Hat Pilgrimage #3: Charlie Swindall

[gcollins]

Comrades of the Fine Brim,

As some of you know, I have embarked on a journey for the perfect hat. To date, I have had custom hats made by Brent Black, Optimo, Trent Johnson, and Art Fawcett. Next up? The controversial Charlie Swindall, aka the Gladhatter.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to make it down to someplace called Clintwood, Virginia. But with all the controversy about Charlie, I made it a mission to get to know him well over the internet and through others before deciding to ask him to attempt to make me the perfect hat. Reality is: I HAD to try the 100% sterling belly beaver (or whatever marketing name is used) that so many people rave about.

Well here it is, comrades! A jet black belly beaver beauty!

 

[gcollins]

The pre-service: More than any other hatter I’ve worked with, Charlie will fill your inbox with photos and options and discussions of hats and felt and materials details like no other. He has that salesmanship about him—almost that used car dealer’s passion to seal the deal and get you to upgrade or go for another hat. Some people may not like that. I think it’s great, he’ll do it every day for a year if you ask him to do it and not get a penny out of you. But through this process, you and he nail down the hat that you NEED. And….it increases the chance that you will get the hat you WANT.

Exudes Quality: The first thing you notice pulling this fedora out of the box is the substantial feeling of the hat: This hat just exudes quality and high-end craftsmanship. The felt, sweat, liner, bound edge, bow details stitching craftsmanship just seem custom, substantial, cared-for, perfect—instead of being a nice hat that was fitted to fit my head and style. You don’t have to stand too close to see that this is a very fine hat. The creasing and detail is done by Dalia, and you can see and feel that feminine attention to detail in fine the bow work (nice floating bow with no external stitches), stitching, and sweat printing—I give it a A- (under the sweat the liner stitches are not perfect, and the wind cord is a little too tight and does not rest proportionately at the base of the ribbon). This hat fits perfectly, and the military grade sweat is top notch with precise gold printing. And like my custom Italian shoes, I love that it hints that it will get better after a break-in period.

 

[gcollins]

The felt: Unbelievable. Buttery, velvety, tightest perfect black. Unlike any I have. The felt is just so dense and tight, so thin, with so much body and this surprising spring to it. I cannot imagine a finer felt in a new hat, and it is by far the primary differentiating factor of Charlie’s custom hats. But note that this is not vintage-like in the sense that you can just do a self-bash after picking up the hat. This felt has body and courage, and is designed to hold a shape.

For me, the perfect hat has to be a bit combat ready and not afraid to handle weather. This hat handles serious rainpours in Shanghai and Singapore with ease. Just laughs off the rain and the brim does it work perfectly. Overall: Once you taste felt like this, you definitely want more of the same.

Shaping and Creasing: Crease-wise, Dalia’s work is precise and hints of light feminine touch, but this hat arrived needing a bit more courage and an understated boldness that I like—in my case, wider and deeper dimple structures that cast shadows in overhead light. But her hand-creasing shows precision with a fine teardrop—no wrinkles in the crease, nothing haphazard. I like a hat that is 100% proportional to about the 16th of an inch—she can do that if you request it. After some work with the steamiron, I was able to give it a tad bit of boldness of the 40s crease (ala Art Fawcett) and better front to back crown slope and widen the teardrop for a slight more C-crown. A little steam and this felt will do as you like and hold its shape.

 

[gcollins]

The service: Say what you want about Charlie, love him or hate him. He is a service king who makes what has to be one of the finest custom fedoras available JUST for you. Sends you photos of everything through the process for approval. Quite cool as you follow your hat through the process, and he’ll change whatever you want as many times as you want—and I did. I especially like to see the hat with a few ribbon widths, so I could choose the proportions I was after. All this increases your chances of getting a great hat. And he will entertain you to no end in the process.

Overall, this Gladhatter fedora has to be the best fedora I have in terms of quality—it will be around for a long long time and I’ll wear more than most other hats. The felt is unmatched and the sweat, stitching, bound edge, and bow work superb. In some details, like the liner, only Trent Johnson’s is better thus far. But this felt, craftsmanship and service are outstanding. Very rarely would I go and get another hat after just receiving one. But I’ll make an exception in this case: I want another one! Now.

Is this the perfect hat? Very very close. We’ll see as the Pilgrimage continues.

