Reshaping a felt hat?

[Mountainman]

My dad reshaped one of his felt cowboy hats once, soaked it in hot water then went to work on it, let it dry and that was it. came out pretty good, just exactally how he wanted it. if all else fails you might try that.

[brandycr]

My dad reshaped one of his felt cowboy hats once, soaked it in hot water then went to work on it, let it dry and that was it. came out pretty good, just exactally how he wanted it. if all else fails you might try that.

agrees have seen felt hats reshaped using this method.

[haukehaien]

Steam is generally what hat shapers use. (Haberdashers may be a dying breed - but many western stores will have the steamer/blocker to reshape a hat.)

I've used the kettle to reshape my Indiana Jones fedora as well as felt cowboy hats. Get a good head of steam going in the kettle, hold the part you want to reshape in the steam until it starts to lose its stiffness, then reshape it with your hands and let cool. Repeat as necessary.

[The Wizard of BC]

I second the information haukehaien said.
I have shaped from start and re-shaped many Stetson Cav Hats, and my own Fedoras.

The only difference is I put a piece of copper tubing into the spout of the kettle to give a precise jet of steam for shaping the details or just a small spot.

Please be very careful with steam. It can scald you in under a second. If you have an oven mitt it can save a bad burn.

Steaming a good felt hat will also clean and freshen it if you have sweat a lot or if it is just musty from storage.

This method works best on really good felt of 4X quality or better. A 4X felt hat is almost as stiff as heavy cardboard. On soft felt or "crushable" hats you may have to add a couple of shots of spray starch to get the desired shape.