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How to "cock" a hat.


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So I made my own and they rock. Check it out.

The Blank

FaltHatBlankc.jpg

The Template.

Template.jpg

I used this to trim the edges fairly even and straight.

A little chalk and a template. You're set.

Chalkededge.jpg

Trimming

Trimmingtheedge.jpg

Ahh, the trimmings. Hides a lot.

SewnEdgeTwins.jpg

Freashly steamed!

FreashlySteamed.jpg

SteamedTwins.jpg

The Finished product.

Finished03.jpg

Tada!! All in all about 6 hours for the 2 hats.

Finished01.jpg

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I used a 1.5" cotton weave for the trim and hand dyed the pieces gray, which came out great looking.

I haven't seen it with the costume yet. Then again i'm also chaning the colors and stye of the one i've been wearing. But there it is on top of me head.

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  • 1 year later...

This thread should probably be a sticky one... as this question gets asked a lot and its a pretty darn good reply.

Hats of to Amanjiria

GoF

Come aboard my pirate re-enacting site

http://www.gentlemenoffortune.com/

Where you will find lots of information on building your authentic Pirate Impression!

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If you wanna get rrealy fancy, you can also line the hat....

Start with a strip of cloth the same length as the inside of the hat, and about 3 1/2" tall...

sew it into a tube, and then sew in a casing around the top edge....leaving a small opening in the casing ......

run a lingth of cord through the casing...

then turning the other edge, sew it into the hat.... (the stitches don't have to go all the way through the felt, just enought to hold the lining in place)

The opening for the cord should go to the back of the hat....

The cord slightly gathers the top edge of the lining so it fits inside the hat.

hatLining.jpg

You can just see one end of the knotted cord at the back of the hat in the picture

(ignore the sweat stains.... this one is over three years old......)

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Looks nice, Amanjiria. A few questions: How wide is the blank, what'd you use to trim the hat, and how'd you steam it?

Also, how historically accurate would wearing the uncocked hat be? I really like the way it looks, but I'm going for historical accuracy...

I've got the heart of a pirate, just not the garb...
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With regards to hatcrafters, I had purchased a hat there a while back, very superb indeed, but as of lately it fell into a lake and has thus lost its hardness and form, would steaming help give the hat it's form back?

(I emailed them as well, just figured I'd ask here too.)

:lol:

"I'm no fencing master, but I had some schoolin' in the art of cold steel"

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With regards to hatcrafters, I had purchased a hat there a while back, very superb indeed, but as of lately it fell into a lake and has thus lost its hardness and form, would steaming help give the hat it's form back?

(I emailed them as well, just figured I'd ask here too.)

:rolleyes:

yes and seawater cause i did tht to mine and lost alot of hardness and i got from the beach yesterday nite brung my hat home now it's stiff when i got it new2 :P

68791yb.jpg there it is my one and only tricorne...

sig1-2.png

Piracy is freedom

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Looks nice, Amanjiria. A few questions: How wide is the blank, what'd you use to trim the hat, and how'd you steam it?

The width of the blank depends on who blocks it. When you order a blank it should tell you how wide the brim is from the crown.

I just used sissors. If you look at the pics, I made a roundish template and maked on the brim with chalk. Trim to taste.

Steaming the hat I just boiled some water and held the portion of the hat I wanted flexible and steamed it.

On stiffness and weatherproofing your hat. I used shellac, diluted with denatured alcohol. Then brushed on until it soaked through. I used about a

1 part shellac and 2 part alcohol. Makes it really stiff, like a semi hard shell. Use less shellac if you don't want it that stiff.

As you use shellac the hat will get "floppy" and soft. It will also shrink so you need to find a way to keep its shape as you shellac. I think I just put a headrag on and plopped my hat on me head until it started to set. Not sure how safe that is but its what I did.

Sorry about not getting back to the questions sooner. I've been out of town working. :unsure:

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In sixth scale modeling, aquanet is freqnetly used to stiffen a felt hat. That's craft felt, and it doesn't water proof, so I'm not sure about the practical application of such an idea.

"The time was when ships passing one another at sea backed their topsails and had a 'gam,' and on parting fired guns; but those good old days have gone. People have hardly time nowadays to speak even on the broad ocean, where news is news, and as for a salute of guns, they cannot afford the powder. There are no poetry-enshrined freighters on the sea now; it is a prosy life when we have no time to bid one another good morning."

