Different hat storing question...

[kiltie]

...or maybe I just missed this one. If I did, I apologize.

With older hats, I've seen some of the care manuals on how to and how not to grab your hat, etc, etc... And they also show, on some models, pushing out the creases and putting it in the box open crowned. Is this really benificial, or is it actually bad? Is it better to have a constant stress all the time in the creases, or flexing the stress points each time you don your hat? Like twisting a piece of wire back and forth to break it, whereas, just bending the wire and leaving it bent doesn't have much effect.
I need serious hat guys input on this, as I'm finally starting to amass some nice hats that I'd like to be able to regularly wear and have them last as much longer as they've come so far. Thanks.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Well, I'll give you my take, but bear in mind that while I really love my hats, I'm not one to baby them too much.

There are only a couple in my collection that I'd bawl my eyes out about if something irreparable happened to them, and still life would go on. The rest I wear with the same degree of care I wear shirts, jeans, shoes, etc. No more, no less. The thing is, however, that my vintage fur felt hats are probably the toughest items of attire I have on at any given time. They really are resilient.

Also, by rotating among many different hats, not one of them gets day in and day out wear.

I do not keep my hats in their boxes. I keep the boxes in the attic and keep my hats handy, on hat hooks on the wall, mostly. I keep them creased and snapped in a way that is ready to wear. Personally, I can imagine no benefit to fiddling with the shape between each wearing. I believe it would take a tremendous amount of that fiddling to start to actually wear out the felt, but I suppose it's possible. It just seems like there's no need to do it.

I think of the practice of opening the crown, upping the brim and placing the hat in a box between wearing to be like if someone jacked up their car and removed the wheels and then removed the tires from the wheels every time they came home and pulled into their garage at night. Would that save wear on the tires by not having that pressure on them while parked? Who knows. It'd probably be a useless exercise.

In my opinion.

 

[Dewhurst]

When it comes to the crown, my general rule is to set it and forget it. Once I have it bashed the way I want it, I just leave it. Forever.

Now, the brim is a bit more tricky. You are correct when you compare felt to a wire. The points in the felt that receive frequent movement will wear out, crack, etc., given enough time and enough handling. It is like the cover of a book. That joint in where the cover meets the text block wears down the more you open and close the book. A decent felt will take a massive amount of handling.

There is a concern though, on snap brims, that the felt will relax in the brim. So, when storing it, you usually want to flip the snap up all the way around. This will help to keep a nice poppy snap.

Whether you should do that every time you are done using the hat for the day (when you go to bed) or only for long periods of time (seasons, or years) I have no idea?

Sorry I can't help you with the punching out the bash and storing the hat open crowned bit. I don't store mine that way, and have never had it recommended to me by anyone, so I can't say. My instinct says that if leaving it for a long time that way it really wouldn't matter, but for an overnight deal, it would prematurely wear the felt out.

 

[gtdean48]

The brim gets flipped up, almost all of mine are bound brims, but the crease stay as is. I never return to open crown except to go between creases. That hats store in the creases, not open crown, unless I haven't gotten around to creasing them.

 

[kiltie]

Thanks for the input, so far. I thought to pose the question after handling a particular hat the other day. Right where the point of the vertical and horizontal creases meet in the front, the felt was becoming, eh, spongy. Since it was on one of my favorites, I naturally, immediately thought the worst. Now that I've breathed into a paper bag and settled down a bit, I'm thinking it's just softed through normal use at that point.
I do leave the creases in my hats for the most part, but I have three ( Stetson Twenty, Biltmore 15, and Unk Vin Open Road ) vintage that, when I received them, it was clear that they were stored open crowned, as they appeared almost new. Other vintage ( Resistol San Antonio, Knox 20...) are left creased all the time as are all my modern hats, including three Akubra that came open crown.
Like I say, I'm sure I saw in a flyer that came with an old hat that had the recommendation to store open, but it just doesn't seem right for some reason, all that flexing...[huh]

 

[DOUGLAS]

I will speak for myself as I am sure you will get as many different answers as there are members. I store my hats both ways depending on the type and weight of the felt. Some hats are very light weight and because of this the crown can easily be popped out. I don't crease these hats in a way that will permamently leave a shadow line. The crease is put in gently and there is no line that is forced into position. these hats I store open crowned with the brim popped up. I brush them well before putting them in the box and I sometimes put a cedar pellet or some lavender in the box. I try to clean any oil or soil from the felt and fabric. I believe storing it as clean and dust free as possible will prolong the hats life.

I have medium weight hats that I pop out the crown as well.They almost spring out themselves. I dont think that popping the crown in and out will damage it if you are not putting deep pinches in or complicated creases. I like keeping some opened because I prefer to have the option of changing the shape later on.Again, having it clean before stored is the key for me.

Some heavier felts for me don't do well when the crown is opened, even some mediums. Once a crease has been placed on to the felt and popped out some hats have a memory that won't go away. The lines could be steamed out of course and they can be reblocked but that seems unnecessary. My rule is if I recrease a hat and it wants to go back to the original shape or I can see a shadow of the previous style than I leave it in. Constant pinching with oily hands will do more damage. My older hats that have been creased in one way for more than I have been around stay that way.

 

[kiltie]

Thanks for that, DOUGLAS. Somewhere, someone is keeping tabs, and I don't want to be "the guy that killed that nice old hat."

 

[DOUGLAS]

Wear it and enjoy, they are tougher than you think.