Flipped brim hats?

[Delmonico]

Ruin ya hat, Del...I'd just laugh anyways. 

I ain't ruined either my hat or 100's of customer's hats.  Have had fun, been showing this to some of my co-workers, I doubt you want to know what they thing of your knowledge or rather lack of it.  Besides dozen's of custom hatters can't be wrong or the factoriesthat make them.  Be better if you pass out bad info where there ain't folks who reconize BS whaen they see it.

[Delmonico]

BTW Deadwood, you and this other fella that's showed up, how many hats have you really ever worked on and how many folks travel great distance to have their's worked on by you?  If you look at the facts I must not be ruining hats by doing them the right way.

[JimBob]

So...........Anybody know a good way to reshape a hat?

[Marshal Deadwood]

Wet it with hot water and shape it. I've shaped only a few.

You don't work for that last best west group do you ? you sound like them.

  Why Halloway keeps you here and lots of  other folks that cant post for you jumping them leave his board,,,,,,,is beyond me. But,,it's his board. I'd have sent you packing  years ago for having that pissy attitude.

Id feel bad if you DID ke me,,,I'd figure there was something wrong with my character............but the way you talk to EVERYONE is uncalled for.

Cept for the time Chuck Burrows set you straight and you crawled like a puppy when HE corrected you.
 I LOVED that exchange,,,,
MD

[Curley Cole]

Hows about another "fun" hat...??



And here is when I first "dropped by" and met the infamous GCR....had to put on a different hat for each pix we took..

curley

PS: And for what it is worth, every Cowboy store I have been to in the last 50+ years that had hats, and also, my good friend Bob "ALLHAT" uses steam to shape and bend hats. And Del comes from good stock... cc

[Delmonico]

Curley, I've seen the error of my ways, all us folks who shape hats for a living are doing it wrong.  I'm going to E-mail every western store in the country and explain it to them.

BTW, when they get our new improved Hat Dept built here at the store I'll have to send pictures, it's going to be great.  They are doing that because I'm so good at ruining hats.

[Tommy Moore]

You can shape a hat to look good but to shape a hat to fit there's only one way.  Soak it in a good rainstorm in the Fall, freeze it to your head in the winter, soak it again in the spring, bake it on your head in the summer.  Repeat.  I was about five years in on a good one before I found the one thing a hat won't take regardless of what quality.. A plow truck fire.  Guess how I know
Judging by Del's avatar I'd guess he's done the "worn" approach.  Nothing fits better than a broken in hat.   

[Delmonico]

You can shape a hat to look good but to shape a hat to fit there's only one way.  Soak it in a good rainstorm in the Fall, freeze it to your head in the winter, soak it again in the spring, bake it on your head in the summer.  Repeat.  I was about five years in on a good one before I found the one thing a hat won't take regardless of what quality.. A plow truck fire.  Guess how I know
Judging by Del's avatar I'd guess he's done the "worn" approach.  Nothing fits better than a broken in hat.   

One of many hats. Picture is a few years old, but the "Sunday going to meeting" hat is the same.  Old School 10X by Rand of Billings MT, 10X meaning 100% Beaver, Ritch Rand measured my head himself for size and shape, three months later when the hat arrived it was a perfect fit as expected.  Been cleaned a maintained, has had a little reshaping done, always with steam.  Ain't ruined yet, but will need to go back for a re-build some day, just because it is my good dress hat.  It will come back and be for the most part an brand new hat made out of the same piece of felt for a fraction of the original price.  $398.98 retail in 2000, they've went up a bit from that.  Each hat is custom ordered to customer specs.  This one don't have many bells and whistles, just the wide silk ribbon, and a slight pencil curl on the sides and a bottom bound edge of the same black color.

Few understand the bottom bound, there is a reason.

A good hatter can make the right size hat fit like a glove before you walk out of the store, if they know what they are doing.  I do it all the time.  Water won't hurt a hat if it is good quality, but it's not the way to go for most shaping, for many reasons.  Do I use it, yes I do, do I use it often, no.  It's fine for a major reshape but ain't worth a poop for detail work. 

[liten]

good sending all those emails will keep him busy for a whle   and the only reason  you put the  kettle on for is to make cupa tea

[Delmonico]

good sending all those emails will keep him busy for a whle   and the only reason  you put the  kettle on for is to make cupa tea

So, you want to show us what you can really do or you just going to keep BSin' us?  Would like to see some examples of the other guys work also.

[Drayton Calhoun]

Correct or not, I think I'll stick to my leather hat. Besides, I need the neck work out and my head to be well steamed! LOL

[Major 2]

You ought to hear some of the comments from some of the know-nothing know-it-alls when I put this type on my head.

I wonder if you get the same..."Dar bee's a pirate be ya ? " or some other dumb ass "Yo ho a sailer life for me" comment ?

[Delmonico]

Correct or not, I think I'll stick to my leather hat. Besides, I need the neck work out and my head to be well steamed! LOL

If I hadn't of traded off my chaps they might think I was a biker.

