Victoria Grant – Hattin' Around & Leanne Fredrick Millinery

I have dozens of things to write about from my Hattin’ Around adventures. Blocks, feather dyeing, new shops and vintage hats.

This post is about my vintage Bowler Block from Victoria Grant. My repair efforts were a total success! See what repairs I made in a previous post, New Old Bowler Block Repair. I am completely in love with this new block. I sprained my left thumb and got minor steam burns on my hands trying to block with it and it took me three tries to get it done satisfactorily, but isn’t she pretty.

Successfully blocked on new old repaired bowler — Successfully blocked on repaired vintage bowler hat block.

Tips curtesy of the Bowler Block

Wood glue and filler really does work to repair a block. It held surprisingly well.
Cover the block in two pieces of plastic. One for the gully between the crown and the brim and another to cover the hole thing, then cut the gully open. This is important to protect the block from the moisture and stiffener as well as protecting the felt from discoloration.

Stain on white felt from block — Stain on white felt from gap in plastic covering the block. Luckily it was on the edge and cut off.

Make sure a wool felt is really wet before blocking. I first tried just a good steam, but the felt that I had previously stiffened was not flexible enough. Then I gave it a good soaking, wrapped it in a tea towel put the bundle in a plastic bag and put the bag in the refrigerator for several days. Then steamed the felt until dripping and blocked it. It still was not easy, but it was do able.
Pin down the crown first. I tried doing the overall piece first, pinning under the brim, thinking I could then just press the gully into place. It did not work. But pinning the crown first with a piece of torn cloth twisted, pressed and pinned into the valley worked very well.
Bowler finally blocked

Blocking pins and rope working together

Close up of blocking the gully between crown and brim

Side view on the block
Caution: rust risk between white felt and metal pins. Pins these days are not what they use to be and my first attempt left me with a few rust marks. Use fresh pins and set the felt to dry immediately after blocking. I do not have a drying cupboard, so I used the oven on its lowest setting, turning it on & off with the convection setting on to circulate the air. The oven door left open a bit to release moisture and not get too hot. Whew! no rust. The rusty pin hole on the excess felt from my 1st attempt was cut off. No one will every know.

Off the block and looking great. The hat got mangled while removing it from the block, but went right back into shape.

Brushing makes a difference. Brush the felt and scrape a pin over the pin holes to rough up the felt fibers. It is beautiful and I haven’t even trimmed my new bowler hat yet.

The felt was pretty beat up, but recovered with a good brushing.

I used a pin to rough up wool fibers and scrape away the pin holes.

Points 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 were all bits I learned with advice from Edwina Ibbotson’s Hat Class on Monday nights.

Now for the trimming.

I acquired an vintage hat block this week at Victoria Grant‘s millinery supply sale. She was having a bit of a clear out.

I spotted a lovely old hat block, a modified bowler and I was hooked. However there was tape along the front. I ran my finger over the edge, to see if I could feel any chips. The outside edge felt sound, so I decided to take a chance. All the way home I was envisioning hats I could make with this new block.

However once I got it home and took the tape off, I realized just what bad shape it was in. A chunk of the front brim fell off. Not only that but there was a hole clear through at the transition point between the crown and the brim where the wood was fairly thin. It had obviously been used extensively.

I looked online for some repair tips and was encouraged by Judith M.’s repairing vintage blocks blog post.

I made a 1 minute movie of the process. See show notes below.

I started by dusting the piece off and removing the loose fragments of wood. Then I glued the large piece on with Evo-Stik Wood Adhesive. I held it in place until the glue set.

Once the glue dried I used Ronseal Multipurpose Wood Filler to fill the hole. Several smaller layers is better than one really thick globby one.

The wood filler did not expand, I just managed to push it through the hole, and finally just figured I would sand off the excess.

Here are my supplies.

This is after the second layer of wood filler. But before the first rough sanding. The wood was so pin marked and splintery that I decided that the filler may help give it some support as well as smooth out the rough wood surface.

Then I sanded took a break, and sanded some more.

It looks dramatically better. It is not perfect, but I am hoping that it will at least be useful.

At least there is no longer a hole and the broken piece is attached.

I have never tried to repair a hat block before. At least nothing beyond, wiping them down and putting on a bit of oil for the wood. I am pleased with the results and since I just finished the repairs a couple hours ago, I will let it set a bit longer before putting it to work.

Have you ever repaired a vintage hat block? What tools and materials did you use and was it successful?

And remember, interesting people wear hats.

Tag: Victoria Grant

Blocking Success, Lessons Learned

New Old Bowler Hat Block Repair