harden a hat

[Guest]

i was told to make a hat stiff mix one part thinner and the other part .................... thats what i forgot. i think its laquer but i forgot.

im sure someone knows here..

thanks

[Jim]

I just did this on Halloween night to reshape an old felt hat into a Buster Keaton porkpie hat.

I went to the hardware store and bought a can of Minwax Clear Satin Polyurethane. It's an aerosol spray-on poly that dries to a matte finish.

Just put the hat into the shape you want and spray the polyurethane right on in a couple light coats. The felt will be damp/wet and you can further shape the hat for 30 minutes or so before it starts to harden. Once it hardens, it's very stiff. And then you CAN'T reshape it, so be careful.

I did this to a top hat over ten years ago and even after the polyurethane dried up and flaked off over the years, the hat has retained it's shape to this day.

[Butterfly Man]

take care of your head and your hat

This is how it works:

two items: denatured alcohol & shellack

mix 1:2 or 1:3 of alcohol to shellack


here's the kicker ...

the shellack should be:

3 lb. Bullseye Shellack

because of it's viscosity you can mix this one perfectly @1:3

But it's hard to find now days because the company changed it's name to ?...so look on the label

sometimes it says "formerly 3 pound-Bullseye"

remember only brush with camel hair paintbrush on the INSIDE ONLY of the brim AND the hat ...

as needed.

[nick w]

thanks for the response. however, im in thailand where those brands dont exist unfortunately

and i dont know the thai word for polyurithane..

so is thinner and laquer the next choice?

thanks

nick w