So far the hat has taken on a little more bend and tonight I plan to place a light bulb under it. On one of the tutorials I saw it looked like the end grain front and back was taped, but I didn't have any and ran some shrink wrap around the perimeter thinking it would help hold moisture in the rim. The shrink wrap has all been cut loose and I'm putting a light bulb under it tonight. Tomorrow I plan to take it out and so some hand sanding(oh no), maybe lacquer sanding sealer first, then some cheap rattle can lacquer. Maybe Tim or Brian know what is best. I read Chris Ramsey uses something like 20 coats of lacquer. I'm giving it away to someone who probably won't wear it so "adequate" would be in order.

Thanks for the interest and I'll post the end result regardless of how it turns out.

So far I've been lucky and the process has been fun.