Staker Custom Hats

[Sexy Rexy]

My rabbit fur felt whiskey Staker Custom Hats fedora arrived today. It came packaged in a proper hat box:

A glimpse of the felt told me this was not going to be a finely pounced hat. One touch and I thought it was made with a western hat body. The proprietor, Craig, offered me the option of a western felt or a fedora felt. I chose the fedora, so I wonder just how hard the western would have been.

You can usually get a good idea if you’re going to like a hat with one look and one touch. My first thought was “if all I have to do is eat the shipping maybe I can send it back.” Not a good start.

The brim is stiff and only very lightly flanged. I requested 2 5/8” width and it is just about exactly that. The brim binding is alright and where it is butted together it’s not great but not terrible. About what you’d expect at this price.

The sweatband is soft and appears to be of excellent quality.

The rabbit fur felt is coarse, but free of tool marks.

The liner is functional, but nothing special.

The size is about true, but it was not the long oval that I requested, or at least not a long enough oval. With the stiffness of the felt this will take some work to get it to fit properly.

The crown is my biggest disappointment. I asked for a full six inches and I wanted it straight sided with minimal taper. The crown as received is about 5.75” but it’s the taper that I immediately noticed. LOTS of taper despite what I ordered.

So, do I crease it or not? Not only does creasing it mean I can’t return it, it also means I will have to convert a gallon of water into steam to shape the thick, firm and coarse felt. Of course I couldn’t resist the challenge:

Due to the taper and lower than requested crown height the crease wasn’t as deep as I would have preferred. The pinches were a SOB to put in and then they were too deep and too pronounced once they were in and are resisting my efforts at moderation.

I might even wet it and let it sit a couple of days on my block to get some of the taper out.

This is Staker’s cheapest hat. He also offers blends and 100% beaver. The problem is that he’s charging Optimo money for his beaver and it looks like poor value for the money.

I suppose if you wanted a western weight rough use fedora and didn’t want to convert a western this rabbit fur felt fedora is an option. I am not impressed with the felt and even more disappointed in the hatter for his poor communication and failing to make the hat that I requested. I wouldn’t have a problem if he had said he didn’t have the block shape I was looking for or if he otherwise let me know he couldn’t make the hat I was after.

If you are looking for a bargain fedora, Agnoulita is a far better hat and at an even lower price. Maybe Staker makes good westerns, but he also advertises Fedoras and based on this one sample his fedoras are of low quality. Maybe I’ll pounce it and reblock it, but as it arrived it has failed to impress. Gannon also offers a rabbit fur felt at this exact price point and I wish I had gone that route.

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Thank you for this review as I was thinking of ordering from them. Now I’m reconsidering

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Thank you for this review as I was thinking of ordering from them. Now I’m reconsidering

You’re welcome. A sample size of one is hard to draw any conclusions from, but I’ve never even considered ordering another hat from him.

At about the same price (maybe less?), you can get a custom Wolfbrae from @belfastboy His hats are a bargain as the quality is fantastic and the price is incredible. I have...a few projects in the works with him.