Peterbuilt Wenge Cowboy hat

[preprius]

I have a neighbor that drives trucks and likes Peterbuilts.

So I made him a hat made from Wenge. Since Wenge wood is really brittle I did not attempt to bend the brim up. So he got a flat brim black hat. 

After I cut the first ring I found out how brittle it was.  I accidently dropped the ring and it broke in 3 pieces.   I had to fix it with T88 epoxy.   This hat was not stained.

This hat took about 22 hours.  Wenge is pretty hard. 

The hat is being delivered today.

Me.

Matk Eason

Edited September 23, 2025 by preprius

[Wichman]

That's nice!

[daveww1]

great job

[Denny Knappen]

Good recovery and very nice project.

[Dave Monk]

You are a master at hats. You have more patients than me by tackling that using wenge.

[rjweb]

Hats off to you, thats excellent, RJ

[preprius]

 Dave Monk...

My patience was about to go away after 2 rings took 3 hours. It was due to a dull package of blades.  I got a new package of blades and ring cutting went back to 50min per ring. 

Sanding took just a bit longer. 

My 1st hat took about 20 hr. second and 3rd was down to 14hr. 

This Wenge hat is hard I might not do this wood again unless customer insists.  After the ring broke and long cutting times I really considered to change to black walnut and stain it with Java. But my stuborness persisted. 

But my view of patentience for 3d chess pieces needs much much more than 1 of my hats.

My observations...

I wear my hat everytime i leave the house.  I get maybe 3 comments a year in my home town.  Some show general interest.  Most say it shows good craftsmanship.  

If you think about when would users would wear this hat it would be very rare event.  Cowboys usually don't talk unless needed.  So most comments come from women.  Cowboys also like tradition.  

When I wear it to Idaho I get at least 3 comments a day.  

But overall not many people will buy one.  A $500 hat is not in the budget.

I have made 7 hats...

i have 2 hats,   1 hat was for my brother, 

2 of my hats were a method of my ex employer to reimburse me for my expenses for my last project. 

1 hat was for made for marketing. A lady in Idaho.  Ladies like it more so I put it on a lady for spreading the word.

The last hat "Peterbuilt" was for neighbor that cleared my land of weeds for 3 years.

So technically I got paid for only 2 hats. 

There is a method to "turn" a wooden hat on a lathe.  It starts out with a stump 50lb wet. See youtube. The turned hats wont fit perfectly.  These I have seen on musicians.

My method starts with 2ft of board 3/4" thick board.  Mine fits the contour of the users head perfectly. 

Lasers cant make it,  CNC can do it but takes more boards. So scrollsaw is best tool. 

As you can tell I like doing them. 

As the old commercial says...

try it you may like it,  Mark E does. 

(okay it was Mike not Mark E)

 

 

Me.

Mark Eason

[heppnerguy]

Very nice idea for your friend. I bet he is going to treasure this one for a long time to come, if he doesn't happen to drop it.

Dick

heppnerguy