Remnants of a vintage pinch...

[Jerekson]

Okay, I bought this great JC Penney's Marathon fedora a few weeks ago - Open Road clone - and I received it today. Great hat; I'll make a new thread with pictures later.

ANYWAY, I have a question. This hat was worn back in the 40's and 50's, so it's showing a little wear. Nothing that would deter me from buying it, obviously...but at the top of the front pinch, there is a weak spot in the felt. There is no hole at the moment, but I think it could become one very easily.

A lesson for the newcomers: Never grab your hat by the front pinch or else this will happen

So, what are thoughts on how to keep this weak spot from becoming a hole? I'm wokring on rebashing the hat to give it a looser pinch, thought that might help out a little...

Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Jerekson

 

[tonyb]

If you really want to get carried away, you could send the hat to a professional hatter for a refurb that involves flipping the hat around, so that the front becomes the back, and vice versa. This would put that weak spot in a place (the rear of the crown) where it would be less likely to get pinched and thereby further worn. This would of course involve taking the ribbon and the sweatband and liner out and then reattaching (or replacing) them, after a good cleaning and blocking.
Or ... you could attach some sort of patch on the weak spot from the inside of the crown, to reinforce the felt in that area and to spread the load over a wider section.
Good of you to remind us that repeatedly grabbing a hat by the pinch will weaken the felt. It wasn't such a big deal back when high-quality new hats could be had for reasonable prices at several stores in town, but it's a different story now.

 

[Dinerman]

if there isn't a hole yet, adding some kind of reinforcement on the inside should help to prevent it from breaking through. A dab of hot glue may do the trick. Once the hole actually breaks through, there's nothing that can be done

 

[WideBrimm]

You might try applying (very carefully) an iron-on patch from the inside.

 

[tonyb]

Or some sort of cloth tape, maybe?

 

[RBH]

I have used cloth surgical tape with some success. I place it on the inside at the weak spot.

 

[Ande1963]

I had a hatter apply a patch on the inside for me once, and it made it very difficult for the front to hold a proper pinch.

Anj

 

[Gumby]

It seems they did that a lot in the old days...

Over the last couple years, when I rented movies from the 40's and 50's, I've noticed that many of the actors grabbed their hats from the pinch in the front and not the brim, as is taught to be the proper method (just watch Jimmy Stewart in some of his old ones, especially the Hitchcock classics). I guess if you could get a decent hat back then from many local vendors, hats might have been considered an item of clothing that you "wore out". Hats really got treated poorly in many of the old movies....

 

[nulty]

Some great advice here...

I've got an old borsalino that has a spot in the crown where it's a little weak..

I've always been afraid to put anything in the hat that might make the spot worse if it was ever removed.

The rest of the hat is pristine, you'd never know a crease was ever in it.....

 

[fedoralover]

One more thing to try.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is to remove the liner, (if it has one) and after you have shaped the crown exactly the way you want it, spray the weak spot with felt stiffner on the inside of the crown. I'd let it dry and do it again, this will firm up the felt and keep the weak spot from flexing anymore, which is what made it weak to begin with. I wouldn't spray it on the outside as the stiffner will affect the way the felt looks a little. On the inside no one will know it's there.

This method will allow you to keep the crown shape the way you want it without having to put in anything that might make it look different. The only draw back is that the crown won't be as soft in the front, but that won't affect the looks at all. You can buy scout felt stiffener from any western supply store.

fedoralover

 

[RBH]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is to remove the liner, (if it has one) and after you have shaped the crown exactly the way you want it, spray the weak spot with felt stiffner on the inside of the crown. You can buy scout felt stiffener from any western supply store.

fedoralover

Great idea Fedoralover!