Wolfbrae Custom Hatters

[LinoleumBonypart]

Winging its way to me …. If the stars are aligned just in time for my 60th birthday …. Well chuffed ..!!

 

[belfastboy]

I hardly ever toss anything away. This is a Stetson of unknown age and quality but with decent felt. I cleaned it and in the reblocking the stitch holes from the sweat popped and almost the entire brim separated as if it were a perforated piece of paper. It does demonstrate the downside of a machine stitched sweat if the holes are place too closely together.
Here are two pictures of the mend. Not pretty but it works and will be hidden by the new sweat and crown ribbon.
It is blocked on a 5" tall square, flat topped block and will be my version of a western top hat. The reveal in a few days.

 

[BobHufford]

That’s a selling point right there for many hat buyers! You need contrasting thread though.

 

[LinoleumBonypart]

It’s rotted at the weak point …
You mean make a feature of it like the Japanese do

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I hardly ever toss anything away. This is a Stetson of unknown age and quality but with decent felt. I cleaned it and in the reblocking the stitch holes from the sweat popped and almost the entire brim separated as if it were a perforated piece of paper. It does demonstrate the downside of a machine stitched sweat if the holes are place too closely together.
Here are two pictures of the mend. Not pretty but it works and will be hidden by the new sweat and crown ribbon.
It is blocked on a 5" tall square, flat topped block and will be my version of a western top hat. The reveal in a few days. View attachment 595822 View attachment 595823

I once tried to bleach an American Hat Co. Clear Beaver hat by soaking it t in a strong bleach solution. The brim completely separated from the crown when I tried to block it. Par for the course for my hatting career. I leave the skilled labor to others now.

 

[belfastboy]

I once tried to bleach an American Hat Co. Clear Beaver hat by soaking it t in a strong bleach solution. The brim completely separated from the crown when I tried to block it. Par for the course for my hatting career. I leave the skilled labor to others now.

I figure if I am not screwing up.....I am not engaging in enough experimentation and thus learning. I am a masochist like that!

 

[Lew Decker]

Found this on line. Don’t know the artist or anything else, but I saw it

and thought you’d appreciate it.

 

[belfastboy]

Found this on line. Don’t know the artist or anything else, but I saw it View attachment 596855 and thought you’d appreciate it.

When I hired the graphic artist to come up with a logo he just was not able to capture the wolf look I was after. The images were either cartoonish or uber fierce when I wanted something more proud/majestic. So I switched gears and got him to do the wolf paw. Also, I wanted something simple that I could recreate on my liners. This graphic is pretty cool though .

 

[Rmccamey]

What a wonderful way to begin the Spring. I am delighted to be the proud owner of a new Wolfbrea plantation Panama. Beautifully crafted, the copper ribbon really sparkles on this classic hat style. Lightweight and comfy, this one is going to be hard to take off the next few months!

Thanks Robert.

 

[Woodtroll]

What a wonderful way to begin the Spring. I am delighted to be the proud owner of a new Wolfbrea plantation Panama. Beautifully crafted, the copper ribbon really sparkles on this classic hat style. Lightweight and comfy, this one is going to be hard to take off the next few months!

Thanks Robert.

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That's a very nice hat, looks sharp. Robert does fine work. Congratulations!

 

[StoryPNW]

What a wonderful way to begin the Spring. I am delighted to be the proud owner of a new Wolfbrea plantation Panama. Beautifully crafted, the copper ribbon really sparkles on this classic hat style. Lightweight and comfy, this one is going to be hard to take off the next few months!

Thanks Robert.

View attachment 602395 View attachment 602396 View attachment 602397 View attachment 602398 View attachment 602399 View attachment 602400 View attachment 602401

Great panama, love the plantation style.

 

[belfastboy]

Here is a Ukraine 50/50 beaver blend 115gram felt in Bone. Charcoal vintage grosgrain ribbon. I flanged the brim flat, no cupping, no brim binding just a plain raw edge brim.

 

[belfastboy]

Here is a hat I picked up used. It is made by an established BoHo style hatter. I tore it down and rebuild it as I love the felt. Not sure but it feels like it could be European hare....if not then rabbit from Tonak. It is similar to the Winchester silvermist colour. I am fortunate to have stock on vintage ribbon as the modern ribbon on this hat was terrible stuff compared to vintage.. The ribbon on this hat is really a silver colour with slight blue undertones. The camera really made the blue pop but in person it is silver.

Silver vintage grosgrain crown and brim binding with an 8 gill Shark's Gill bow.

 

[belfastboy]

I just placed an order for Panama straw blanks. They have not given me a delivery date as yet. The quality of the samples is good and I am bringing in Fino and Super Fino grade with wider brims. I hope to be able to steal some brim width and make taller crowns but I cannot commit to that until I try it. Excited to add the Panamas to my offering for his summer. Stay tuned!

