And as nice of one as I’ve ever seen. That Brockville plant turned out some great hats and that #1 is no exception. I think your pin is likely an oil derrick.
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Stetson No. 1 Quality
- Thread starter jimmy the lid
- Start date
And as nice of one as I’ve ever seen. That Brockville plant turned out some great hats and that #1 is no exception. I think your pin is likely an oil derrick.
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Work is finally slowing down a bit so I'm going to start sharing my recent acquisitions and showing some love to everyone's posts.
I'm going to place this one here as well as on the Canadian Stetsons thread along with a few others.
Creamy white Stetson No. 1 Quality.
This hat was made in the Brockville hat factory in Ontario, Canada. The facility was purchased by Stetson in 1935 and closed in 1970. More info is available on the Canadian Stetsons thread and I will be elaborating a bit there.
I tracked down the store 'Jack Forman Doug Kilburn' If you look closely you will notice the penguin in the logo has a hat made of the word HATS and a shirt made of the word SHIRTS. Cute. The store opened in 1948 and is still in operation today, it underwent a few name changes and is now located in Calgary, Alberta under the name Forman's Menswear. The latest date I could find for the original name was 1954 so with that and other info I'm optimistically placing this hat as early 50's
I have taken good photos of the black and gold keyhole tag as well as the Brockville unique factory tag under the sweat.
I noticed the liner on both of the hats in this purchase have the liner seam on the right while my american hats have the liner seam at the back.
The sweatband is very supple and in perfect condition it also has 'AQUANIZED STETSON' branding which I saw recently on a Canadian OR on eBay. Any examples on American hats?
The hat pin is unique and I haven't seen one like it, I thought it might be the Eiffel tower initially but that made no sense. I did a bit of digging but couldn't figure what it's intended to represent. Any thoughts?
5 1/2"+ open crown and a 3" brim. The felt is excellent and has a nice hand, the crown is soft and dry shapes easily and the brim is fairly stiff. Overall build quality is an A+ although I'm not without bias
I did set a new crease with steam and took a bit of the curl out of the brim. Most of my hat's are starting to take a similar shape so I thought I would try a couple back dents on this one. Let me know what you think if anyone has some suggestions to mix it up a bit I'm all ears.
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I love the crease with the back dents. The entire hat is very nice and looks to be in excellent condition.
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J Williams
Practically Family
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Yeah and it looks neat on the sweatband but I feel like it's one of those 'undercoating' type of scenarios. That being said the sweat is in really amazing shape.
J Williams
Practically Family
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- Vancouver, BC, Canada
Thanks Greg. Yes they made some really nice ones and took a lot of pride in crafstmanship. I will be posting the OR that came with this tonight or tomorrow. I think you are right about the oil derrick!
J Williams
Practically Family
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- 638
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- Vancouver, BC, Canada
Thank's Brent, It's a really straight sided block so the back dents give it just a bit of taper which I think suits the hat. It does have a few spot stains that I have to clean but I'm confident they will come right out. Working on these white hats makes me nervous!
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If you want to emphasize it's vintage & heritage as a 1950's No.1Q then this crease will do that. You don't have to set the dish so deep, just bring the sides down lower & center the divide.
The four corner crease is a much newer crease than the 1950's.
T Jones
I'll Lock Up
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Stetson No.1 Quality that I converted and reblocked from a 6 5/8 to a 7 1/4. After the size up the brim width went from its original 4 inches to 3 1/4 inches.
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J Williams
Practically Family
- Messages
- 638
- Location
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
If you want to emphasize it's vintage & heritage as a 1950's No.1Q then this crease will do that. You don't have to set the dish so deep, just bring the sides down lower & center the divide.
The four corner crease is a much newer crease than the 1950's.
Thanks Jack, a little hard to tell from the photo, is that a center fire crease? Similar to the one on the yellowstone in the photo below? I also really like the simple creases on the Sun Valley and the Armor. Hmm decisions to make.
J Williams
Practically Family
- Messages
- 638
- Location
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
Stetson No.1 Quality that I converted and reblocked from a 6 5/8 to a 7 1/4. After the size up the brim width went from its original 4 inches to 3 1/4 inches.
Nicely done Terry. I recently recieved a straight sided dome from hat shapers, some vintage grosgrain and my wife bought me a Jiffy Steamer for Christmas. Starting to get the items together for some more serious conversions. I'm sure all your posts will be a great wealth of information!
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Yes it's the Centerfire. The advantage of the Centerfire is that with the deep dish you can keep the side length & move it out some if you need to hide a little bit of taper. I'm not a fan of the ridge/dish combination. You can do a similar crease starting with a tight center like a Rancher/Cattleman & give the divided pinch a bit more downward angle.
With the Sun Valley/Armor you will need to have plenty of crown height so when you bring down the small elephant ear, it won't touch your head somewhere above your temple. That's why they have the 6" & 6-1/2" crown height.
@J Williams
To add a bit to this discussion; the ad with the center fire crease that HJ posted is somewhat similar to a “cutter” crease, where on a cattleman crease, “dots” are formed in the middle of the dents to create a little more headroom when the hat is snugged down. That’s how the 4 corners I’ve created seem to always start out. That centerfire with the dots is unique.
To add a bit to this discussion; the ad with the center fire crease that HJ posted is somewhat similar to a “cutter” crease, where on a cattleman crease, “dots” are formed in the middle of the dents to create a little more headroom when the hat is snugged down. That’s how the 4 corners I’ve created seem to always start out. That centerfire with the dots is unique.
T Jones
I'll Lock Up
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Thank you buddy, and good luck with everything. I have several new and vintage wood blocks but that straight sided dome from Hat Shapers is my favorite block shape. Most of my conversions were done on that block.
I am trying to cowboy up, but I get a feeling that this one isn't exactly "Vintage". You guys would know. What say all of you?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-Stalli...rentrq:234600e81710a4cc09057443fffa777c|iid:1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-Stalli...rentrq:234600e81710a4cc09057443fffa777c|iid:1
Tukwila
My Mail is Forwarded Here
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Not a bad looking hat, IMO, but not 50s vintage, that's clear..... 80s???
Th====
Thanks for the guess. I don't know much about western weight felt, but I've heard some say that anything after the 70s isn't very good, but the seller claims it is beaver. Hmmm...
It's a damn nice hat...buy it, I would!
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Yahoody
One Too Many
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- Great Basin
Similar crown shape to what some have shown but maximizing the crease shape to avoid an open crown look and still give the room required inside the hat for a good fit.
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- Central California
1950s Stetson No. 1 Quality that was refurbished by David Gibson at VS: six inch open crown, #52 block, 3.5 inch bound brim.
