Hat Making Tool: Restored Maillard Allie Formillon, with a new Plot Base Board, and Thumb-Nut Wrench

This is a hat making tool, used to transfer the head shape measured with a Conformer or a Conformateur , to the actual sweat band of a hat. This allows any bumps, or dents in a person’s skull to be translated to the shape of the hat.

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Purchasing Formillon (Formillion) Replacement Parts:

1. To purchase a Plot Board for your Maillard Formillon, see this item at Etsy.com
2. To purchase a new Wood Thumbnut Tightening Wrench, see this item at Etsy.com
3. To purchase a new Wood Clamping Ring with new Cork base, see this item at Etsy.com
4. To purchase only a Cork Pad for your own restoration work of the Formillon, see this item at Etsy.com. You can also use the same cork pad to replace the Press Door (where the punch card is poked with the brass pins) on the Maillard Conformateur.

To purchase replacement Sliding Finger Keys for a Formillon, I will need to have the entire Formillon to make the fit of the new fingers possible, and I am unable to give a quote on the repairs until I see the condition of the tool. Replacement fingers are approximately $20.00 ($US) a piece, depending on the quantity required and the condition of the old finger keys.

Formillon Restoration Work?:
If you have an old Formillon that needs some help, I can build whatever new parts it needs, but I need to have the whole Formillon shipped to me. Each of the finger keys are custom fit and shaped for it’s specific spot, and there is no way I can do that without having the whole Formillon here for the fitting.

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Why worry about a Custom Fit for a Hat?
One Horse Training Cowboy friend I have buys his hats from a special hat maker in New Mexico. One day at a church picnic, he started talking with me about his custom hats, and I told him about my custom hat making tools. I asked him why someone would want to spend the money that it costs for a custom made hat, when they could just buy a boxed hat by Stetson, Resistol or another factory-made brand name boxed hat.

His response was, ”Once you put on a custom made hat, any store bought boxed hat just feels like a cardboard box crammed down on your head. You try it once, you won’t go back”

I loved that response, and it also really helped me to see the value in custom fitting a hat. Maybe someday I’ll have a custom fit hat myself. I get lots of offers for trades of hats for hat tools, but I can’t pay my utilities and buy food with hats, so I haven’t been able to take the trade deals at this point.

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Formillon Restoration & New Plot Board:
In this project, I removed all of the sliding fingers from the old Formillon, built somewhere in the mid-to-late 1800’s in France. Many of the old sliding fingers were damaged and broken. However, the front of the fingers were in pretty fair shape. So, I built 13 new sliding parts and mounted them on the old Front Finger parts.

Many of the Old Formillons in the world today are without a “foundation”. The “Plot” board was sold along with Formillon and Confomateur, and was part of the original Patent Drawings. The old Plot boards, if the hat maker has one, are in pretty sad shape. They are walnut that has been ebonized, with a cast pot-metal center hub. They don’t look complicated to build really, until you inspect one pretty closely. There is a unique curve to the underside of the old Formillon, and so it sits on a curved Plot board face. I carefully measured and recreated the curve, and made a couple of fixtures to help me duplicate the Plot Board.

I also used walnut, ebonizing and finishing it with my proprietary process to duplicate the texture and sheen of the old tools when they were built new. It’s a secret, I won’t tell you, so don’t write me about it. To duplicate the center hub, I used a piece of solid Aluminum, machining it in my shop.

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The Thumb-Nut Wrench, is a simple tool that allows the user to tighten the thumb nuts on the top of the Formillon easily. The clamping pressure on all 46 sliding fingers must be tight, or the fingers will move while the hat is shaped. If a finger moves, the hat is shaped to the wrong profile, so the clamping and proper calibration to the Conformateur is critical.

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Formillon Clamping Ring
All of the Formillon (Formillions) that I have restored, had “bad” wood clamping rings. Over the 125-150 years that these tools have been used, the thumbnuts have been clamped down tightly. This pressure wears out the wood clamping ring, and also the Natural Cork on the underside of the ring.

I searched and found huge roll of Natural Cork, without any finish, in a 6mm thick size, and so I can now offer others this material to save them buying a big roll of it.

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This is a photo of the Maillard Allie Conformateur, after it has been placed on my head, and the Press Lid has been lowered punching holes into the piece of paper. This paper will be cut out according to the pin holes, and placed on the Formillon, in the next photo.

Here is a photo of another Formillon I repaired recently, sitting on an authentic Maillard Plot Board. The paper in the middle is the cut out punch card from the Conformateur.

Here is a photo showing the old Maillard Patent Drawing of the entire Measurement system.

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Artisan Hat Tools by Mark DeCou Studio
(Do you want to see More? Just follow these links):

NOTE:
ALL HAT MAKING ITEMS THAT I HAVE IN STOCK
ARE LISTED IN MY ETSY.COM ONLINE SHOP, click here to check inventory

Collector Edition Model Rounding Jacks:

1. Ebonized Walnut with Laser Engraving
2. Collector Model w/ a Brass Blade Holder

Deluxe Model Rounding Jacks:

1. Maple Deluxe Model, Counter Clockwise Cutter
2. Maple Deluxe Model, Clockwise Cutter

Hobbyist-Hatter Model Rounding Jacks:

1. Walnut Hobbyist-Hatter Model, Counter Clockwise Cutter
2. Walnut Hobbyist-Hatter Model, Clockwise Cutter

Customized Rounding Jacks, Personalized for Specific Hatters:

1. Spradley Hats in Apline, TX
2. Rachel Pollock of La Bricoleuse
3. Brainpan Hat Shop in Sumner, WA
4. Steve Delk's Adventurebilt Hat Co.
5. Marc Kitter's Adventurebilt Hat Co.
6. Pyrate Trading Co.
7. Hatman Jack at Wichita Hat Works
8. Inaaya Hat Co.
9. Penman Hat Co.

Formillons & Conformateurs:

1. Complete Restoration of a Maillard Conformateur and Formillon
2. New DeCou Formillion & Conformer, Prototypes #1 & #2
3. Custom Designed Conformateur Carrying & Storage Case
4. New Plot Base Board for the Maillard Allie Formillon
5. Maple Wrench for Tightening Formillon Thumbnuts

Foot Tollikers:

1. Left-Handed & Right-Handed Foot Tolliker
2. Foot Tolliker: Elk Antler & Birch Wood, on a Display Stand
3. Foot Tolliker: Walnut Wood, on a Display Stand
4. Foot Tollikers: Three in White Birch Wood
5. Foot Tollikers: Walnut Wood Set of Four
6. Foot Tollikers, Birch Wood Double Set, on Display Stand

Brim Edge Curling Tools:

1. Hinge-Shackle Curling Tool for the Homburg Hat
2. Full Circle Shackle Curling Tool
3. Half Circle Shackle Curling Tool
4. Groove Tolliker Curing Tool

Hat Block Spinners:

1. Hard Rock Maple and Walnut Ornamentally Turned Hat Block Spinners

Puller Downers:

1. Puller Downers, made in Birch & Maple

Pusher Downers:

1. Pusher Downers, made in Walnut, Hard Rock Maple, & Poplar

Stainless Steel Slip Stick:

1. “Coming Soon”, please check back.

My Website with other woodworking, including furniture, walking canes, scrimshaw artwork, custom knives, and other misc. items

Mark DeCou Studio Website

(Note:This project story, project design, and photos are protected by copyright in 2008-2009 by the Author, M.A.DeCou., all rights reserved, no use allowed without expressed written permission.)

-- Mark DeCou - American Contemporary Craft Artisan - www.decoustudio.com