 

[Darrell2688]

I hardly ever toss anything away. This is a Stetson of unknown age and quality but with decent felt. I cleaned it and in the reblocking the stitch holes from the sweat popped and almost the entire brim separated as if it were a perforated piece of paper. It does demonstrate the downside of a machine stitched sweat if the holes are place too closely together.
Here are two pictures of the mend. Not pretty but it works and will be hidden by the new sweat and crown ribbon.
It is blocked on a 5" tall square, flat topped block and will be my version of a western top hat. The reveal in a few days. View attachment 595822 View attachment 595823

After looking at the results of using a sewing machine to sew a sweatband into place, I am glad that I don't use a sewing machine, I would rather take my time sewing the sweatband into place by hand, I don't like to damage the felt.
Did you use any fabric glue when you repaired the felt?

 

[belfastboy]

After looking at the results of using a sewing machine to sew a sweatband into place, I am glad that I don't use a sewing machine, I would rather take my time sewing the sweatband into place by hand, I don't like to damage the felt.
Did you use any fabric glue when you repaired the felt?

I have had only two felts separate on me during a refurbishment. Both times I think it was operator error rather than being the fault of the sewing machine. They were on lower quality hats, sewn with a nylon filament, almost like fishing line. The stitches were made way too close together and I think the combo of the harsh filament thread and the too close stitches is what caused the perforation. I have restored a great many hats with machine sewn sweats and there has been zero issues with separation.
No glue at all on the separation just the sewn in grosgrain to join the two hat parts.
I did use glue to repair a moth nibble in the crown.

 

[belfastboy]

After looking at the results of using a sewing machine to sew a sweatband into place, I am glad that I don't use a sewing machine, I would rather take my time sewing the sweatband into place by hand, I don't like to damage the felt.
Did you use any fabric glue when you repaired the felt?

If I ever have an extra $2-$3000 hanging around I will buy an ASM sewing machine. But the chance of that happening is not great.

 

[Darrell2688]

I have had only two felts separate on me during a refurbishment. Both times I think it was operator error rather than being the fault of the sewing machine. They were on lower quality hats, sewn with a nylon filament, almost like fishing line. The stitches were made way too close together and I think the combo of the harsh filament thread and the too close stitches is what caused the perforation. I have restored a great many hats with machine sewn sweats and there has been zero issues with separation.
No glue at all on the separation just the sewn in grosgrain to join the two hat parts.
I did use glue to repair a moth nibble in the crown.

That is really great repair work, I have seen felts in the same condition after removing the sweatband and I never thought about sewing the felt back together, I just wrote it off as a loss. If I run into a problem like this I will have to try my hand at repairing the felt. I have a old brown felt that I use to try different sewing methods on, including using a sewing machine, the felt lacks any shellac and, no I still can't sew a straight line, which is a good thing. Sewing with a machine is one thing, proper thread tension is another, using the proper thread and spacing the stitches properly is another issue. I think that I will stitch with hand sewing.

 

[Darrell2688]

I have had only two felts separate on me during a refurbishment. Both times I think it was operator error rather than being the fault of the sewing machine. They were on lower quality hats, sewn with a nylon filament, almost like fishing line. The stitches were made way too close together and I think the combo of the harsh filament thread and the too close stitches is what caused the perforation. I have restored a great many hats with machine sewn sweats and there has been zero issues with separation.
No glue at all on the separation just the sewn in grosgrain to join the two hat parts.
I did use glue to repair a moth nibble in the crown.

I have seen some nice looking hats on Ebay that I was tempted to buy, but I passed on purchasing the hats because of the moth holes and the idea of reblocking the felt after removing the sweatband, I could just see it now, the crown in one hand and the brim in the other hand. Blocking a size 7" to a size 7 3/8" could be a bad idea, then repairing moth holes, that would be another challenge.

 

[belfastboy]

I have seen some nice looking hats on Ebay that I was tempted to buy, but I passed on purchasing the hats because of the moth holes and the idea of reblocking the felt after removing the sweatband, I could just see it now, the crown in one hand and the brim in the other hand. Blocking a size 7" to a size 7 3/8" could be a bad idea, then repairing moth holes, that would be another challenge.

I spent two years learning hat craft by working on beater westerns....low cost, low risk. If I have enough brim width to steal taking a hat up 3 sizes is doable but I will often do it in stages to avoid trying to stretch it all at one time. It works well.
I get great satisfaction in repairing old hats and restoring them to wearable condition. Moth nibble repair is not hard but it is painstakingly slow work. I do it while watching baseball on TV.