What an awesome adventure in life to be able to make a piece of art and share it with the world !!!! Brother you are an artist among artists !!!!! Thank you for sharing this amazing adventure with us !!!!!

Wow what a treasure this gentleman is. I have been wearing western hats since I was 3 in Texas. Tom is a great hatter and gentleman to boot.

I loved watching this. What a total gentleman.

best hat maker ever i have two of his hats,, i wear them everyday.

Wow, what incredible stories and what incredible work by this man, Tom Hirt. Very interesting to hear about the true skill, art, and vision that he has in making classic western style hats. Great work!

Hey Tom! Caleb put this up on FB....what a great video of you and your work. You look good and sound good on film! How interesting you've made your life. Happy Autumn.

I took a hat making class from Tom a couple of years ago. Quite the character, telling quite the tales. A genuine fella, with a good sense of humor, and he certainly knows his stuff. And if you ever get to meet him, have him tell you the "close but no bananas" story about Ray Croc and franchise.

Wow! What an interesting life you've led. To be able to make your living at something you love is such a rarity these days. Congratulations! Beautiful hats❤

This was absolutely beautiful!! He is an artist living in the spirit of another era with peace and pride. In short...the life I've always wanted. The man that creates art...has no enemy 🙏👍

Great video and awesome stills! Thanks 🙏🏻

Outstanding, Tom! What a great video! I can hardly wait for my Doc Holliday!

Exceptional storytelling! Very interesting people.

Tom made many hats for me starting with "Tombstone. He's the best.

Fascinating. He's quite the craftsman. 👍☮️🌞🌵

Thank you for sharing your stories. You are an artist............ thank you...

Wow. This was excellent.

I found your video or the algorithm found me but thanks again excellent and interesting Stories

Great job and very interesting video. I loved all your stories.

this is so cool

When I want something my first thought is "Can I make it myself?" That sets me off on a learning experience. I wanted a "good" hat. So I sourced some 100% beaver hat bodies, carved a hat block out of hard rock maple to match my hard head, using a piece of cardboard carefully cutting out the exact shape of my head as the pattern, carved a "puller downer" (a carved piece of hardwood that looks like a boomerang), a pencil roller, and several other tools I can't remember the names of. My local hatter had me make duplicates of them for him and his apprentice (I often giggle when people ask if I can make things out of wood, I gave him a good price on tools because he was trading invaluable information which I soaked up like a sponge) as well as parts for his antique "formature" (a tool used in France in the mid 1800's for recording the exact size and shape of a persons head so a "pherenologist" could read the bumps and tell your future) that made it's way into the hatmakers tool box to maintain a record of your head for future hats... just put the card into the formature and voila! The mad hatter can send you a custom hat anywhere in the world that receives mail (I considered making formatures since they sold for upwards of $5,000.00 apiece, but it turns out there were lots for sale that hatters can't afford to buy). Then I built a hat steam box with a press that holds the brim and pushes the hat block into the crown using parts from an old carpet steam cleaner and a small hydraulic jack (which I haven't used since I got a bigger one for my pickup). An adjustable brim sizer to cut the brim just right pretty much completed the kit. My local hatter gave me a few old hat bodies to play with and learn on (make mistakes) so I'd have experience under my belt before I made a beaver hat. That was in the summer of 2018. I've worn my hats into custom hat shops throughout the west and asked them to tell me what they would sell one of them for in their shops. Answer... nobody came in with less than a $1,500.00 price (top end was $3,000.00), needless to say I'm kinda proud of them. The nicest thing about pure beaver that no one talks about is that you don't have to use any stiffener on them. I wear mine in the rain, snow, high winds and they keep their shape no matter what (till I decide to change it with my tools and steam). Where high winds are concerned, because the hat is shaped at the break (the point where the brim turns 90 degrees from the crown... same principle as a break press for shaping trim on a roof) to EXACTLY my head shape it won't blow off till the wind gets above 60 mph (driving trucks across the Rockies in winter, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and even up into the Canadian Rockies through Banff National Park from BC to Alberta I haven't had to chase my hat), I wouldn't have believed it what with a lifetime of "off the shelf" hats behind me. I make lots of things out of leather, wood, bone, antler, silver, brass, steel and whatever else tickles my fancy (some of which are on my website lukesleatherwork.com, and I've got some videos on my KZfaq channel if anyone's interested). Though I don't make many things for other people... they don't usually want to pay the price I charge when they can get something sent to them from across the water for less than the price I pay for materials. And I get a kick out of the look on peoples faces when I tell them that if they have to ask what it costs they probably can't afford to have me make it for them. This was an excellent video. I appreciate watching and listening to other craftsmen and there are a lot of them on You Tube (young and old). It took years for my family and friends to talk me into putting my work on video and on my channel, I finally started this year after I retired from two years of longhaul and 35 years of carpentry. This too is proving to be a learning experience. Thanks for the video! By the way, I just looked over to the right of the screen and lo and behold, there's Melissa Barns making a hat for Rick Lamb! This is one of my favorite videos! She's a fantastic artist! You can see her use a formature on this video exactly like the one I made reproduction pieces for. Custom Hat Making, Rick Lamb 9 years ago. Cheers everybody and support your local Hatter (they won't get mad)

The thumbnail had me expecting him to sound like James Coburn

What a very cool guy

Everyone should wear a cowboy hat.

Wonder if this guy and Dirty Billy out of Gettysburg, PA ever crossed paths? I'd like to listen to that conversation.

This is a very intriguing art. I'd love to have just a portion of Tom's talent. What a creator of style! I have a "Hollywood hat" question that I CANNOT get an answer to. In the movie Cool Hand Luke, what hat did Morgan Woodward wear in his role as Boss Godfrey, aka "The Man with No Eyes"? I'd love to know the details (make, crown height, crown style, brim width, size of the pencil roll, etc.) of his hat. I'd give a shiny new dime to know the answer to this question. Thanks for the video. "Thumbs way up" from this Kentucky boy. 👍

I’m curious if you knew my father Mahlon Lucas who lived in LA and went by Caspel Twid Legendary Hats?

Tom, Thank you for this video. I have four hats of various brands, and all have Gus crease crowns. I love the Gus, but I would also like slightly indented squared-off flat crown like the one you're wearing. I also like the flat open crown that's only slightly rounded at the turn. Why don't Stetson, Resistol, or Bailey make these crowns? All you ever see are cattleman crowns or the occasional Gus. I will have to check out your website.

He is One COOL MAN................

Nice hat!

Hear, hear, hare hair! Are there any real materials performance metrics showing that beaver is actually better? - -

People back in the day didn’t do a lot of work by choice, it was more of necessity. A means of making an honest living in an honorable way. I think that’s what’s wrong with America and kids nowadays… too many choices. The world needs hat makers, laborers and construction workers… kids nowadays wanna get rich making stupid videos on tik tok🤦🏻‍♂️ I sometimes wish I was born in a different era…

"Hatmaker For Hollywood". Nope. Praising your work using people with inflated ego's and "look at me" attitudes means I look elsewhere.