- Capt. Joshua Slocum

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Not sure how safe that is but its what I did.

Cool.... I'm not the only one who does stupid, or questionably unsafe methods of making stuff...... :lol:

I always feel that I should put in a disclaimer that some of the ways I make stuff may be unsafe, but it's how I do it...... :unsure:

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  • 2 weeks later...

At the Northern California Pyrate Festival, my face got sun burned from wearing only a cocked hat.... so I figured I'd make a new hat for really "sunny" occasions.....

The first two pictures show the hat blank that I bought from one of the merchants at the Festival for $28.00.....

Untitled-1.jpg

Untitled-2.jpg

I use boiling water instead of steam when I block a hat (it's just the way I learned how to stretch hats when I was a kid...)

This picture shows the crown of the hat full of boiling water.... once it all drains through the felt, It's ready to stretch...

Untitled-3.jpg

This picture shows the blank after it's been stretched over the container in the photo....

Untitled-4.jpg

The next post will be on finishing the hat blank.....

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Im really liking this thread because I too wish to create my own tricorn..I guess my question would be? Do you have to trim the tricorn? Or cut the uneven edges?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v519/Dara286/trident01-11.png

If you got a dream chase it, cause a dream won't chase you back...(Cody Johnson Till you Can't)

 

 

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The hat blank that I bought, didn't have ragged edges, so I didn't have to trim it..... there were a few small spots, but the edge trim would cover them.....

I had some blanket binding, so that is what I used....

Starting at the back, folding the binding in half, I started to sew it on using a running stitch, passing the needle close to the edge on both sides.... I had to adjust and slightly push the top or bottem edges so the were even on both sides of the brim.... also by pushing the binding tight over the edge of the hat, I avoided too much puckering .....

Untitled-5-1.jpg

It took about an hour to sew all the way around the brim..... I used really tiny stitches......

Also shown in the linen lining.... it is sewn into a tube, with a casing along the top edge for a drawstring....

Untitled-6-1.jpg

To sew in the lining, I turned the bottem edge under, and whip stitched the lining to the hat.... I don't push the needle all the way through the felt, only about half way..... just enough to keep the lining in place...That way the stitching wont show from the outside of the hat.

When the lining is sewn in, I then slightly tighten the drawstring, so it fits inside the hat.

Untitled-7-1.jpg

I still have to decide what I want to do for a hat band..... but this is the (almost) finished hat....

I will keep the sun outta my face.... the biggest problem with such a large brim is that they do tend to blow off yer head in a strong wind...

Untitled-8-1.jpg

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Nice Pat! Love the lining. I'm going to have try that on my next hat or hats.

Captain Siren of the Poesidon  Posted on Jun 23 2007, 11:56 AM

  Im really liking this thread because I too wish to create my own tricorn..I guess my question would be? Do you have to trim the tricorn? Or cut the uneven edges?

It really depends on the blank when you buy it. The Jas - Townsend blanks come with a kind-of scalloped edge that need to be trimmed to make it smooth. You can see how they look in the first pic of the thread. I have made a couple of hats where I didn't sew any trim on the edges and left them just trimmed. Let me see if I have any pics of that hat.

Edited by Amanjiria
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Well done!


"I being shot through the left cheek, the bullet striking away great part of my upper jaw, and several teeth which dropt down the deck where I fell... I was forced to write what I would say to prevent the loss of blood, and because of the pain I suffered by speaking."~ Woodes Rogers

Crewe of the Archangel

http://jcsterlingcptarchang.wix.com/creweofthearchangel#

http://creweofthearchangel.wordpress.com/

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I had a quick question

Say I bought wool felt at a craft store, could I theoretically use that to form a hat? (as opposed to buy a hat blank and just shaping it)

"I'm no fencing master, but I had some schoolin' in the art of cold steel"

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I had a quick question

Say I bought wool felt at a craft store, could I theoretically use that to form a hat? (as opposed to buy a hat blank and just shaping it)

Has to be really thick felt and most craft stores and fabric stores carry very thin stuff..

"Without caffine, I'd have no personality at all"

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