Hat treatments?

[Oregon Bill]

Finally got all sorted out with the folks at River Junction, and boy, do I like my Boss of the Plains. Question is, should I put anything on it to reduce staining etc., or should I just leave her as is and start letting it get character?

[Delmonico]

They make a sponge for cleaning hats, any western wear store should have them, they work real well for regular cleaning.   Just rub the whole hat "Counter-Clockwise" and brush it off with a soft brush.

[Llano County]

DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON YOUR HAT! Let it build some character. Like Delmonico stated, They make a sponge for cleaning hats. I have one for light colored hats and one for dark colored hats. Most Western stores sell them. I will use it to brush off black powder residue or blood (after the wind caught it and blew it into the gut pile during deer season). If it is wool felt, you don't want to get it wet. If it is fur felt, you can wear it in the rain. It is easy to reshape a fur felt hat with the steam off a tea kettle of clothes steamer. The hat I'm wearing in my picture went to Afghanistan and back inside a duffle bag without any ill effects. So get out there and wear that hat.

[Advertising]

[James Hunt]

All of the above, and my vote for character. I have more hats than should be allowed, but basically I have a winter (black) hat and a summer (sorta gray not quite silverbelly) hat. They both have been snowed on, rained on, sat on, rolled on, and stepped on (both by me and the black one by a shod horse). I value both more than all others cause I can look at them and remember all the places they've been. One is five years old, the other ten and some. They have developed the look. I have only brushed them, never really cleaned them. They've been reshaped a bunch of times. A kettle followed by a quick spray of hat stiffiner (availabe at any western wear store that sells quality hats) to sorta set the shape which then holds up in nearly all weather.

Still trying to figure out a need to wear my hat and spurs to the office. Have fun.

[Grizzle Bear]

Llano County:

Did they let you take your six-shooters to Afganistan, too?   

I'll bet even Afgans have heard of American Cowboys!

Grizzle Bear

[Oregon Bill]

Thanks, boys. As I recall, most period photos of the Old West show much-used headgear. A nice, crisp, clean hat was probably the mark of a greenhorn, which of course I am.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Character!
My silverbelly has hamburger grease, BP residue, soot, mud, etc. on it. I've worn it in the rain and snow.

Slim

[Llano County]

Griz,
I didn't get to take my Remingtons, just a 15 shooter and a M-4. I didn't get to meet a Sheik's daughter or race my Indian Pony across the desert either. We did confiscate some old black powder weapons mostly British 3-band Enfields, Snyder and Martini-Henri rifles. You could even buy them at the Bazars. The Afghanis liked my hat. It also makes a promising target for some ambitious Islamic Insurgent so I had to be careful where I wore it. I wish the Army would ditch the beret and go back to the cowboy hat. It is much more practical than a ball cap or a beret and everyone would know that the person wearing it is a US soldier. But I digress. This is supposed to be a hat treatment topic.

You are correct Bill, only greenhorns wear nice crisp hats. When I buy a new hat, I don't pay much attention to the crease of the crown. I look for color, brim width and crown height. I will dunk it in the tub and then wear it around so it will conform to my head (which is not a perfect long oval) and then I'll crease the crown the way I want it. After it is fairly dry I will straighten up the  brim and put a stampede string on it. Then enjoy. I get a lot of nice compliments from young women on my hats. Not because they are interested in me but because they don't feel threatened by me. Sigh. 

[Oregon Bill]

LLano: I was just wondering about adding stampede strings. I wonder how prevalent these were in the Old West. How do you attach yours?

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Oregon Bill,
Stampede strings were used, particularly in the southwest. There is a famous photo (see below) dated 1868, of two texas rangers sitting for a studio shot. One of them has his hat on his knee held by a chin string ( I don't know if they were called stampede strings back then) and, another of three apache scouts. The apache in the middle is wearing a straw hat that has a chin string attached. In the Time Life series "The Old West", The Soldiers volume (it may be the Gettysburg volue of the civil war series??), There is a two page photo of a whole company of mounted cavalry with their chin straps from their Kepi's snugly in place during muster. There are several others, but these are the only two I have available right now.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Wear it. Let it get some character. Put a stampede string on it. Nothing looks better than a hat that has lost the new look. I clean mine with one of those sponge doodads and brush it now and then but it took a couple years to get it to loose that new symmetrical appearance and start to look good.

[Llano County]

The word "stampede string" is a modern term but I don't know what they were called back in our period. In Texas they probably had some kind of exotic Mexican sounding name for them like, La Stringerro de Sombrerro or something. 

