Happy 100th Birthday, Cavanagh Edge!

[Brad Bowers]

I can't believe I didn't think of this three days ago. John Cavanagh received U.S. Patent No. 1053973 on February 25, 1913 for the felted welt edge that would bear his name. Happy belated birthday.

 

[Sprinkles]

Huzzah! All of my hats hats Cavanagh edges

 

[tonyb]

The Edge is dead! Long live the Edge!

 

[Sprinkles]

Sadly, a lost art

 

[splintercellsz]

Happy b'day to yoooouuu! I hope to own a Cav edge some day!

 

[alanfgag]

As a toast, an ad I found yesterday in a volume of 1942 Fortune magazines. This is the only hat company ad that was placed in Fortune during April, May and June of that year - issues that were overwhelmingly filled with articles and advertisements focused to the war effort.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Brad was there anything in the Patent that would give us insight into how the Cav edge was achieved.

 

[besdor]

Its a shame that no one wants to try and do it today. I've had lond discussions with the management from Hatco who claim to know how to create the Cav edge again but claim its too expensive.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

I quess one would want to know what expensive is. I know most average hat wearers that Hatco deals with would not care about a Cav edge. But I am sure there is a market thou small to serious hat wearers.

 

[Sprinkles]

Praise the Golden Age!...for there are now vintage hats with Cavanagh edges for us to enjoy!

 

[fedoralover]

Its a shame that no one wants to try and do it today. I've had lond discussions with the management from Hatco who claim to know how to create the Cav edge again but claim its too expensive.

Besdor, did they ever say "How" they would do it?? If so, could you or anyone else who knows, could you post that information. I know someone who is willing to give it a try.

fedoralover

 

[rlk]

Brad has a thread about it, http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?27312-The-Definitive-Cavanagh-Edge-Primer-*

It also requires precision of size of the hood for each model of each size, you can't trim it. It has to be neatly done, then extensively hand finished to tidy it up properly. Its not so much difficulty as being impractical if you have insufficient volume and requiring more time from skilled workers.

 

[DJH]

FedLover - the article on Brad's blog on the Cavanagh Edge has some detail that comes right out of Mr Cavanagh's patents.

Check out The Cavanagh Edge Primer

The Cavanagh Edge was made as part of the felting process so it would be hard for someone not making the fel bodies to do the same thing. Having said that, a couple of hats I have with Art's welted edge (the ones with thin felt and no visible stitches) come pretty close.

Also, Gary White (the Custom Hatter guy) had some old Borsalino felt bodies and was able to make modern hats with the proper edge. I have no idea if he still has any.

Ooops - there's that Great Minds thing again. Robert can clearly type faster than I can