Manufacturing of the felt hat

How is a felt hat made?

The manufacture of a felt hat requires 7 weeks even in large factories because the design of this type of hat remains purely artisanal.

What is the difference between felt and other fabrics?

Many people misunderstand felt: they think it's a fabric like any other. They are mistaken, fabric and felt do not require the same manufacturing processes at all.

The making of a felt hat differs from all other fabrics because it requires a myriad of short animal fibers, difficult to work with due to their natural tendencies to "creep" and their ability to twist when handled in hot water or hot steam. Felt is known to be a durable fabric because the fibers that compose it are bound in all directions with other fibers. Other fabrics consist of fibers, twisted into threads and woven by hand or machine. As they are woven either at angles or in parallel lines, they are vulnerable and can tear along the lines.

What is felt made of?

Felt hats can be made from wool felt (inexpensive) or fur felt (medium to high price depending on the fur). Rabbit fur is used in the majority of fur hats. Hare fur is of better quality, it is often more or less mixed with rabbit fur to produce hats in a more affordable price range. Beaver and nutria are synonymous with higher quality felt hats. Muskrat fur is also a raw material used.

By "fur", we mean the down undercoat of these animals, not the long curly hairs commonly called fur. It is only this undercoat, with its fibers locked together, that guarantees the strength of the felt hat.

How is the fur used to make felt harvested?

To harvest the down, the long hairs are plucked or sheared. The remaining undercoat is then chemically treated to remove the microscopic barbs, the felt is then of better quality. The felt is then removed from the skin or, more precisely, the skin is removed from the felt. To remove this skin, a machine picks it up and cuts it with knives. The extracted fur retains the shape of the skin, its quality varies depending on where it is cut: the cheeks, flanks, sides, etc. It is then packed in paper bags and stored. This fur is called "long stock", while trimming fur is called "short stock".

How is the fur refined?

The bag of fur is delivered to the hat maker. It then goes through several stages of mixing and refining before it's ready to be used in hat making. After mixing, the fur takes on a marbled gray color, with the original color barely visible.

The mixed fur is then "blown", meaning the coagulated fur, air, and dirt are eliminated. The material then resembles a thin sheet of gray cotton, soft, light, and fluffy.

What are the steps in making a felt hat?

The making of a felt hat is done in two main steps.

First, the fur is worked into a large loose cone, which is then shrunk and incorporated into the finished hat. The formation of the cone is key to a successful felt hat. This process is done in a special machine. Imagine a vertical, cylindrical compartment, and inside this compartment, on the floor, a copper cone about 3 feet high, pointing upwards. This cone rotates slowly. It is perforated, and an exhaust fan, located below, sucks the air and loose fur in the chamber towards the cone.

After being pre-weighed, the fur is sucked down by the fan and deposited on the rolling cone. The fibers are deposited in fragile layers: they can be brushed with a finger. The operator carefully wraps these fibers around the cone and immerses them for a short period in a vat of hot water. This is when felting begins: the hot water slightly shrinks the fibers which are knitted into a thin layer of felt.

The felt layer is removed from the cone, its size is then much larger than the finished hat. It is so delicate that it must be handled with extreme care. The shrinking of the felt then begins.

The body is folded, soaked in hot water, and rolled with pressure. From time to time, it is opened, checked, and if everything is going well, the process is repeated. Under the combined action of hot water and pressure, the fibers decrease, tighten into each other until the body reaches its final size. It is so tightly felted that a strong man cannot separate it.

This work is hard and laborious, especially as it must be done quickly to avoid spoiling and damaging the felt. This task can be performed by machines but is mostly done by hand, especially during the critical early stages when the cone is large and delicate. The machines used resemble "roller" machines such as large washing machine wringers. Hand rolling is mechanically simulated: the bodies are wrapped in cloths and run through rollers soaked in hot water.

Besides the beard or felting locking technique, there are several other interweaving and plastic techniques. According to the interweaving theory, the fibers are constrained together due to mechanical manipulation. The plastic theory holds that the fur becomes temporarily plastic at higher temperatures, and represents the well-known greater ease of felting in acid solutions and the need to use hot water as well. Probably no felting theory represents all the facts.

A draft is obtained by stretching: that is, the finished shape by blocking the crown and the edge of the brim. The stretching of the crown is done on a machine on which the cone is placed, and stretched by metal fingers. The finger "massages" the tip of the cone, and pushes the felt into the frame.

The shape of the felt hat is imprinted by wetting it and pulling it over a wooden block. The final shape is solidified with steam and an iron. The wood for the blocks comes from American poplar, chosen because it has no grain or hard streaks. When the cone is pressed onto the wood, it doesn't imprint its texture.

The original block is handmade, it is then copied by machines. The hat maker must possess not only a set of blocks for each hat style, but also blocks for each texture.

Adjusting the hat's brim is called flanging. The edges are ironed flat, and cut to the desired width. They are then curled, placed on a wooden edge, ironed again, and finally dried and pressed while remaining on the brim.

Between the time the body is made and the final shape of the hat, the felt headwear receives several treatments. It is dyed, this meticulous work is usually done in the early stages of felting. The brim is impregnated with the right dose of shellac stiffener to hold it in place. Finally, the entire felt hat is rubbed with sandpaper several times depending on the desired fineness.

Finally, the felt hat is carefully cut, lined and sewn with leather on the band.

The production of a felt hat is therefore a slow and meticulous process that requires about fifty steps. This is why it takes an average of seven weeks to make a hat. This manufacturing process is passed down by hat makers, from generation to generation in the greatest secrecy, with the right balance of machine work and handwork which determines the quality of the finished product.