Project Tutorials

Baseball Cap

Click image for enlarged view

Now we finally have something that looks like a cap instead of a rectangular edge bowl.

Side view of the cap.

Sand the edges. You can use a belt sander or a sanding pad in a drill like I am using. Once the wood has dried I hand sand the entire cap and apply a lacquer finish.

I use my cowboy hat bending frame to shape the cap. To help round the bill of the cap I have a coffee can on the inside and rubber bands stretched around it.

Be careful with the side pressure when bending. The back of the cap no longer has wood to support it and it is all end grain. It will split easily. The bill will also split if too much pressure is applied while shaping. This stage is where I and others have destroyed what we spent all this time turning so be careful and patient in shaping your cap.

The inside of this cap now measures 6 3/8” by 8”. It was a 7 ¾” diameter circle to start. The top is 3 1/4” deep.

A lamp with a 75-watt bulb can provide some warmth to help with bending the bill.

The finished cap. You can be as creative as you want with the cap, carve stitch lines around the cap, carve a logo in the front, bleach the bill white or dye it, paint a logo on the front, carve the back to look like an adjustable band or anything else you may think of to add. Look for examples on the internet from Johannes Michelsen or Chris Ramsey .

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