Recent content by HatRak

I've been using FP's since I was a kid. All through college, graduate school, and my professional life. The pen case in my briefcase holds a MB classic, a Pelikan, and a Cross Townsend rollerball and I hardly ever use them any more. Virtually everything I write (and my job is writing-intense) is...

Cornbread, beans, and rice. A simple dish that says "home."

If you're not in the states this is irrelevant but here I've found JC Penney's house brand heavy weight T's to beat anything out there. Very substantial, don't change size, fit close but not snug, $26.00 or so for a three pack. Crew and V- neck.

Paddy, I have to say that I really like this suit! Especially the back details. Of course I like the belt, but what I find especially interesting are the other construction details. The darts at the small of the back and at the shoulder line go a long way toward sculpting the fabric to improve...

I used to give them to my wife. She is a master artisan with needle, thread, and fabric. She can make and/or repair anything. Her hobbies are needlepoint, quilting, fashion sewing, etc. These days, however, I take most of my mending to my tailor. My wife can do it, but I don't want her to have...

Plain rubbing alcohol is also effective at removing old shoe polish from a shoe. Wet a rag and wipe it down. Polish comes in two basic varieties: cream and wax. The cream is better at "feeding" the leather while wax is preferred for hiding imperfections and scuffs and raising a higher shine...

PB, I ordered an extra-fino Cuenca in the Caballero style last week and am excitedly waiting its arrival! Hope it gets here before I head off to Florida for a couple weeks in mid-July. Will post pics when it lands on my head.

Henschel 5220 Best hat I've ever owned for beating the summer heat. The ventilated mesh crown makes the hat feel like you have an air conditioner on your head. The wide brim is fantastic sun protection. The cotton fabric scrubs up in a heartbeat with a little dish soap and Oxi-clean. I've had...

That is definitely a "guy solution." Inexpensive, works great. My wife's aesthetic, however, doesn't extend to PVC screwed into the wall. I love my hats, but I don't sleep with them. I love my wife, and if I did that, I wouldn't be sleeping with her, either!

Look elsewhere I'm a big Borso fan. Most of my hats are Borsalino and I have one of their fino panamas for which I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $250.00 several years ago. Make no mistake, I love the hat and it has drawn more positive comments than any hat I've ever owned but, for the...

I never would have thought of using that! And my wife has a roll she uses for mounting art work. I think I'll give it a try, thanks.

My beloved Borso panama is starting to show its age. Yesterday, I leaned into the car to get something and banged my hat on the door edge. The straw cracked in two places. One split is about an inch long along the crown at the back of the the hat with the straw fibers crushed at one end; the...

The way this thing is built, it has an elastic sweat band that tapers into the hat, sort of like the net on a basketball hoop. It's tight towards the crown, loose towards the brim. It snugs down fine, it just looks like you could run a finger between your head and the hat all the way around the...

I've got an old panama that I'm interested in having re-blocked. It's a Dorfman-Pacific that I picked up at a summers-end sale for a song about ten, maybe fifteen years ago. The hat body is quite good, probably a Cuenca, with a tight, consistent weave. The downside to the hat is the size. It was...

Had a Churchhill years ago. My daughter surprised me the other day by producing the only pic I can find of the hat. It was one of the best I've ever owned including a slew of Stetsons and Borso's. It was half-eaten by a new puppy after having fallen from the hat rack.