The "Goddard" by Art Fawcett

[Art Fawcett]

Thanks for the post Sefton, and Thank you for the comments Gents. What Sefton was kind enough to not put in his post was that the brim on the target hat was either Cav or welted so I went at trying to learn to get the welting done....I discovered that I really suck at it & Sefton was good enough to let me bind the edge instead. Back to the drawing board...

 

[matei]

Does welting require a special machine or tool?

 

[Fedora]

Back to the drawing board...

Hey Art, just get you some rings made(call or email if you need details) and you can do these by hand like the small vintage shops used to do them. As most know, hats started out as a handmade creation, and when mass production entered into the equation the necessary equipment was invented to take the place of hand operations. If it is done by a piece of machinery, rest assured that this followed the handmade versions that were slower to produce. Fedora

 

[Fedora]

Haha, that's true; I have yet to see him as a young man.

If you have the auto biography of Alan Watts, I seem to recall some young pics of Burroughs in it, along with some Beat era poets and authors. Fedora

 

[Art Fawcett]

I acually made a ring specifically for Sefton, Fedora, and found that I need SOOO much more practice. It definitely is not as easy as it sounds to get it perfect. Matei, there are machines for doing this but I don't own one so "by hand" is the only way I can go at the moment.

 

[Fedora]

I acually made a ring specifically for Sefton, Fedora, and found that I need SOOO much more practice. It definitely is not as easy as it sounds to get it perfect. Matei, there are machines for doing this but I don't own one so "by hand" is the only way I can go at the moment.

Wow Art, it just sounds easy I guess. :eusa_doh: I experimented a few years ago with something similiar and had no trouble doing just a section of a brim. I treated the edge of the brim the same way I would if using a pencil curl shackle. That is, you have to wet the felt before you iron, and get some shrinkage going on in order to get a clean fold and then rewetting with much pressure to get the wrinkles out. But like I said, I only did 4 or 5 inches just to see if I could pull it off. The narrower the welt, the fewer wrinkles you have. lol

If anyone else ever wants to try this, you would have to have the rings or plates made for a particular sized hat, and a particular brim width. If you wanted to do say a 2 3/8 welted brim, a 2 1/2 and a 2 3/4, this would require 3 separate plates or rings. Then you would have to cut the brims larger, (I will let you do the math) etc. And of course, the rings would have to mimic the exact block you were using on the hat. This would be easy to arrive at if you can use a compass and the hat block you are sizing the ring to fit. The trouble would be getting the ring as near to perfect in matching the block you are using to make the hat. If the ring is a little "off" you would have a hair puller on your hands.

This info might help others who are interested. Art knew of the ring system already( I assumed he probably did) and it seems this is harder to pull off than I had assumed. You know what they say about assuming anything!!lol

Art if I came across as patronizing(right word I think) surely you know I did not mean it in that manner. Not at all. We both came to the hatmaking deal from a contruction background(something that is extemely helpful) and I am talking to you the same I would a fellow cabinetmaker. We are both fairly new at this and I think we caught on to it so fast due to the fact of our backgrounds. In my line of work, many of the same principles are used in creating fine cabinets. I just changed the medium I was using. We are both well versed in working with our hands, and eyes.

I think we both tried to de-mystify the hatmaking procedures, and John an experienced hatter was kind enough to join in and share. I am still doing that and if anyone ever wants to know how to make himself a hat, I will tell him how I do it. I recall that when I started out, it wasn't easy to find these things out as many hatters are not so ready to share, or at least the ones I had talked to. Each hatter will always have a few things that he will keep close to the vest, things he has learned not normally covered in the hatmaking books, but the basics are all that ya need anyways.


So my point in response to your post was more about sharing some ideas with the new guys wanting to tinker around a bit with this hatmaking deal. Regards, Fedora

 

[Art Fawcett]

No worries Fedora, I took it in the spirit it was meant. My point is that it is very easy to figure out how, but very difficult in practice to get right. I was able to get the basics down, but I couldn't get the quality level to the point where I was satisfied. Nothing goes out ( like you) until it pleases me, and I'm probably my most severe critic.

 

[Sefton]

The bound edge looks very fine. I like the way it came out. Art, when you get the welt skill down we can try another hat-as for now I'm totally happy with what you've made for me. Thanks again. My biggest problem with my new hat is deciding if I want to wear it with the brim snapped up or snapped down!