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[The Hatted Professor]

Paint your Wagon is one of my favorite musicals, and I'm not much of a musical fan. Sure, Clint's singing isn't good, but the songs are fun and the film is hilarious. Plus, for my money, it's the best depiction of boom and bust towns during the Gold Rush.

 

[Frunobulax]

Dont forget the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was involved with Paint Your Wagon

 

[Steve1857]

You're right and I probably take film a little too seriously. TBF, I did say it was a little funny, and it is.

But "Paint Your Wagon" is very low hanging fruit and not at all difficult to satirize. I've honestly never seen it, but that song "I was born under a wandering star" does get in my head real easy. Marvin does such a good job with that song that I am curious: is the movie as bad as it's reputed to be?

It's not the best musical ever made, but Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood singing in the same movie makes it unique!

 

[Bamaboots]

His voice would never give it away but Eastwood is quite musical. Plays the piano well and wrote a number of scores for some of his movies.

 

[Bamaboots]

And don't forget his album of Cowboy hits.

 

[Steve1857]

His voice would never give it away but Eastwood is quite musical. Plays the piano well and wrote a number of scores for some of his movies.

Clint is a jazz afficionado, so his understanding of music is well founded.

 

[The Hatted Professor]

And don't forget his album of Cowboy hits.

That’s cool, I never knew he made this album.

 

[The Lost Cowboy]

Clint is a jazz afficionado, so his understanding of music is well founded.

His son Kyle is a successful jazz musician.

Now I really do want to give "Paint Your Wagon" a try!

 

[Zombie_61]

It isn't that bad, but it isn't that good, either. Worth sitting down with a bag of chips for a bit.

It would be a better movie if they got rid of all of the music. Make it a comedy or a musical, but not both.

 

[blewnote]

Haven't posted on here in a while and owe y'all a bunch of new vintage hat photos in other threads, but am coming to ask a question.

My very generous wife gifted me with a Jiffy hat steamer for Christmas to let me play around with hats and reshape the crown/brim if necessary, and while I am excited to use it, I am a little unsure if I am missing some extra items I need to successfully work on my hats. Specifically, I am finding that I need something hard to help press the crown of some hats into an open crown shape and get rid of the "wrinkles" that came with years of improper storage in someone else's possession. Additionally, I have several straw hats that need some help in reshaping their brims.

For the brim work I had some success with using the rounded edge of my ironing board to help press them into a better shape, but I am wondering if perhaps I need a hat flange to make it easier. With respect to the wrinkly crown (on a beautiful early 50s Stetson made of exceptionally light weight felt) it seems like I need a hat block to help press it back into shape more easily.

I'm sure that there are specific hat blocks/flanges for each manufacturer and style, but I am not interested in tracking down (nor on spending the money on) individual parts for each of my hats. I'm wondering is it possible to just buy a hat block in my size and a brim flange roughly as wide as my hats and use them? Is there a better solution I haven't considered? Curious what y'all's thought are.

 

[The Lost Cowboy]

Haven't posted on here in a while and owe y'all a bunch of new vintage hat photos in other threads, but am coming to ask a question.

My very generous wife gifted me with a Jiffy hat steamer for Christmas to let me play around with hats and reshape the crown/brim if necessary, and while I am excited to use it, I am a little unsure if I am missing some extra items I need to successfully work on my hats. Specifically, I am finding that I need something hard to help press the crown of some hats into an open crown shape and get rid of the "wrinkles" that came with years of improper storage in someone else's possession. Additionally, I have several straw hats that need some help in reshaping their brims.

For the brim work I had some success with using the rounded edge of my ironing board to help press them into a better shape, but I am wondering if perhaps I need a hat flange to make it easier. With respect to the wrinkly crown (on a beautiful early 50s Stetson made of exceptionally light weight felt) it seems like I need a hat block to help press it back into shape more easily.

I'm sure that there are specific hat blocks/flanges for each manufacturer and style, but I am not interested in tracking down (nor on spending the money on) individual parts for each of my hats. I'm wondering is it possible to just buy a hat block in my size and a brim flange roughly as wide as my hats and use them? Is there a better solution I haven't considered? Curious what y'all's thought are.

For the crown, I have used pots and pans and even bowls to help steam out ghost creases. You can buy plastic hat blocks relatively cheaply (30-50 USD) but I have not tried any of them.

Not sure about flanges. My feeling is, you need a lot of them to get various effects on different size brims. Personally, I usually just hit the brims with steam and hand shape them. Often if I steam a brim, it returns to the original flange without any manipulation required.

