Restore Stetson Open Road?

[RHY]

I just got a older used Stetson Open Road (or just a well used one) on Ebay. It has a fair amount of sweat and handling stains on the satin liner, leather band, the top of the area where the leather sweat band contacts the brim and the bottom of the brim where one usually grabs it.

First, is it worth cleaning up and reblocking it? I live in Hawaii and would need to get a recommendation for someone on the Mainland to do this, since no one here does this kind of work.

Second, how much would it cost for such a service? I would imagine that it would need to be cleaned, re-blocked, with new liner, new ribbon or cord, and new sweat band to be installed.

Third, instead of the Open Road shape, could it be re-blocked to be a fedora style? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[RBH]

Welcome to the Lounge R!
You might can do the cleaning yourself.
Do a search with the terms 'napth' or 'cleaning' in the search feild, you should
then be able to fine the info you need.
Good luck and update us if you do try it and let us know how it turns out.

 

[Woodfluter]

Dear RHY -

Welcome, you will find lots of help here!

RBH has, I am sure, pointed you in the right direction about cleaning. If I read your post correctly, the stains are localized, and you can probably deal with them via spot cleaning. I did some of that with an older OR I have, and you might have some "stain migration" as the cleaning agent, which was naptha-based lighter fluid in my case, dries. It was easily dealt with by re-application. If it is a light-colored OR, as most are, those things are much more noticable than they ever would be with darker grey or brown hats.

As for "re-blocking", that really refers to recovering the basic shape of the hat by steaming and putting it on a standard block - as I understand it. You probably don't need anything that drastic. You want to re-shape it, get rid of unwanted creases and irregularities, and make your own creases and dents.

You can do that easily with a little steam from a teakettle. Take it a little at a time, don't overheat anywhere, use only a few passes through hot steam to soften an area, fix that and move on to the next part. Based on my limited experience, you won't have to worry about shrinkage or damage if you work on it piecemeal and go slowly.

I find it helpful to have some item for pressing out creases (bashes) and creating new ones. My current favorite is a plastic Advil bottle; it has an oval shape, the flatter parts being useful for pressing parts of the felt flat, the more angular parts for making sharper creases without lumps. But you are sure to find something comparable. The steam softens the felt for about 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on the hat and amount of stifener. It's an iterative process. Make sure to try it on often and check in a mirror to see how things are centered. You can do this yourself! Good hats aren't fragile. Crappy hats aren't worth worrying about.

- Bill

 

[RHY]

THANKS

Thanks for the suggestions. I really appreciate the practical cures you have. Lighter fluid is easier to find than naptha and my steam kettle will handle the job. I got the hat to experiment on and was surprised on the sturdiness of the hat, even in its used condition. I will post a photo or two in the next week or so after I pick up the lighter fluid.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I think if one uses lighter fluid to clean, the key ingredient is Naphtha (SP?).

Also, from what I understand on this site, Coleman liquid camp fuel is a safe and effective cleaning agent. It can be found at WM.

G'luck!

 

[RHY]

No Cigars for Now!

I guess using lighter fluid or Coleman gas for cleaning will keep me from smoking my cigars around this hat for a while!

 

[RHY]

Woodfluter

Woodfluter,
Once I douse the lighter fluid or coleman gas on the hat, do I have to rub it with a cloth or paper towel to get the grime out? Or, should I just put some towels or cloth under the areas I treat to soak up the dirty run off?
Thanks, RHY

 

[PabloElFlamenco]

Woodfluter, hi (over there in Hawaii, the closest I ever got was a shirt lol )
If your hat is real dirty and you find self-help too intimidating, you might go to the length of shipping it to www.optimohats.com who reputedly do a first class job, upon which recommendation, I have sent them a Stetson 100 hat for rather serious resizing and some cleaning and refitting; quite frankly, I will be very curious to see the result (as well as final cost).

 

[RBH]

Put the naphta [coleman fuel] in a bucket with a lid, put in the hat and pour in the cleaner. Close the lid and shake the bucket to wet the hat, do this every few hours [soak the hat for as long as you think it should need it, i would think 3 hours should be enough]
Then take the hat out and punch out the crown and hang it to dry it should be dry in a couple of hours, on a warm day.

