Winchester Hat Body Question / Fedora Order

[jchabalk]

Hi there, I'm thinking about having a Fedora made up and had a question about a Winchester Beaver hat body. There are 2 yellow strings attached to it which i think are meant to mark quality, or construction/fur type. Do any of you guys know what they mean?

The shop didn't have too many hats of my size made up that I could try on but they look like really nice quality and have a great character. The hat would be a chocolate/brown fedora bashed with a center crease and 2 dents. I was trying to figure out the right crown and brim height while i was there today. It's a little tougher for me when there aren't as many to actually look at and try on. I don't like a tall crown for every day use and the hat i was able to fit the best in had a ~4-1/2" crown.

The shop is Paul's Hat Works in San Francisco. The people were really nice and accommodating and they had a lot of really nice hats. Great shop.

Here are some pictures of some of their hats, including the body - i didn't get a picture of the 2 yellow strings though unfortunately.

Similar to what I'm looking for:


Body Blank in the Background:


Brown and Grey Fedoras:


Lineup of Fedoras:

[gtdean48]

Typical vintage fedora's have at least a 5 1/2" open crown block that is then creased to owner specification. Some older hats are 5 5/8" & larger open crown.
Modern Stetsons have a 5 1/4" open crown which to me is too short & tapers too much. What type a crease you go with can use up the open crown.

[RBH]

The color of the strings tell you what size the body is, meaning what size hat you can make out of it.

[majormoore]

The string color is only for the hatters and plant to know what size hats they can pull from the body. There is no shortage of beaver or rabbit in any body.

Major Moore

[jlee562]

wish I could get a job at Paul's! I don't have a hat made by them, but they've done some ribbon replacements, reflanges, etc for me. Always good stuff. Their collection of vintage ribbon is great.

[jchabalk]

thanks for the replies guys. do you happen to know what 2 yellow strings indicates in terms of size?

Also, any preference or consideration between a classic fedora or a lord's hat? I have a dark grey homberg i wear now and i love the look of it. that brim on a fedora might just suit me.

[majormoore]

Two yellow strings means BIG head size . 7 3/4" 7 7/8"

The largest we made was a 8 3/8" for a man in AL. this spring, when I put it on it rested on my shoulders.

Major Moore

[Brad Bowers]

My biggest beef is that I wish the brims were larger on the two yellow strings dressweights. A size 7 1/2 only yields me a 2 1/2" brim, at the very most, unless I'm doing something wrong.

Brad

[tonyb]

Ain't that the truth, Brad.

Unlike some fortunate others here, I've never been to the Winchester plant, but I have more than a bit of experience working with their fine product, and it seems the bodies themselves (the dressweight ones, at any rate) all start out with the same overall dimensions, and the difference between the "string" sizes is only in the size of the basic block used to give them their initial, rough size and shape. So making a finished hat with a truly tall crown and a wide brim in a large, large hat size out of such a body is darn nigh impossible. But still, Winchester's dressweight bodies give a hatter considerably more material to work with than Hatco's, or any other manufacturer's of which I'm aware.

In a pinch you can stretch 'em, at least a bit. Getting 'em thoroughly waterlogged first certainly helps things along. (Careful, though. Among the many mistakes I've made is tearing a body [and thereby rendering it worthless, of course] in an attempt to get an extra quarter inch or so of brim width in an already wide-brimmed, tall-crowned, large size hat.)