Cottonwood Hat

[Old Arn]

Pic 1: Cottonwood Hat

The hat is cottonwood, just under a 1/16" thick, that has a little burl in it, several small knots and a few bark pockets. It made for an interesting piece to turn and makes the hat look old, rugged and weathered ... well except for the glossy finish. I think I will tone that down some. There were a couple of knots on the brim that looked like they was going to split real bad so I took my knife and cut them out, kinda adds to the rugged look ... I think.

Its sanded to 1200 grit with a coat of golden oak danish oil, more sanding and then a coat of cherry oil and then spot sanded to bring out some of the natural color. 4 coats of wipe on poly then polished and buffed with white diamond and carnauba wax.


Pic 2: Sportin' my new Hat

Some ugly guy wearing my new hat, knee deep in wood shavings ... Okay the ugly guy is me, at least the hat looks good.


Comments/critques always welcome,
Shane

[DJ’s Timber]

WOW

Looks great Shane :2tsup:, don't know about the wearer though

[rsser]

Looks like a good fit Shane. Nice work.

Did you turn it green?

[OGYT]

Shane! :iagree: Right on! :clap: The knot cutting did it well, too. :logic:
As we say in Tejas, "Mighty fine, young man, mighty fine!"

[Old Arn]

... don't know about the wearer though
Gee ... Thanks :roflmao2:


Looks like a good fit Shane. Nice work.
Thanks rsser ... Yes it was green, my shirt was soaking wet by the time I was done turning it. It started warping immediately and dried very fast.


...."Mighty fine, young man, mighty fine!"
Thanks Al

[orraloon]

Shane,
I was hanging out to see the hat so what can I say. Gobsmacked!
Be a while before anybody tops that.

I take my hat off to you sir,

John

[ss_11000]

awesome work mate. are you going to try a base ball cap next?

[Twinnie]

i'd love to see a tutorial on that! did you take any pics while you were making it?

Matt

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

There's a bloke here in Oz who specialises in turning hats. :)

I forget his name, but I remember boggling over an article in one of my Oz woodturning mags. Or at least, I think 'twas in one of them and not a general woodwork mag, as it more or less was a tutorial on how he turned 'em.

He turned wide-brimmed 'ats (eg. cowboy hats) from green wood, very thin, then used a frame to hold/bend them to final shape. His results were so realistic, even to the dimples in the peak of the brim and the depressed crown, that at first I thought he was just painting felt 'ats with a wood-grain effect! :D

It's something I've always wanted to try my hand at... maybe one day. In the meantime, I can see I'm going to be spending a lot of hours browsing through my library trying to find that article... :rolleyes:

I'm glad to see that someone else has managed it (and yours is bloody nice, Shane!) and that it may not be as esoteric an art as I thought...

[ss_11000]

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turning/Turning_projects.html#hats

a couple of tutorials ^^

[Zedster]

Fantastic, the hat wears it owner very well, :2tsup:

[MICKYG]

Shane

I dips my lid to ya

Regards Mike:wink:

[Caveman]

:2tsup: Wow! Amazing piece.:brava

Thanks for sharing.

[paul collins]

old blue eyes will bereading this thinking who the heck was my hat maker.i can see him at the sands with dean,just finished a number pushing your hat back with his thumb.dean saying man you got big dandruff....:wink:

[paul collins]

he,s my personal hat maker now.great work.:2tsup: :2tsup:

[ciscokid]

Fantastic! :2tsup: You have serious skills.

[Gil Jones]

Cool hat, Shane!!

[Hickory]

Nice Hat, Looking good on you as well. But Cottonwood? Most Cottonwood I have seen is Blond and indistinctive (Sure glad when the one across the street died and we don't have that cotton seed fibers all over the place every June... Now if we could get the old guy to cut down the dead snag) Did you stain the wood?

[Old Arn]

I appreciate all the comments everyone .. Thanks

Heres a couple of links for turning hats:
http://www.woodhat.com/
http://www.turnedtreasures.com/project.html/hat.html

Thanks again,
Shane

[BernieP]

G'Day Shane

Great hat!

Cheers
Bernie