 

[RHY]

RBH

Thank you for the suggestion. The project looks a lot more simpler than I thought it would be.

 

[Tango Yankee]

RBH has some good advice that I'd to which I'd like to add a cautionary note. Before putting the hat through a naptha or similar bath take a look at the sweatband. If it's dried out you might have some problems as the naptha bath could damage it further--a sweatband in good condition, though, should do just fine. Make sure you look behind the sweatband as well. You want to make sure there that someone hasn't stuck anything back there as padding. The wrong material could make a mess.

Before going the naptha route you might want to try using Scout Felt Hat Cleaner for Dark Colors along with a hat cleaning sponge. (The cleaner for light colors is not recommended.) You can often get that at western hat shops or online. Check out a couple of the Lounge sponsors.

Lexol is the most frequently-recommended leather treatment for the sweatband. It's generally best to get that through places that sell auto-detailing supplies as it's often used for leather upholstery. I've found it's cheaper at such places than buying it through a sites selling it for smaller applications.

You might want to check out the Felt Hat Basics thread for more general hat care advice.

As for reshaping it to a fedora-like crease, that's heavily frowned upon around here. No, really, it is!lol lol OK, maybe not. You're gonna want to join the Open Road Guild, I think. Lots of photos of ORs with different creases there!

Good luck, welcome to the madness, and enjoy your "new" hat!

Regards,
Tom

 

[Woodfluter]

Woodfluter,
Once I douse the lighter fluid or coleman gas on the hat, do I have to rub it with a cloth or paper towel to get the grime out? Or, should I just put some towels or cloth under the areas I treat to soak up the dirty run off?
Thanks, RHY

OK, I'm going to steer you in an entirely different direction than RBH, but that's because, in my cases, the hats weren't severely stained, and only in a few places. I squirted a little bit of lighter fluid (Zippo, contents read: "petroleum distillate - naptha") on only the stained places, and used paper toweling to dab at it. Dab, not rub. Don't rub! Pat it dry. Repeat as many times as needed to get the stain out. You can see the stain migrating onto the paper towel. You may see the edges of stains migrating to the edges of the naptha-wetted places as it dries - as I noted before. You just keep working on those and they go away too.

This doesn't require bucketfuls of naptha, the safe handling and disposal of which are problematic, although some exciting possibilities suggest themselves. I also don't like the idea of removing and re-attaching the sweatband unless really necessary, and I think the naptha would leach oils out of the leather.

Some have recommeded Coleman fuel, alias white gasoline. They know way more about that than I, but I've had lots of experience with that fuel from camping. If I spill some on my clothes, an odor remains that is very noticable (to me) until it is thoroughly laundered with soap. YMMV.

I hear from various quarters that Lexol is great, but I've never had any. I use Camp Dry mink oil, which is not an oil at all but rather a paste. In moderation. It seems to restore old leather quite well without softening it too much or making it deteriorate. In any case, don't use neatsfoot oil which will make some old, thin leathers fall apart, as I can attest from long-ago experiences.

Good luck and do let us see your results!

- Bill

 

[RHY]

New Option

Thanks for everyone who has given me suggestions. Since gas or lighter fluid didn't seem to be doing much on the stains, and getting the Scouts is now impossible since it is a harzardous material and not available through mail order, I tried another option.

A friend of mine gave me a cleaner that is an enzime based (according to him). It is called Unicleen Green and is supposed to be non-toxic. I gave it a 25% dilution (which is really strong according to the label) and mixed in the water. I proceeded to work the solution in to the hat and watched the runoff, it was a light brown. I didn't know if this was dirt or dye, but the top of the hat definitely had some dirt come off.

I ran it under the cold water faucet to take off the cleaner and stuck my hat stretcher in there to prevent shrinkage. Since the hat was wet, I just reformed it to a standard fedora shape and put it down to dry. Since the humidity is high in Hawaii, it may take two or three days to dry, if not longer. If it come out I will list some photos next week, if not this will be the end of this thread. Wish me luck.