Shaping the crown  

• They take the felt body, which is a large cone shape with a rounded top, and hand shape the break from crown to brim (letting current fashion determine the height.)
• They crease the break, and stand it up like a bowl. (The crown area is standing up, with the brim folded up like a bowl.)   
• They fill the bowl with hot wine lees (deposits of dead yeast at the bottom of a vat of wine after fermentation and aging) to soften the blank, then they dump out the lees. 
• They place a hat block on the table top, and pull the crown of the hat onto the  block. They scrape the wine lees off the pulled crown. 
• They use a pumice stone and cold water to sand all the rough parts of the felt off of the crown. Then they rinse off the felt shavings with hot wine lees, and scrape the lees off the crown again.

   
Stiffening the crown

• To stiffen the crown, they take a mixture of flour and water (called wheating) and wash it over the crown. If it’s a black hat they will instead use paste or beeswax and rub it in.        
• They take it off the block, turn it inside out (so that the stiffening is now on the inside) and pull the crown on the block again.
• They use a tool called a stamping  iron to push down on a tight string to make it fit closely to the block. (I got the impression of more care taken this time.)

Stretching the Brim 

• With the crown right-side up and the brim flaring upward like a bowl, they fill the “bowl” of the brim with hot wine lees and then stretch the brim by degrees so that it will lie flat.        
• They use their stamping iron and a dish shaped tool to press the brims flat.       
• They rub the brim smooth with a pumice stone (if they want it smooth) or brush the nap with a brush (if they want it fuzzy.)

Dyeing (If it is to be dyed)

• If they are to be dyed black or other colored hats, they cut the edge of the brims before dyeing so that there won’t be a white line when the brim edge is cut.
• They then put the whole thing, crown block included (but no brim support is mentioned), into a dye vat to dye for 8-10 hours.

Drying (baking)

• The hats on the crown blocks go into an oven that has just had bread baked in it and bakes and dries for 10-12 hours. (Not sure if the brims are supported here, but I assume not.)

Stiffening the brim 

• The brim is then stiffened with “common glue and water”, boiled down till it’s thicker than “common siz[e]” but thinner than joiner’s glue and applied to the underside of the brim with a piece of felt. They rub this in till it’s wet but not soaked through. 
• They take the hat off the block, and put the brim, top side down onto a table height block called a fryer, and pound the glue into the felt with a mallet, being careful not to pound it till it shows through on the top side.
• They put the hat back on the crown block and tighten the string.
  

Flattening the brim 

• Then they take it to a "bason" which (despite my initial assumption that it would be bowl shaped) is a flat circle of iron (18” in diameter) that is heated underneath by a bason of coals. (Not so hot as to burn the hat.)
• They put a piece of brown paper on the bason, then set the hat on top.
• They then put six crown blocks all around the hat's brim so that the brim is forced to lie flat, but they move them often so that the steam can get  out.
• They take off one block at a time till the brim is staying flat, but not completely dry.
• They then use a stiff brush to brush off any dust and felt shaving bits and to lay the nap smoothly.
• They then let it dry completely.
  

Applying Glossing or Blacking        

• For a very smooth look (I got the impression that this was “sometimes”) they hold the dry hat over a flame to singe off the loose hairs.
• To make black hats shiny, they make blacking or glossing using indigo, galls, copperas, sumac and gum dissolved in water and they dip a piece of felt in the blacking and rub it all over the outside of the hat, being mindful of the lay of the nap. 

Trimming and finishing 

• They put on a decorative "string" or hatband
• They line it and they edge it
• Then they put  it up for sale.

Text Copyright Truly Carmichael, 2015

A closeup of a crown block, and the string and tightening knot that is used to hold the blank tightly to the block.

Stamping iron, for pushing the string down

The hatmaker filling the turned up brim with hot lees.

A hatmaker pounding the glue into the underside of the brim at the "fryer"

The circular plate on the table is the hot iron"bason" and the bowl beneath the table holds the coals that heat it.

Hat, with wooden blocks placed on the brim to weight it down and hold it flat. I love that these are crown blocks that are being put to use in this way as well.

Detail from Robert Hooke's 1666 Illustration of felt-makers at work, drawn to accompany the printed version of a report by Robert Hooke ‘An Account of the Feltmakers Trade’. I cleaned up this image, removing some smudges, the parts that showed the feltmaking process only, and several items that Mr Hooke had Scribbled out.