Vent holes on my VS...

[Aureliano]

Hi all! I'm back in the States after a lovely time in Italy. Hope all of you had a great holiday season. As you know, I've been playing with a device to make vent holes in hats. I took it with me to Milano and asked a friend if he would help me come up with solution to make even small holes (a tad less than 1mm). After some work, we managed to do it! I based the design on Jimmy's Stetson Shore club hat and a couple of other references. I thought the best hat for this project would be my Mojave VS. Check it out. I wonder if this actually work or if they are/were a cool design thing of the date.

References:

A Dobbs from someone here in the lounge:

VS

The other side:

 

[majormoore]

Very nice looking vent hole pattern, would love have that tool or buy one, can you make another one??

Major Moore

 

[Lefty]

You're pretty daring, but it turned out very well.

 

[masiaka]

Is the device homemade, or salvaged from an old hat shop? I'd also appreciate any advice you have about putting vent holes in a hat.

 

[randooch]

You're pretty daring, but it turned out very well.

+1!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Is the device homemade, or salvaged from an old hat shop? I'd also appreciate any advice you have about putting vent holes in a hat.

Not salvaged from a hat shop. Not even Art Fawcett has one that can make diamond vents.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

I really like it, thanks for sharing.

 

[RBH]

Very nice job.

I removed the bottom qoutes from the other thread so it and this one would be correct.

That is sweet, sweet, sweet, Ale! Welcome back!

Very cool, Ale.

Did you take the liner out as well or is this one of Art's liner free lightweights?

 

[bowlerman]

better patent that baby!

 

[Art Fawcett]

Well done Ale, it looks darn near perfect!!!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

better patent that baby!

You must be psychic...

 

[alanfgag]

I really like it...

me too!

 

[Aureliano]

Very nice looking vent hole pattern, would love have that tool or buy one, can you make another one??

Major Moore

Thanks, Major. I could probably make another one at some point in the future. This was designed with the help of my brother in-law who is an industrial engineer.

You're pretty daring, but it turned out very well.

Believe me, Lefty. I was terrified! When I made the cross pattern on my Cervo, I didn't care much 'cause the hat is my beater. But ruining my gorgeous VS would have been tragic. I'm glad it turned out this well.

Is the device homemade, or salvaged from an old hat shop? I'd also appreciate any advice you have about putting vent holes in a hat.

A combination of industrial design tweaking and home stuff. My advice... hmm you pretty much need a tool like this--or the extinct vintage ones-- to make them perfect. I think Marc Chevalier did it using something else...

Well done Ale, it looks darn near perfect!!!

Thanks, Art. You're a gentleman. They are almost perfect. One of the sides is ever, ever so slightly crooked... Not telling which, though . Trial and error, you know. The other side, after learning from the first, came out perfect!

 

[JAVIER]

Pretty cool!
Wondering here.... the drawing has it a little higher...; does your press against your head or is there enough space to allow the hat to breath?

 

[Aureliano]

In case you missed my earlier project. I took this Maltese Cross pattern from Al's Bowler and with my tool, copied to my rollable Cervo.

Al's

Cervo: These holes are about one and a half millimeters big.

 

[Aureliano]

Pretty cool!
Wondering here.... the drawing has it a little higher...; does your press against your head or is there enough space to allow the hat to breath?

The add and Jimmy's hat do seem to have the vents higher up. Because of the way my hat is creased, I decided to locate them in the way that the green Dobbs shows, right above the bow (right above the leather sweatband on the inside). There's some room but honestly, I haven't tested them yet. I did try out the Cervo and on occasion I felt a little bit of air. The real test will be in the summer. Hard to tell right now if they actually make a difference or if they are (and were) just a cool design thing.

 

[buler]

Aureliano, great job. I posted this picture of a template from an old ad in the hatters tool thread. Using a template like this, one could adjust the height of the pattern and then mark the holes. Then some sort of small punch could be used for each hole. I suppose you could rig up two of the templates connected by an "arm" that you could mark the midpoint and then line that up with the midpoint of the hat to get the same distance from front to back.

B

[/

 

[Aureliano]

Very cool, Buler!

 

[Aureliano]

better patent that baby!

I'm trying The cool thing is that with a tad more tweaking, I could make any pattern imaginable... back to the drawing table!

 

[Aureliano]

Thanks all for the kind words!