Science Sunday: Mississippi: Stetson hats and felting

 

When googling interesting fact on Mississippi, I learned “Hat maker John B. Stetson first practiced hat-making in Duns Falls”.  So I looked for books on cowboy hats and found “Boss of the Plains.”

 

 

All about how he started making hats, only he was in Colorado when first making the distinctive hat.

 

Well, after reading it we had to see if making felt was as easy as he claimed.

 

We got some wool roving and arranged it in a criss cross pattern, making sure to overlap it somewhat.

 

Than we got it wet and put it in a terry wash cloth.

 

Finally we rolled and pounded it a bunch to help it “mesh” together.

 

And after smushing it up a bunch, we created felt.  Not very high quality felt, but it was felt.

 

Why does wool or other natural fibers felt?

It felts because there are small barbs in it that causes it to catch on itself.  Information from Cornell University

 

Why did our wool not felt well?

1.  The water needed to be hot, much much hotter.

2.  We did not use soap.  Soap will help the barbs hook together better.

 

 

 

 

Let’s see what others did this week:

I love the spider web they made at Raising LIfelong Learners.

 

At Keitha’s Chaos, they had a brain based obstacle course, what a great idea!