I have found it's hard to change the flange depth (in terms of "cupping" ie, deeper or flatter) then what was originally set into it.

I have had success steaming the heck out of brims and pinching them up at the break line between brim and crown. This greatly helps with the "snap brim" effect.

 

[jlee562]

Haven't posted on here in a while and owe y'all a bunch of new vintage hat photos in other threads, but am coming to ask a question.

My very generous wife gifted me with a Jiffy hat steamer for Christmas to let me play around with hats and reshape the crown/brim if necessary, and while I am excited to use it, I am a little unsure if I am missing some extra items I need to successfully work on my hats. Specifically, I am finding that I need something hard to help press the crown of some hats into an open crown shape and get rid of the "wrinkles" that came with years of improper storage in someone else's possession. Additionally, I have several straw hats that need some help in reshaping their brims.

For the brim work I had some success with using the rounded edge of my ironing board to help press them into a better shape, but I am wondering if perhaps I need a hat flange to make it easier. With respect to the wrinkly crown (on a beautiful early 50s Stetson made of exceptionally light weight felt) it seems like I need a hat block to help press it back into shape more easily.

I'm sure that there are specific hat blocks/flanges for each manufacturer and style, but I am not interested in tracking down (nor on spending the money on) individual parts for each of my hats. I'm wondering is it possible to just buy a hat block in my size and a brim flange roughly as wide as my hats and use them? Is there a better solution I haven't considered? Curious what y'all's thought are.

You can buy a single block and reblock your hats on that in theory. In practice, you will be undoing the combination of design elements that makes that hat unique. For example, the #52 block is very straight sided, while the #51 block has some taper to it. The difference is minimal to the untrained eye, but it will be different.

Same thing with the flange, yes, you can buy one flange and use it on all your hats. But they're all going to have the same profile. There's no universal, generic flange which you could then tweak by hand to a different profile.

 

[moontheloon]

Who would be the best person to contact to have an unreeded sweatband resewn into a 1930s hat?
I have some ideas but would love to hear your opinions.

 

[jeffgarf]

B.M. Franklin and Co. in Atlanta seems like a good place for not a lot of money. Still waiting to receive my first repair from them. @belfastboy may do repairs if he's got time on his schedule too.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Who would be the best person to contact to have an unreeded sweatband resewn into a 1930s hat?
I have some ideas but would love to hear your opinions.

Hey Moon, good to see you.

Two restoration experts come to my mind as I’m sure they do yours too. One would be Bob @ BSHW if he is taking in any work & he could get to it in a timely fashion. The other would be Scott @bond Fine Vintage Fedoras.

Let us know what 1930’s hat you are restoring & where you go with it.

 

[belfastboy]

Who would be the best person to contact to have an unreeded sweatband resewn into a 1930s hat?
I have some ideas but would love to hear your opinions.

I think closer to you is John McLaughlin @ McLaughin Hayes Hats in Milwaukee. Tim @PureBeaver can likely direct you to folks on the eastern seaboard.

 

[belfastboy]

Hey Moon, good to see you.

Two restoration experts come to my mind as I’m sure they do yours too. One would be Bob @ BSHW if he is taking in any work & he could get to it in a timely fashion. The other would be Scott @bond Fine Vintage Fedoras.

Let us know what 1930’s hat you are restoring & where you go with it.

Is Bob @ BSHW still in the business? He went dark a number of years ago, stopped taking commissions and even stopped delivering on orders already place.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Is Bob @ BSHW still in the business? He went dark a number of years ago, stopped taking commissions and even stopped delivering on orders already place.

I don’t really know. A couple yrs ago he posted he was closing his order book in order to get caught up. I would rate the hat he made custom for me among the nicest I have, as vintage as could be built today & not just a fashion hat.

I was remembering all the restoration work he used to do for Grant & MikesPens.

 

[moontheloon]

Hey Moon, good to see you.

Two restoration experts come to my mind as I’m sure they do yours too. One would be Bob @ BSHW if he is taking in any work & he could get to it in a timely fashion. The other would be Scott @bond Fine Vintage Fedoras.

Let us know what 1930’s hat you are restoring & where you go with it.

Nice to see you Jack

This is the hat.

The sweat band has come loose in some spots .

Seems like the thread just dried out over time.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Nice to see you Jack

This is the hat.

The sweat band has come loose in some spots .

Seems like the thread just dried out over time.

View attachment 727122

Beautiful blocking! Great to see such a hat. Be sure to post it again when you get it finished.