Hot weather is not a friend of hat blocks.
If you leave a hat block in the sun or worse, sitting on the floor of a car for example on even a warm day, you may well come back to a cracked block. You see, hat blocks are timber, and timber always moves. Heat and cold expand and contract all things especially wood.
The hat blocks that I make are made from kiln dried timber. That doesn't mean they are as dry as an old bone! They still retain about 12 to 15% moisture content and that can go up or down a bit depending on the weather. A stinking hot day will suck all the moisture out of the air and thus also a block of wood, causing it to shrink and pull, causing cracks and the breaking of glued sections.
Varnished blocks are subject to the same problem, especially once they have been used...pin holes will have broken the seal of the varnish allowing moisture in and out too.
So, keep those blocks stored well. Don't leave them in the sun in your studio all day and definatly not in your car!
If you can't control the temperature put the block into a plastic bag and seal it up. That way, the moisture content of the block will stay the same no matter what the weather does.
Darryll
Be careful loaning out hat blocks
Milliners beware! Be careful when you loan your blocks out.
The other day I was posted back a block I had made for a milliner who obviously cares for her blocks very much. The block was loaned out and came back very badly damaged by blocking pins.
Now, the blocks are meant to pinned, thats why I use the soft wood that I do. But care needs to be given to just where the pins are placed. On thin edges and corners are not good places for pins and if you must, do it sparingly.
The block was so badly pinned around the base of the crown that I had to machine 10mm off the base and glue a new piece of timber to it and finish it off. When done it was as good as new and I know she will never loan out another block.
Here is a photo of good and bad placement of pins...
So if you do share, and that is a wonderful thing, please make sure your friend knows how and where to pin to make the block last a lifetime!
Darryll
The other day I was posted back a block I had made for a milliner who obviously cares for her blocks very much. The block was loaned out and came back very badly damaged by blocking pins.
Now, the blocks are meant to pinned, thats why I use the soft wood that I do. But care needs to be given to just where the pins are placed. On thin edges and corners are not good places for pins and if you must, do it sparingly.
The block was so badly pinned around the base of the crown that I had to machine 10mm off the base and glue a new piece of timber to it and finish it off. When done it was as good as new and I know she will never loan out another block.
Here is a photo of good and bad placement of pins...
So if you do share, and that is a wonderful thing, please make sure your friend knows how and where to pin to make the block last a lifetime!
Darryll
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