[Hangtown Frye]

The way I shaped my hat was the old-fashioned way: I wore it in the rain a lot. (Living in Western Washington State these days helps that.) When the sizing starts to get washed out, you have to push the brim up and out of the way or it flops in your face.  Likewise, as it dries you end up with the outside of the brim shrinking a bit more than the inner circle of the brim, so it's either going to flop up or down.  Since I like to see where I'm going, I opt for pushing the brim upwards.  You may note some of the older paintings and period photo's show a lace of rawhide or some such being laced to the outside rim of the brim too.  This is, I believe, for stiffening the brim, but also to tighten it a bit to keep it from flopping down in your eyes.  Again, it all comes from use, wearing it in the rain a lot, and doing what you need to do to keep the darned brim out of your eyes.

BTW, the hat in question started as a decent Stetson I bought in Raton, NM years ago. It finally gave up the ghost recently, as it's gotten just too darned floppy to deal with.  However, it reeks of "authenticity".   

For shaping a new hat or reshaping an older one, I do exactly as Delmonico suggests, and I use steam.  Definitely the best way to go.  I hadn't heard of the shellac trick though, I'll have to try it out on the old Stetson. Might breath some life into the old girl!

Cheers!

Gordon

[Delmonico]

If the felt is not torn it will work, the shellac is the same thing used in a new hat and is sold already mixed in gallons for a spay bottle and is also often sold in Western stores in and aresol or pump in a small can.  We buy ours at work by the gallon already mixed.

[Hangtown Frye]

Thanks for the info, Delmonico.  There is a slight tear in the brim where my stampede string goes through next to the crown, but it's not toooo awful bad.  Well, maybe not.  I might still have to retire the old thing anyway, since it's pretty well loved at this point, with perhaps too much patina.  But it sure was great for the "sidekick" look!  Well, maybe a bit too cool for a sidekick, come to think of it...   

Anyway, I'll look for some of that shellac and see what transpires.

Cheers!

Gordon

[liten]

hey whats happened to the person who started this topic, did he flip his hat or not? or is a case of still thinkn about it

[Delmonico]

Hangtown, when you stiffen the hat don't use to much, a common mistake.  Just lightly dampen the surface of the hat with it out of a spray bottle and let it dry, then see if it is stiff enough.  The better the quality of the piece of felt the less stiffener you need.  Most fur felts you can get by with one or two light coasts, wool felts sometimes take three or even four, but keep them light.

[Hangtown Frye]

Thanks for the advice Delmonico!  I appreciate it!

I love hats, and it's always a disappointment when one that is too well loved has to be put aside due to disintegration.  I might manage a few more years out of this one, plus help out a few others that are ailing with this treatment.

Thanks again, 

Cheers!

Gordon

[buffalo bill]

Del, I am the manager of RCC Western Store in Minot, ND. Some of you might have heard of us. We have over 30 stores in nearly a dozen states. I ,like Del, have shaped hundreds of hats with steam. We do not have a shower in our store for a good reason. YOU DON'T SHAPE A HAT WITH WATER. I get hats all the time from people who think they know what they are doing. Sometimes I can fix them and sometimes they are beyond help. I am not a mechanic so when my truck gets sick I take it to someone who knows how to fix it. I don't understand why it is so difficult for some people to admiit that they don't REALLY know what they are talking about.

[Delmonico]

Del, I am the manager of RCC Western Store in Minot, ND. Some of you might have heard of us. We have over 30 stores in nearly a dozen states. I ,like Del, have shaped hundreds of hats with steam. We do not have a shower in our store for a good reason. YOU DON'T SHAPE A HAT WITH WATER. I get hats all the time from people who think they know what they are doing. Sometimes I can fix them and sometimes they are beyond help. I am not a mechanic so when my truck gets sick I take it to someone who knows how to fix it. I don't understand why it is so difficult for some people to admiit that they don't REALLY know what they are talking about.

I've heard of them, btw I'm at Fort Western in Lincoln, we are a chain of two and a catalog dept, but pretty large.  I shaped at least a dozen hats today, will do at least that much or more tomorrow since there is college rodeo in town. 

Just had a funny thought, what if we did shape them in a shower, would we go in there with the customer and shape it just right or we we go in shape it, bring it back out and see if it was right.

[Terry Lane]

Dang Del, I agree with everything you and the fake Buffalo Bill said. I (and you) have worked with Ritch Rand, the best hatmaker in the world and have learned from the best. Good hats stand out from the rest, and they can be restored with a good "hat bender" and the liberal application of steam. Thanks and take care.

[buffalo bill]

Del- I suppose it would depend on what she looked like as to whether we took the customer into the shower with us.

Terry- How about we substitute "fake" with "alternate". I have been doing Cody for a lo-o-o-ong time. I even went to the White House as guest of  Bush 43. I would like to visit with you some day on the subject. Someone once compared Cody impersonaters to Elvis impersonaters. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting one! I think that it is a great tribute to Cody that there is so much interest in his incredible life.    Sincerely, The "other" Buffalo Bill   

[Terry Lane]

Only kidding Bill. Alternate it is. I always find it interesting to visit with other BBs as well. Maybe we'll meet up sometime. Take care.

[Forty Rod]

Old Top's turn at the sidekick...

curley

Izzat a jin-you-wine post turtle?  Izzit?