Ebay Hats: Victories, Defeats, Gripes & Items of Interest

[Bushman]

I hate the "electronic info received" and only days later it is really dispatched.

Same here, man. Took the place I ordered from almost a week to ship out my woolly pully.

 

[Cheviot]

My new baby. A vintage Dobbs homburg with it's original hatbox. The hat itself is in beautiful condition, although it needs a good cleaning and a new sweatband. The box has seen better days. Based on the price tag I found inside the sweatband and the pricing in print ads, it looks like it's from 1936.

 

[tommyK]

that's a beauty cheviot, always nice to get the box, too. If you show this in the Dobbs Diner and get a pic of the liner, sweatband and tag under the sweatband there's guys there like Brad Bowers who can help you clarify or reinforce the dating of your hat.

 

[Cheviot]

Thanks TommyK, will do!

 

[hatsRme]

It's a SWEETHEART, at any age, Cheviot. Good job on your research, too. Congrats, sir!

 

[Guardian Enzo]

I posted this in the "Questions" thread too, but I'm not sure how many people are following that one so I thought I'd ask here too...

I received my hat from Dacquino today, and while I wait to hear back from Luisa I'd love to hear some opinions. The hat is beautiful, but it seems to have been damaged in shipping. Likely the cardboard insert has dug into the topside of the brim and left some "wounds" - shallow scratches, but with a couple of fairly deep divots too. See attached pics.

So my question is twofold. First - is a "newborn" felt hat likely to heal? Will the felt spring back and these depressions disappear on their own? I tried brushing, to no avail. And the second question is, what would you do if it was your purchase? It's a bit of a tough call for me, honestly.

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[alanfgag]

If the marks were created by pressure from the cardboard inserts, brushing with steam should remove them. If they are flaws in the felt, the hat should be replaced.

 

[Guardian Enzo]

If the marks were created by pressure from the cardboard inserts, brushing with steam should remove them. If they are flaws in the felt, the hat should be replaced.

Thanks, Alan. I've never steamed a felt hat before, so I'm a bit nervous about it. But I suppose there's really no other way to find out, huh?

 

[Frunobulax]

Enzo,

Alan knows better than me, but don't be nervous, be careful. I've purchased a few vintage off the Bay and I regularly steam them up, clean them, and reshape them as soon as I get them. Have even gotten a little bold with stretching. Some of the things I've done might even horrify the veterans, but I've yet to screw one up!

I'd just hit one of those areas with some steam and brush, to see if it responds, then move to the next one.

Or just bring it over - I'm fearless!! And it's only 10K miles, give or take. I'll warm up the steamer.

 

[Guardian Enzo]

Heh, thanks Frunobulax, you buy the ticket and I'll be there.

So here's my question - how much steam? And how vigorously do I brush? I'm going to have to go buy a brush in the first place, but the general consensus seems to be that an unused shoe brush is fine for the purpose and even here, I'm pretty sure I can figure out where to get one of those. Maybe this is a silly question, but would a clean, unused soft-bristle toothbrush work?

 

[tommyK]

Toothbrush might work for what you're doing. A bigger brush would be better.

Get a tea kettle blowing steam and put the hat in the path of the steam about 6 inches away from the spout. You might want to brush back and forth a little and then finish by going counterclockwise as this the way the knap or direction of the fur finish goes.

 

[Guardian Enzo]

Toothbrush might work for what you're doing. A bigger brush would be better.

Get a tea kettle blowing steam and put the hat in the path of the steam about 6 inches away from the spout. You might want to brush back and forth a little and then finish by going counterclockwise as this the way the knap or direction of the fur finish goes.

Thanks. How much steam are we talking about - how long should I leave the hate in that position?

 

[tommyK]

You want the kettle blowing a strong head of steam (be careful of your hands here, that steam is hot!) I tend to put the hat into the steam and turn it as I brush so the steam is never on the same spot for more than a few seconds. Keep turning and brushing and periodically check to see your progress.

If those areas you show are just indentations from shipping they'll come out pretty easy if they're gouges of some kind it may not come out.

 

[kingrat]

Keep the steam away from the sweatband or you will ruin it.

 

[Guardian Enzo]

Thanks for all the advice. I just spent about 10 minutes with the kettle and the brush (I bought a soft-bristled paintbrush, as it was actually the softest brush I could find) and I would say I managed to brush out to about a 75% success rate. A couple of the depressions are still visible, but you have to be looking at them right. It felt to me like I was being pretty aggressive with the steam, but maybe if I'd gone even more balls-out, who knows... Now I just need to decide if I can live with it.

I'm going to go ahead and post pics, as I think the hat itself is pretty unique (in a good way).

 

[alanfgag]

Your new hat looks very nice.

Steam is an elixir for fur felt. Use a brush that has some firmness to it. There are some very nice quality German manufacture shoe brushes that would make good hat brushes. Steam and brush the areas with some vigor, finishing with a brushing in a counterclockwise direction (looking from the top of the hat) on the outside. The underbrim should be brushed in a clockwise direction. Avoid steaming the sweatband as mentioned above.

 

[Bushman]

Never bought a hat off eBay before, and these two caught my eye. Which do you guys think is the better deal?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-LEE-WAR...579?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item487bc7e69b or http://www.ebay.com/itm/GORGEOUS-Vi...767?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2ef656a7

 

[DJH]

The Stetson all the way for me. Nice hat and being sold by a Lounge member who has a knack of finding really good examples.

It's not really a good idea to post links eBay hats you are interested in. The members here (and the unregistered lurkers) are your competition when it comes to hat hunting.

 

[Bushman]

Alright, thanks!

And I'll keep that in mind.

 

[1mach1]

Scored this Resistol tonight. A bit more than I wanted to pay, but..........

[video]http://www.ebay.com/itm/Really-nice-older-1940-039-s-Resistol-felt-fedora-size-7-1-4-/221715673393?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=UBTcO%252FBuRHmHEA%252FwrN36KRp6CpE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc[/video]