Who makes an untapered crown?

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

I don't wish to contradict anybody, Shaul, but I'd advise Beatola against using steam, since this sounds like it's his first hat. Steam near the headband - even on the outside of the hat - was the fast road to shrinkage in one of my hats

Cheers for pointing that out - I just copied and pasted what the lady at Hats Direct had replied. A local hatter also once corrected my misconception, by the way, and explained it's the band that shrinks, not the felt, when you get caught in rain.

 

[fatwoul]

...it's the band that shrinks, not the felt, when you get caught in rain.

Exactly so. My grandad got caught in the rain once wearing a felt hat. Put it in the airing cupboard (warm place - worst thing you could do), and when he took it out, the headband had shrunk so much that even I couldn't wear it, and I was only 8 at the time. However, the felt remained the original size, so the whole hat was a contorted mess, held in a twisted shape by a band that was far too small.

My new Federation's band is already starting to shrink from sweat on it - when I first got it, I needed to put all the shim in that hatsdirect gave me, in order for it to stop resting on my ears. 24 hours later and the first piece of shim came out, and now another piece should probably follow it. It's actually pretty cool, because the hat's sides were pretty straight to begin with, but it feels as if they are even straighter, now that the base of the crown is being pulled in slightly.

It's great that the hat's band is shrinking to fit my head, but I do worry that it won't stop, and by next week I won't even be able to wear it anymore! I'm sure that won't happen, but I've ordered myself a stretcher to leave in it once it reaches the correct size, to keep it a perfect fit for as long as possible.

 

[barrowjh]

Beaver Brand's crown options include Jet and Universal, both of which appear to have little or no taper, and just a simple center crease. I've never been able to figure out the difference between the two, but one may taller or something. They also have a Derby crown, and their 'Legacy' body line includes a Flat Top, and that is fairly square also. Duane at thefedorastore dot com might be able to help answer your questions about tapered crown.