What a treat. At the Georgia Association of Woodturners March meeting here at the store, Chris Ramsay turned a cowboy hat out of sugar maple. Chris has been turning hats for years and “THE” George Bush has one of Chris’s hats. There was standing room only for Chris Ramsay’s demonstration. Chris started with a 20″ piece of sugar maple. He rounded it and started to cut it back so he could get a mirror frame, regular hat and a mini hat out of the same piece of wood. I took a lot of pictures so you could get an idea of how he turns it.
He uses a faceplate and a chuck and at first reverses several times before he starts to profile the outside of the hat. Once the brim is cut to less than 1/8″ the crown is shaped. He leaves the top most attached to the faceplate and then reverses the hollow on the inside so he can put it on a special chuck to finish the outside crown. The pictures don’t do justice to what the members got to see. Hope you enjoy!
Phil Colson
Watch Chris turn a hat in the video slideshow below!
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Lame song, cool project.
I THOUGHT GLOVES WHEN TURNING WERE A NO NO