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Brad Bowers · Sep 12, 2009

Lefty said:
The character limit on the signature cramps my style.

I didn't know there was one.

Actually, I think the character limit has made you quite witty. Brevity is best, in many cases.

Brad
(who hasn't changed his signature line since the Hoover administration, I think)

Justdog · Sep 13, 2009

Vintage Stetson Homburg Banker hat

I find that my Stetson ST.Regis is a superior quality homburg but the brim is just a bit to small for me. Wonder if anyone knows of a Stetson banker hat with a greater than 2 1/2 rolled brim homburg/banker style that was vintage made? Perhaps a variation of the St.Regis in the Royal De Luxe line?

Justdog · Sep 13, 2009

Hatter

Anyone know anything date wise HX wise about Reuben's 932-34 Leith Street Flint Michigan? A seller of a hat I acquired.

jwalls · Sep 14, 2009

warmentrout said:
My wife bought me three thrift store hats for my birthday, a no-name wool English walker, a wool Dobbs stingy and a very nice Mark 65 Lee. The Lee has a glued overwelt and is coming loose in the back. It looks like it may have been attached with double sided tape. How should I go about reattaching the welt ?

You might try 'Tacky Glue'. This is a fabric glue that works pretty well for me.

gtdean48 · Sep 14, 2009

jwalls said:
You might try 'Tacky Glue'. This is a fabric glue that works pretty well for me.

Also craft shops have heated glue guns & fabric glue sticks. That is what a local hat shaper repairs ribbons & replaces liners with. HTH

ScottF · Sep 15, 2009

Justdog said:
I find that my Stetson ST.Regis is a superior quality homburg but the brim is just a bit to small for me. Wonder if anyone knows of a Stetson banker hat with a greater than 2 1/2 rolled brim homburg/banker style that was vintage made? Perhaps a variation of the St.Regis in the Royal De Luxe line?

I had a jet-black '50s Stetson with a wide pencil-roll brim. A real beauty, but didn't look right on me:

Black Stetson-ebay

buler · Sep 15, 2009

What is the oldest fur felt Stetson fedora we've had on the lounge?

B

Lefty · Sep 15, 2009

It's pretty hard to confirm dates. The oldest one that I can think of with an almost certain date is a 1902 derby..

buler · Sep 15, 2009

Lefty said:
It's pretty hard to confirm dates. The oldest one that I can think of with an almost certain date is a 1902 derby..

Thanks Lefty, but I'm talking "fedora"-style, not derby/homburgs. I saw one picture of a lining of a grey stetson with the John B Stetson Grand Prize paris logo. Not sure if that was a fedora or not.

B

Lefty · Sep 15, 2009

I believe that both Marc and Garrett have one of those. Here's Marc's, though I don't think we've seen a photo of the outside, and here's Garrett's. I don't know if you'd call the one I recently picked-up a fedora or not, but it's here.

Justdog · Sep 16, 2009

Black roll

ScottF said:
I had a jet-black '50s Stetson with a wide pencil-roll brim. A real beauty, but didn't look right on me:

Black Stetson-ebay

Very nice. It is true how one may have a vision of a hat one wants but when the quest is quenched the taste is not always as sweet as one has dreamed:eusa_doh:

Blackthorn · Sep 16, 2009

felt thickness vs. stiffener?

OK, I tried to delete this post on the main thread, but I don't see a way to do it. Anyhow, I now realize this is the best place to post this question:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got a new Stetson Temple yesterday in the mail. I was surprised to see that the felt is two or three times thicker than on my Fed IV which is "heritage grade felt." Another surprise was that they seem to be equally stiff. My question is, is this due to one felt being superior to the other in quality? Or is this a matter of thickness of felt? Or is it that the thinner felt on the Fed IV just has more stiffener?