G

 

[farnham54]

You say it takes downpours well--does it taper much? Or have you had it through enough elements to notice?

Cheers,

Craig

 

[Gershomite]

Ditto on the taper question. I prefer a bit of built-in taper in my hat, but I do not want it to develop a mind of its own and taper when exposed to the elements. I want the hat to protect me noggin AND keep looking as sharp as the day I first pulled it from the hatbox. Pull no punches and let us know how it holds up, G.



Gersh

 

[gcollins]

Hi Leafs Fan,

Thanks for the question. So far, I've been through those two downpours with the GH: one a massive tropical rain storm in Singapore and the other, a coastal dump from the cold front up in Mongolia.

Taper? Not a milimeter. I intentionally doused the hat in those two very different storms before reviewing the hat to check its combat readiness. Also wanted to show my manliness to the brim-less masses in not needing an umbrella for about 1.5 hours in the hard rain. :cool2: My briefcase and personal effects didn't last nearly as well though. I should note that the crown carried a nice couple of cups of water to feed my horse, and the inside of the liner shows no water stains.

Just dried it out on the out-turned sweat, and..voila!, just dries with no taper, perfect, wouldn't even know it rained. It's only the second hat that I've had that can handle life's action...so far. Trent Johnson's is the other: a massive day-long downpour in rural Hunan province left no marks on that hat--but Trent's is western stiff 100% beaver. It HAS to be combat ready.

The GH hat is a fedora, and it's proving some mettle. I don't prefer a wimpy hat.

G

 

[gcollins]

I hear you, Gersh! the day this hat has a taper from weather, it's going back to Charlie. He knows it too.

I want the perfect hat. The body of this beaver adds to that durability, I should think.

Regards,
G

 

[Fedora]

Nice!! One thing that I can say about Charlie's hats. He makes hats out of the highest quality modern felt that you can buy. I have seen nothing, newly made, that is in the same ballpark. While he and I have parted ways, I can never accuse the man of selling medium quality felt for top of the line prices. You pay for his hats, but in my opinion, he is the only one making a high dollar hat that is actually worth what he charges for them. Fedora

 

[fedoralover]

I have to strongly disagree with you on that one Fedora. YOU are the only one making a fedora that is worth MORE than you change!!!

regards fedoralover

 

[Nathan Flowers]

Nice hat Do you have any shots with it on you?

 

[Fedora]

You need to show some closeups of the felt. That is where you see the quality. Fedora

 

[fedoralover]

Vintage black fedora's with the high crown and wide brims are the hardest to find on ebay. You have an authentic looking 40s lid there my friend. What is the crown height and brim width and the ribbon width.
I'm jealous, this is the only style of fedora I have yet to find in a high quality hat. Ebay pickings is getting pretty dried up, with nice ones getting harder and harder to find. Black ones like yours are extremely rare. So I'm resorting to making arrangements to get one through another route.

regards fedoralover

 

[gcollins]

Zohar, Fedoralover, Fedora, glad you like it too.

I pretty much wear black suits most of the time for business, and I've struggled for years to get the perfect black lid. Been getting around for the last few years with a black borso, not vintage. I also never could find a very nice vintage black in my size that seemed right..and per your confirmation...they are hard enough to find.

I'll try to get some better pics so you can see the pounce and how it looks on me. I just saw the discussion on the Toffee hat and re-looked at the felt density of the pounce on the black hat and the black Trent Johnson beaver. Both are not fuzzy at all and very tightly felted after the pounce. But I'll let you guys be the judge of that when I get some better pics up for comparison.

As for specs. I should have placed them with the review of the hat, since I too am always asking for these key measurements, which I am far too anal about.

The hat was originally a 4-3/4 front crown measurement, but after I personalized the bash a bit, the specs came out to these:

Front crown height: 4-5/8"
Highest crown point: 4-3/4"
Back crown height (lowest point): 4-1/4"
Bound edge: 1/4"
Ribbon width: 1-7/16"
Brim length: 2-1/2 (bound edge adds an additional 1/16th)

Thanks,
G

 

[gcollins]

Maybe this will show the pounce better. Not sure if the photo is good enough to see.

 

[gcollins]

Here's another photo that perhaps can show the felt pounce better. Photo was taken before I modified the bash.

 

[farnham54]

Thanks for the taper answer. You sound like a man who knows how to treat a hat the Adventurer way!

Cheers,

Farn