I need a hat!

[flatapple]

Being a newbie...I need a hat!  Just what makes a hat cost $300.00 plus dollars!  Help with any info for a big headed newbie to get a hat at a newbie price..."One size fits all size doesn't work for this head".  7 5/8 hat size.

[HighWall]

Being a newbie...I need a hat!  Just what makes a hat cost $300.00 plus dollars!  Help with any info for a big headed newbie to get a hat at a newbie price..."One size fits all size doesn't work for this head".

you might have better luck if you mentioned what size you are...

[Pay Dirt Norvelle]

I just bough a hat from River Junction and it costs all of $80.00 plus shipping.  You might look at their website to see if you can find one you like.

[Adirondacker]

 Just what makes a hat cost $300.00 plus dollars!  

Sure like to know the answer to that question myself--since, especially, the price of beaver pelts has dropped so low that many trappers don't think the considerable work of skinning, fleshing, etc. is worth the price the pelt will bring.  I found this out a few yrs ago when I tried to interest two licensed trappers in removing a few beavers causing damage on land I owned--neither thought it was worth their time.

Buying a used hat on ebay would be my suggestion, except that your head is even more outsized than mine, which takes a 7-1/2! Most hats available on ebay were bought by pinheads, so finding even a 7-3/8 is tough.  A hat can easily be stretched one size, often two sizes, with a proper hat stretcher, which I couldn't live without. 

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

Needs immediate attention:  Rodeo King hat - 7 5/8  Shipping $18 dollars - current bid 11.00.

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=13984896

Sold - $11.00 plus shipping

[harleydavis]

River Junction hats are a very good hat for the price. They also have a better quality hat in the $200. Consider some of the Civil
War hat makers, depends on your persona and time in history.
http://www.clearwaterhats.com/Old%20West/oldwest1.htm
http://www.dirtybillyshats.com/
http://benderhats.com/hats1.html
Might take a bit of time, but you will get a very authentic hat especially if you are 1860-1870's oriented. Clearwater hats are custom made to your melon requiring a detail measuring and tracing. Also, they will custom make you a hat to your specs. Also, if you can make a trip to McGregor Ia and spend a couple hours with Paul @ River Junction Trade Co. on his old hat steamer, you will have a helluva hat.

[Major 2]

two for 3 is harleydavis suggestions...

Clearwater & Tim Bender  very good ......

Dirty Billy    not so much, Good stuff & poor people skills, they don't call him that for nothing.

[Pay Dirt Norvelle]

I din't think about Civil War hats.  I have two from Mr. Bender and they are great!  You do have to wait a while as he makes them to you measurements.

[Major 2]

Tim is a class act ...that is a Tim Bender Bell Crown in my avatar....
I talked to him on the phone, he walked me through taking a measurement
asked few simple questions ...and the Hat was perfect fit.

It's 100% Nutrena with silk liner.

[cpt dan blodgett]

If'n yore baulking at a $300 hat, don't eben think of dirty billy, if he is making it; it will be outstanding with a price that reflects that

[1961MJS]

Hi

This voice of experience says DON'T BUY A WOOL HAT!!!

They shrink.  The hat will look wonderful until it gets wet, then it gets smaller.  The crown tapers a LOT.  If you turn out to REALLY like this whole sport at some point you'll get wet.  I have a BUNCH (read way to darn many) hats now, but no wool ones.

Just my $0.02   

[Adirondacker]

This voice of experience says DON'T BUY A WOOL HAT!!!

Wool is for clothing, not hats.  No quality fur felt hat should shrink at all, though the leather may.  Problem is, most hat makers (the factories producing hat bodies, not shops that sew on sweats, etc.) are duplicitous about fur content.  "X" used to mean 10% beaver fur, but now it can't be trusted to mean anything.

[The Trinity Kid]

Maybe ole' Rick has one he'd be interested in selling.   I got a hat from the "Boot Barn" from Master Hatters of Texas (MHT) for $50.  I have no clue what it's made of.  It's not straw, but it held it's shape and size when I wore it through a three-inches-of-rain-in one-hour storm.   Might wanna try finding one of them.

--TK

[Lead Waster]

I went to Sierra Trading Post (I think that's the name) and bought a really nice hat (I think so!) for $30. With shipping, $40. I mean, I can't really justify that much more as a newbie for a hat. It looks like good quality, but for a hat that will get worn for a day once every 2 months or whatever, I'm sure it will do fine.

I spent more for boots, but footwear is much more important than a hat. If the hat doesn't fit, it just looks goofy or falls off.

[Octagonal Barrel]

Being a newbie...I need a hat!  Just what makes a hat cost $300.00 plus dollars!  Help with any info for a big headed newbie to get a hat at a newbie price..."One size fits all size doesn't work for this head".  7 5/8 hat size.

Failing to find it in a thrift store.  The pride and joy of my hat collection is a jet-black Resistol.  Wear it daily fall, winter, and spring, and for CAS.  Get compliments on it every time I do wear it.  Only 4x's of beaver, but enough to look really sharp.  It's a Tycoon.  Steamed it to take the dents out.  Now it looks halfway between a modern hat and a period cavalry slouch hat.  I found it completely unused, with new tags inside, at a thrift store for $25.00.

What justifies a $300.00 price tag is the amount of beaver fur, which has a lot to do with durability and wear.  What makes the price tag is luck and thrift stores...

By the way, I wear a 7 1/8, and this Resiistol is a 7 1/4.  Very nearly too big.  Some use foam tape to make a hat smaller.  The historical (and somewhat modern approach) is rolled newspapers stuffed just inside the hat band.  I used a pigskin liner sewed to the right diameter for my head, then stuffed inside the hat band.  I used cowhide 1/8" shims to adjust it further.  My personal take is that adjusting a large hat to a smaller hat by more than 1/8" will be tough.  Also using steam and streching a hat more than 1/8" is pushing it in my opinion.  Others with better techniques are encouraged to reprove me.  ...Especially Delmonico and his like, who are experts...