm not that surprised. I opened the crown and used steam to flatten the brim as much as I could. I set it under a ceiling fan overnight to dry. Once dry, I sanded the hat. First with 320 grit, then 400, then 600 grit sandpaper. The brim started out at a cowboy-respectable 3 1/2 inches. I used a strap cutter I bought from Tandy Leather for my leatherwork to cut the brim down.
Note on brim trimming: I first measured out the where I wanted the cut with measuring tape and made the initial cut with an X-Acto knife. Then I inserted the blade of the strap cutter through that slit and very carefully cut the brim down. Take your time! I did this 3 times before I was satisfied with a brim width of just a shade under 2 1/4 inch. I used that X-Acto and 150 grit sandpaper to smooth out any errors.
I tried a porkpie crease at first but ended up with a modified porkpie/diamond combination. This hat could go in The Black Hat Brigade, The Diamond Authority, Show Us Your Porkpies (maybe), but I figured the Conversion Corral was the best place for it.
I tried the champagne glass along the brim trick to try and curl the brim. Multiple tries with steam and a spray bottle and there's still not quite enough "snap" to the brim to suit me. Maybe I'll try again later when my hands recover.
Pinch in the front.
That weird diamond-porkpie thing I did with the crown. It's about 4 1/4 inches high, right now.
I used store bought polyester grosgrain for the ribbon and bow. It hardly stretches at all. I may have to order proper milliner's grosgrain if I want to do more of this. This was also my first attempt at a "flying V" bow. (Correction: I wrote "Flying V" but after doing a little research at COW, I realize that I'm really talking about a bow with that extra loop on the right. Not sure what to call it.)
And, finally, my lame attempt at a Douglas pose. Not nearly as intimidating as the real thing.
The hat is 7 3/4 which is a little bit big on me. This'll give it room to shrink to fit, however. Meanwhile, I've got a couple of strips of foam, leftover from my Akubra Fed IV, inserted fore and aft to tighten the fit. Sorry for the long post. I initially wanted a brown hat to convert to an Indy style, but I might just make a brown version of this same style first. I'll wear it around a few days and see what I think. What do y'all think?
Okay. Here's my first official conversion (I'm not counting a cheap costume hat I played with a couple of years ago.) This is a 5x Stetson I picked up on the Bay about a week ago. It initially looked like this:
First I filled the crown about 3/4 full with distilled water and waited for it to drain through the felt. Took awhile. Interestingly, a good deal of color showed up in the water that filtered through. It's basically a new hat, so I'm not that surprised. I opened the crown and used steam to flatten the brim as much as I could. I set it under a ceiling fan overnight to dry. Once dry, I sanded the hat. First with 320 grit, then 400, then 600 grit sandpaper. The brim started out at a cowboy-respectable 3 1/2 inches. I used a strap cutter I bought from Tandy Leather for my leatherwork to cut the brim down.
Note on brim trimming: I first measured out the where I wanted the cut with measuring tape and made the initial cut with an X-Acto knife. Then I inserted the blade of the strap cutter through that slit and very carefully cut the brim down. Take your time! I did this 3 times before I was satisfied with a brim width of just a shade under 2 1/4 inch. I used that X-Acto and 150 grit sandpaper to smooth out any errors.
I tried a porkpie crease at first but ended up with a modified porkpie/diamond combination. This hat could go in The Black Hat Brigade, The Diamond Authority, Show Us Your Porkpies (maybe), but I figured the Conversion Corral was the best place for it.
I tried the champagne glass along the brim trick to try and curl the brim. Multiple tries with steam and a spray bottle and there's still not quite enough "snap" to the brim to suit me. Maybe I'll try again later when my hands recover.
Pinch in the front.
That weird diamond-porkpie thing I did with the crown. It's about 4 1/4 inches high, right now.
I used store bought polyester grosgrain for the ribbon and bow. It hardly stretches at all. I may have to order proper milliner's grosgrain if I want to do more of this. This was also my first attempt at a "flying V" bow. (Correction: I wrote "Flying V" but after doing a little research at COW, I realize that I'm really talking about a bow with that extra loop on the right. Not sure what to call it.)
And, finally, my lame attempt at a Douglas pose. Not nearly as intimidating as the real thing.
The hat is 7 3/4 which is a little bit big on me. This'll give it room to shrink to fit, however. Meanwhile, I've got a couple of strips of foam, leftover from my Akubra Fed IV, inserted fore and aft to tighten the fit. Sorry for the long post. I initially wanted a brown hat to convert to an Indy style, but I might just make a brown version of this same style first. I'll wear it around a few days and see what I think. What do y'all think?
