Was horsehide used to make sweatbands in vintage hats?

[Atterbury Dodd]

I have been studying the sweatbands in my vintage hats and it has got me to wonderin'... what kinds of leather were commonly used in hats in the 1920's-50's?

The leather I see in a lot of old hats resembles horsehide. I compared a horsehide leather swatch from when I bought my John Chapman Goodwear A-2 jacket with the leather sweatbands in my 1950's Stetson and my 30's Stetson. They both have exactly the same texture to the leather as the horsehide. In fact the russet brown spray finish swatch is so close in color and finish to the 50's Stetson's sweatband it is identical.

Did they use horsehide on vintage hats?

 

[Fletch]

A common leather for sweats is roan, which is a term for a reddish horse, but also means "sheepskin tanned with sumac and colored and finished to imitate morocco." That may be where any confusion lies.

(Morocco, btw, is defined as "goatskin tanned with sumac.")

 

[Bob Smalser]

Jeffery's Stetson Hats 1865-1970 states that Stetson manufactured all their own sweats and used sheep, goat and calf skins.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

So Stetson didn't make horsehide sweats. That probably means that there were a few leathers that looked like horsehide. Thus my incorrect deduction.

I guess that makes sense because with horsehide a lot of the hide would have to much texture and that would be wasteful. Sheep and goat hides are so thin I bet they wouldn't even have to be split (they would be the right thickness already). And they are smooth.

 

[Bob Smalser]

So Stetson didn't make horsehide sweats. That probably means that there were a few leathers that looked like horsehide. Thus my incorrect deduction.

I wouldn't be too hasty.

Just because Jeffery found that information somewhere doesn't mean it's 100% correct over so long a period. His primary references are old Sears catalogs, old print ads and Stetson's employee newspaper. It's surprising that more factory records didn't survive. And somewhat amusing because Sears for the most part didn't even sell Stetson hats.

While pigskin is distinctive....and fragile....it's difficult to tell other leathers apart once they are chrome-tanned.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Roan leather. Sheepskin.