Wool and fur felt hats - Manufacturing

 Brixton Collection, available on the Traclet online store

The art of hatmaking relies on specific technology and a significant number of manufacturing phases, which requires particular skills. We will only mention the main ones. The complete production cycle still requires, even today, 9 to 12 days. Felts vary in weight according to their quality, soft and light felt is highly appreciated.

There are different types of felt

• Wool felts are made of agglomerated wool strands: merino (rough aspect compared to hair felt), melusine (downy felt), felt cloth.
• Fur felts as well as toupee are of better quality and manufactured from animal hair.
• Mixed felt, made with hair and wool strands. It has a more shiny appearance and is more flexible than wool felt.

If wool strands are fulled, they intertwine, fix themselves together by their rough surfaces and eventually form a felt fabric. Animal hairs do not naturally possess this felting property, except camel hair (Asian origin of felt). For other types of hair, this property must be developed: the skins, previously cleared of coarse hair, are impregnated with a mercury nitrate solution, the "secret". Once the secretage is done, the hair is cut and can be worked.

In the middle of the 19th century, the first mechanical basters appeared: the principle remains the same as manual work, combining mechanical action; the aspirated hairs are fixed to the surface of a metal bell perforated with holes and covered with a wet cloth. The blower of a vacuum cleaner firmly holds the hairs which are then sprayed with hot water and thus stuck together by centrifugal force. The obtained shape is then strengthened, all fraying hairs are removed from the outside.

This operation is repeated several times until obtaining the real felt, well combed, polished, ready for the successive stages of dyeing and finishing.

The essential operations

The "basting"

100 grams of hair are projected onto a large perforated metal cone, then sprayed with hot water. Here is born the first shape whose size reaches about 5 times that of the future hat. To baste, the worker placed a first layer on a wet cloth, the "felting cloth", applied a wet paper above then a second mass of hair. By folding the felting cloth, manipulating and pressing it between his hands in all directions, he obtained two blades of crossed hair already having some consistency. These two blades were subjected to a new felting to join them by their edges and take the shape of the desired bell.

The "fulling"

After 5 to 6 hours of repeated passages between rollers sprayed with acidulated boiling water, the hoods felt definitively and reach about 30 to 40 cm. They then become resistant and waterproof.

The "fulling" is responsible for giving the roughed-out hood the consistency of true felt, a homogeneous, resistant fabric, elastic when hot and inextensible when cold. In the past, the fuller dipped the hood in a vat filled with hot acidulated water. The chemical reaction combined with multiple manipulations and rubbing between hands equipped with leather soles, the "manicles", finished giving the hood its solidity. These two operations transform a given mass of hair or "hood", a felt fabric having the shape of a bell. For centuries, its realization was entirely manual.

The felt dyeing operation can, depending on the case, be carried out at different stages of manufacturing, by boiling in a color bath and this, with chemicals and methods allowing perfect penetration of the color into the hair. Dyeing: it calls upon the "chemist" who, by dosing chemical dyes, obtains the desired shade throughout the "cross-section" (thickness) of the felt.

The "blocking"

The dyed felt hoods are sanded with fine silex paper if you want a smooth flat hat or kept with medium-length hair, if you want a toupee. They are ready to be shaped by the hatter. The steam-impregnated felt is placed on a wooden form which it is forced to follow the contours. To make the edges, the hatter holds the fabric on the bottom of the form with a solid tie and raises, by stretching, the felt located below this string. In most factories this operation is carried out quickly by mechanical dressers (straw hats too).

The "shaping"

The shaping process gives the hat its final form. The shaper irons the hat placed on a wooden form with hot irons and a pressing cloth. Multiple ways then ensure the finish - new sanding, shaving to obtain velvet felt... before the ribbon placement in the trimming workshop -

The "trimming"

Consists of applying borders, leather bands and decorative braids.