Rebuild help?

[M_Jones]

Hello gentlemen (and ladies of course )

I am a long time fan of the forum but just not a big poster. Being in the military and working odd hours are the main cause of this. To get to the point:

I found a hat that the seller swore was made in the 1930s. It is a light tan cowboy hat with a six inch crown and a brim that is just a smidgen under four inches. It has a yellow (golden?) liner of what appears to be two griffin standing on two legs and holding some kind of object. The griffin/object are stamped in black along with "royal quality" and "5xxxxx beaver quality". I cannot find any info as to the brand anywhere. Is it an old Stetson? The seller goofed up on the size and instead of being a 7 1/2 it is a size 7. The inside circumference is about 22 inches which I attribute to stretching over time. I had planned on shipping the hat off to Steve or Art but after I came back from leave I read to my dismay that they are no longer doing this type of work.

Is there anyone here besides Mr. Delk or Mr. Fawcett that rebuilds hats? I would need a reblock and a size adjustment as well as new sweat, liner, etc. I REALLY want this hat to wear around but I am stuck unless I can find some help. I welcome any help and advice from the people here that have far more knowledge in this area then I do.

Thanks in advance
Hollis

 

[Rick Blaine]

Hi Mr. Jones, welcome to the Lounge & greetings from Tennessee,

I just sent three lids to Optimo in Chicago for various rebuilds, repairs & stretches. (I have been meaning to post there but have not yet found time to photograph them.) Optimo took an old Stetson 25 cowboy hat & turned it into a dandy "Michum" style fedora, stretched, rebuilt & upsized a lovely old Royal Stetson Playboy & freshened up & reviatalised my oldest, a Stetson 15 w/ a mode edge. They do good work, expect to pay about $100 at most for a total refurb, about the same anywhere... hope this helps.

Regards,

Rick

 

[John in Covina]

Take a peek here.

http://www.petersbros.com/RENOVATION/Default.htm

Try Peters Brothers, maybe. or

http://www.mikethehatter.com/HatCleaning.asp

 

[GentlemanFarmer]

Hollis,

I'm at work, but I know I saw two advertisements in Western Horseman for hat refurbishmentdown in Texas. Also run it by one of our Vendor members - mthatter. He's next door in Montana.

 

[feltfan]

inches. It has a yellow (golden?) liner of what appears to be two griffin standing on two legs and holding some kind of object. The griffin/object are stamped in black along with "royal quality" and "5xxxxx beaver quality". I cannot find any info as to the brand anywhere. Is it an old Stetson? The seller goofed up on the size and instead of being a 7 1/2 it is a size 7.

If it doesn't say "Stetson" it probably isn't.
But it's probably still a great hat- nevermind the brand.
A lot of hat companies of the time had logos suspiciously
similar to Stetson's. You can see examples on the Lounge.

Your bigger concern should be size. Stretching a size 7 to a 7 1/2
is a major undertaking and the resultant hat may not look right, if
it stretches that far at all. In addition, old, good quality felt
requires a lot of "convincing" to retain its new size. I have tried
stretching (professionally and not) some old Stetsons less than
that and found myself stretching them again and again as a
"reminder". I hate to say it since you clearly love that hat,
but there are larger, top quality vintage Western style hats
on eBay all the time for reasonable prices.

 

[Rick Blaine]

The Royal Stetson Playboy that I gave to Optimo was originally a 7 1/8 w/ a 2.5" brim. When returned to me it was a 7 3/8 w/ a 2.25" brim, the brim has a distinctive pattern of (subtle) decorative stitching running its circumference & that is still there. So I dunno but maybe this can lead us to conclude that; regards to upsizing expect to lose 1/8" of brim (To be incorporated into the crown) for each size increment increase... any pros out there concur? Art, Steve?

 

[Art Fawcett]

Rick, that sounds about right. The alternative is to lose crown height in the case of wanting to keep the brim width.
Welcome to the Lounge M_Jones

 

[M_Jones]

Thanks for the warm welcome and all of the ideas folks. I have some options to pursue now. I will show some pics after I decide on whom to go with.

@Feltfan: Even thouogh the size clearly states 7 the inside circumference is about 22 inches. I am at least going to try because I paid a little too much for this hat. (darn eBay bidding wars :rage: )

Thanks for the info everyone. I knew I could count on you guys.

Regards,
Hollis