 I have used three different ways to attach a stampede string to my hats.
Method 1: Punch holes through the brim next to the crown and above the ears. Run the thong around the outside of the crown in the front or the back and down through the holes. This is probably the most common way you see it done. It is the method that the Army drill instructer hats use. This method has some drawbacks. If you use your stampede string a lot, the hole will waller out or tear. I had a hatter put some small grommets in the holes and they worked for a while and then tore out. Also if your wear your hat in the rain or snow you will get an annoying drip, drip, drip down on your ears akin to the "Chinese Water Torture."

Method 2: Run the thong around on the inside of the hat between the sweatband and the crown and down through the seam above the ears. It works if you use a flat thong or a small round thong. Not good for the fatter briaded thongs. The Pros: No annlying drip or torn felt. Cons: It does not lend itself to fancy thongs. Also a big Oklahoma sized gust of wind can tear the stiching out leaving you with a sweatband around your head while you watch the body of your hat skip across the prairie. I remedied this by casting a couple of reinforcing stiches in the area where the thong passes between the stiching.

Method 3: Use a cotter pin pushed up between the sweatband and the crown and attach a thong to each side using a ring. I found this style at River Junction. They have a braided leather one and a horse hair one. I use the braided leather one. It looks good, is not scratchy like horsehair and no holes in the brim. I have not found any drawbacks yet. It has stood up to some pretty heavy winds without any apparent damage to the hat. If you can braid leather it would be easy to make. The only thing I don't like about the River Junction model is that it is too long for my likes.

Back to Hat Treatments: Found in The Cowboy Hat Book, Revised Edition by William Reynolds and Ritch Band....for oily stains...try Fuller's Earth, found in Drug or paint stores. It has the consistency of baking powder. Sprinkle the Fuller's Earth on and around the spot to a depth of about one-eigth of an inch. Like a poultice draws infection from a sore on your horse, this little poultice of Fuller's Earth draws the oily residue from the fibers in your hat..... The book is a good source for old photos, hat styles and care and feeding of your hat. There is a picture on page 46 of Ritch Rand using a hat sizing contraption on the head of a customer. The hatter I went to in Oklahoma City used one on me. That is where I found out my head was not a perfect long oval but more like a whopperjawed stove pipe. The contrapation creates a template of your head that the hatter uses to cut a hat form to match your skull.

[Books OToole]

My hat is getting plenty of character.  Especially since I started shooting BP.  Do you reckon that Fuller's Earth stuff will get those BP cartidge tracks out of my XXXXX Stetson?

Books

[Delmonico]

I'm going to agree with Bill, the hat string by any name seems to be mostly a South West thing.  Something may surprise me someday, but I can't remember ever seeing one in a Northern Plains picture.   

[Llano County]

My hat is getting plenty of character.  Especially since I started shooting BP.  Do you reckon that Fuller's Earth stuff will get those BP cartidge tracks out of my XXXXX Stetson?

Books

Try brushing first, then use a sponge. A foam make-up sponge or a orange hat sponge or an art gum eraser. If you use an art gum eraser rub it in a counter clockwise direction with the grain. THEN the Fuller's Earth. For marks that do not respond to sponging, you can try very very fine sandpaper. Carefully sand with the grain, don't dig in or push up on the inside with a finger or you will create a weak spot. If you can't get the spot out then your only recourse is take it too a professional hatter. They can remove deep oily sweat stains. But why would you want your hat that clean? I thought it was everyone's goal to have a hat befittin' Fetus Hagin or Andy Devine.

[Oregon Bill]

LLano, fellas, thanks for all the fine thoughts on this. "You boys is gold."

[Delmonico]

I wouldn't say gold, it don't tarnish.

[Big Hext]

Those of y'all who know me, know that I don't clean my hats.. I just buy more.

Now if I recall correctly, corn starch is supposed to be good for cleaning hats.. but that's just rumor, as far as I'm concerned.
Adios,

[Delmonico]

I've heard corn meal.  Heck, with the right stain corn likker might work.   Accually I'm spearminting with a cleaner my wife uses for cleaning ink off of rubber stamps.  It did a good job on my black 5X Rodeo King and removed part of the sweat stains from my Rand.  Will try more on the Rand as I get braver with it. I got blood on my favorite quilt last hospital trip and it took it out by spraying the spot and rubbing with a toothbrush, before I washed it.  It took Iodine out of the same quilt in August the same way.

The stuff is called Awsome Cleaner and we get it at a dollar store here in town.   I want to experiment a bit more with hats before I recomend it.