Cigarband · Sep 17, 2009

Tried searching but no joy. Can some kind soul direct me to the thread on O.P.S. labels in hats? I'd like to know when they stopped using them. Thanks

Lefty · Sep 17, 2009

Cigarband said:
Tried searching but no joy. Can some kind soul direct me to the thread on O.P.S. labels in hats? I'd like to know when they stopped using them. Thanks

I don't think we have a thread specifically about the label (though we do have a recent club thread for OPS hats here). Here's the quote that ends up in every thread where OPS is mentioned:

O.P.S. = Office of Price Stabilization = Korean War vintage bueaucracy = 1950 - 1953

Administrative History

Established: In the Economic Stabilization Agency, by General Order No. 2, Economic Stabilization Administrator, January 24, 1951. Director of Price Stabilization appointed November 30, 1950, under provisions of EO 10161, September 9, 1950, pursuant to the Defense Production Act of 1950 (64 Stat. 798), September 8, 1950.

Functions: Obtained voluntary compliance with measures to stabilize prices. Established and administered price regulations. Operated through 14 regional and about 90 district offices in principal cities of the United States and its territories and possessions, assisted by industry advisory committees.

Abolished: April 30, 1953, pursuant to EO 10434, February 6, 1953, following the decontrol of all prices and the expiration of price control provisions of the Defense Production Act. Liquidation activities terminated, June 30, 1953, and residual functions reverted to the Economic Stabilization Agency.

Lefty · Sep 18, 2009

I was just at an estate sale and saw 2 40s Playboys with the same liner - the Royal Stetson you'd expect at the top, but mesh satin (or rayon, whatever it is) on the sides. Unfortunately, I don't have photos.

The question: has anyone else seen this type of liner?

(All hats were $5. There was also a Strat and a Lee Black Label [in Playboy style], but all of the hats were either 7 or 6 3/4 and really, really dirty.)

CRH · Sep 20, 2009

Ageing woven paper and shelac

I recently aquired this Stetson Genuine Panapore hat. I my judgment it is made from a woven and shellacked paper fiber - the same stuff used in popular 'straw' cowboy hats.

The underside of the brim is yellowed which is consistent with the appearance of some aged cowboy hats I have seen. The crown, however, appears to be mottled with what looks to be varying shades of eggshell colored paint. Maybe it is paint.???

Here's my question:

Is this sort of mottling on the crown consistent with the aging process of these shellacked paper hats?

Spats McGee · Sep 21, 2009

Thank you.

High Pockets,
Thank you. I finally got around to trying to rework the brim that was giving me so much trouble. I used a spray bottle rather than steam, and I think I've probably got a few more sessions of work before I get it just right, but this put me on the right track.

Spats

High Pockets said:
Spats, I think I can tell you why the brim is "fighting" with you,.....for a brim to be concave, (or convex for that matter), the felt needs to be in tension.
In other words; the outside circumference of the brim needs to be shorter than it is now.

Think of a draw-string on a hooded sweatshirt. The tighter the string is pulled, the more convex the front of the hood gets.

Example; when I converted that old Resistol western a few days ago I softened up the outer edge of that brim in 1” sections and pushed the felt together to decrease the circumference of the very edge. Slowly but surely as I worked my way around the hat a few times it began to take on that “convex” look. It did get a tiny bit “bumpy” out there in spots, but the bumps sanded out. This also thickens the felt at the edge.
That old Resistol was a junker that I didn’t care about,….I would never try this on a nice fedora that I couldn’t afford to send to a hatter to have re-flanged after I messed it up.

Halfbreedinkc · Sep 23, 2009

New Member Question

I'm a new member to the site, and so far it's been educational, informative, and...pretty darn cool. The reason I joined, and my question is this - I've been searching for a hat like the one worn by Sean Connery in the movie 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'. It appears to be a safari/outback style with an exceptionally wide brim/low crown, so my question (and I started searching the previous hat threads but my eyes started to get blurry - there's a LOT of them) is, does anyone know who might have made said hat for the movie and where I might find one? Or at least point me in the right direction. The closest I've found so far is the Akubra Territory, and it's very close, but not quite exact.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

HBinKC

4and1 · Sep 23, 2009

HB... If the two hats are close you could possibly reshape the Akubra to get something like what you want.

duggap · Sep 23, 2009

After looking at Alan's pics of the hats on the Arabia, I was wondering if any of the sweats survived, or did they even have sweats back then. So the question is, when did they start using sweat bands in hats.

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