The Making of Cowboy Hats (Pg. 2)
Forming the cone is the key to making any cowboy hat. This is accomplished on an upright stainless steel cone about five times the size of the finished cowboy hat. Tiny fur particles are drawn to the cone’s damp outer side as it slowly revolves, becoming covered with a film of this fur. The cone is wrapped with burlap and protected by a metal cover, then immersed in hot water. After this procedure, the beginnings of a cowboy hat emerge.
The oversized, soon-to-be cowboy hat now undergoes shrinking. This process is divided into four steps of delicate, pain-staking work to produce a high-quality fur felt cowboy hat. First, the cowboy hat form (referred to as a “hood”) must be shrunk so the individual hair fibers will interlock so closely they become inseparable. The hoods are saturated with hot water, stacked together, rolled up in a wet cloth, and manipulated by hand. This must all be done carefully so as not to damage the delicate fabric.
Next, the processes of starting and stumping are used. These processes are very similar and both result in further careful shrinking of the hoods which will eventually become cowboy hats. In both processes, a series of rollers are used in combination with hot water to carefully shrink the fabric. Although machines do some of the work, a good deal of shrinkage is done by hand, assuring even, quality results.