Recent content by SR James

Thanks Blare. I went to the Gohn Bros. website. A lot of their merchandise is oriented toward the Amish. They still list this hat and it’s made for them by Stetson so it’s more of a clone of my original than I knew. Price is $225 whereas I only paid $85 for mine off of eBay. Not a bad deal.

Interesting that both hats retain their western vibe despite having their crowns modified to more of a fedora crease.

Jack, if I were to hazard a guess,, the first letter of the cursive writing looks like it may be an R so maybe it was done by Randy. As to the James house in Fletcher, I do not know. A quick Google returned articles on him having lived there but nothing of its current status. Edward, I...

Thanks for the additional information, Jack. The condition of the sweat (not bad, just showing some drying/stiffness) could certainly be consistent with a 1993 date. And the outside of the sweat says "Natural Beaver". Plus, the seller had a notecard attached to the hat that said it was "$500+...

Hi Jack. Thanks for the information. The inside of the sweat says “23 3/8, 80376, 3-27-3, DR.C.”, and what appear to be a couple of cursive letters I can’t make out. Unfortunately I don’t know what decade the year “3” is.

Creating a Clone Several years ago I bought a Stetson “Bat Masterson”, part of their “Buffalo Collection”. The felt was very heavy and stiff and was essentially a wool felt. It came with a full pencil curl bound edge brim and open crown. I creased it as seen in the first pic. I liked its looks...

I spent this past weekend at the big Tulsa gun show. It’s an interesting show in that there are many other things to look at besides firearms, such a western artifacts, art, and memorabilia and…some hats. Near closing time on the last day, I saw one vendor had four hats on his table, two cloth...

Today I decided to re-work my custom 100X pure beaver hat made for me years ago at Shorty’s Caboy Hattery in OKC. I had this hat made back when I was doing a lot of cowboy action matches and was into big buckaroo styles. Since then, I’ve grown a little more traditional/conservative (I think...

Just got my order invoice from The Hattery for the Fed IV Deluxe in Moonstone they reserved for me. I ordered a 59. Looks like they still have 56 and 58-61 sizes in stock in Moonstone. I am really looking forward to receiving this hat. We are rapidly approaching straw season here in Oklahoma...

You may very well be right sine you had one while I’ve only seen online pics. And we know how variable they can be.

rclark, I used mostly "Scout" stiffener made by M&F but because the hat was so floppy when I got it, I also made some of my own using Zissner's Bulls Eye shellac diluted with denatured alcohol toward the end of my messing with it. It seemed to work a little better than the M&F. I was just...

The hat, not me. A few weeks ago, a seller on ebay made me an offer I couldn’t refuse on a Stetson Open Road in Royal Deluxe felt. Here in Oklahoma, Open Roads are easy to find in 6X (I already have a black and a tawny) but I had yet to encounter a Royal Deluxe sample in the flesh, er, felt...

Hello all. I have been a member for a while now but this is my first post. I live in central Oklahoma where western hats are the norm and I have a number of them. But over the past few years I’ve found myself drawn more to smaller lids like fedoras rather than the big buckaroo hats I favored...