Hat Making Tool: Hinge-Shackle style Wooden Curling Tool for the Homburg Hat Brim

This tool has been “SOLD”, but I can make more.

Please email me at:
mark@decoustudio.com

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- – Update 10-22-2008 – - – - – - -
This is another Hat Making Tool that I dreamed up on my own. The customer’s name is “Zee” and he responded below in the comment section if you would like to see his feelings about how this curling tool worked for him. I’m hoping we can post some photos of his finished hats with the Homburg Style curl made with this tool.

Project Story:

I’ve been asked to create a curling tool for the brim edge of a Fedora hat, in a style of hat called a Homburg Style.

The most notable example of the Homburg Hat is the Michael Corleone Hat from the “Godfather” Movie series. I don’t remember which of the three movies it was featured in, probably the third one.

Normally, this style of brim edge is fashioned by ironing the hat blank upside down on a carved wooden form, called a Flange.

These flanges are fairly rare, and expensive if you can find an antique one. So, The concept here with the “experiment” is to try and create the curl on the edge of the brim with a hinge-shackle curling tool with water and steam heat.

To design the tool, I looked closely at the profile of a Homburg Flange, and tried to duplicate it in a hand held curling tool, where pressure could be applied to the back side of the curl, thus the moving hinge shackel section. The Hinge-Shackle is not a new concept, I saw a drawing of one in an old hat making manual by Ermatinger, and adapted the idea to a new method for working the brim curl.

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Homburg Hat Style Fedora:

Here is my fat hairy hand giving the hinge-shackle curler a run through. The hat is just a shop-practice hat I use, and it has not been wetted, or steamed in the photos.

Here’s where I adpated the concept from, an old drawing from the Ermatinger book showing a Hinge-Shackle curling tool, hinged so that the tool can be removed without disturbing the curl.

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

Rounding Jack – The Collector-Series Model w/ a Brass Blade Holder:

1. “Coming Soon”, Progress Photos posted here

Rounding Jack – The Economy-Priced Hobbyist-Hatter Model:

1. Walnut Rounding Jack w/ Bench Top Display Stand
2. Walnut Rounding Jack w/ Laser Engraved Ruler

Rounding Jacks – Custom Built:

1. “Custom Laser Engraved Rounding Jack for Charlie @ Gladdhatter”: coming soon, please check back
2. Rounding Jack, Maple Wood on a Walnut Bench-Top Display Stand
3. Custom Rounding Jack w/ Scrimshaw for the Brainpan Hat Shop in Sumner, WA
4. Custom Rounding Jack w/ Scrimshaw for Steve Delk's Adventurebilt Hat Co.
5. Custom Rounding Jack w/ Scrimshaw for Marc Kitter's Adventurebilt Hat Co.
6. Custom Rounding Jack w/ Scrimshaw for Pyrate Trading Co.
7. Custom Rounding Jack w/ Scrimshaw for the Infamous Hatman Jack at Wichita Hat Works
8. Custom Rounding Jack Laser Engraved for the Inaaya Hat Co.
9. Custom Rounding Jack Laser Engraved for The Penman Hat Co.
10. Prototype #2 Rounding Jack
11. Prototype #1 Rounding Jack

Formillion & Conformer:

1. Formillion & Conformer, Prototypes #1 & #2

Foot Tollikers:

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

Brim Pencil Curl & Kettle Curl Wooden Shaping Tools:

1. Wooden Hinge-Shackle Curling Tool for the Homburg Hat
2. Wooden Curling Shackles, Various Sizes
3. Wooden Groove Tolliker

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, photos, text, spelling, everything I can possibly list is copyrighted in 2008 by the Author, M.A.DeCou. If you want to use any part of this posting or the photos, for any Feeds, or a book, or another website, or for any reason whatsoever, even ones that I could not have dreamed about you doing before you did it, you must ask for permission first. Please)

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan