A funny thing happened...

[photobyalan]

I was the only bidder on both of these hats, a Stetson and a Resistol, both 7 1/2's. Have no idea if they are modern or vintage, but the price was right.

$10 Resistol

$5 Stetson

I'll post pics when they come. This should be interesting.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

Great deals!

I like that Stetson! It's a good thing I didn't notice it, or we might have had a fight! Oh, nice avatar hat, by the by.
NB

 

[scotrace]

Wow... great score. Looks like they're gonna whack you pretty hard for shipping.

 

[Rick Blaine]

So what's the plan now?

... are you going to do a reblock & cut down the brims?
..i.e. "fedoraize" them?
'cuz both have very nice bound brims... be a shame to lose 'em.
in either event, nice score! :eusa_clap

 

[photobyalan]

Wow... great score. Looks like they're gonna whack you pretty hard for shipping.

True, but it only comes to 45 bucks for the both of them, delivered. I can live with that even if they are modern hats.

Rick, I don't think I'll cut the brims. They don't look like they are more than 3", and I like a good broad brim. I'll probably just steam them, straighten out those side-curls, and put a nice teardrop pinch into the both of them and see how that works. Hopefully they don't have too much stiffener in them, although I suspect they might. What gets that out? Alcohol?

After doing a little poking around it appears that the Resistol is at least a few years old, as there is nothing even remotely like it currently available according to their web site and the several hat sellers I checked. Keeping my fingers crossed...

 

[Rick Blaine]

... I don't think I'll cut the brims. They don't look like they are more than 3", and I like a good broad brim. I'll probably just steam them, straighten out those side-curls, and put a nice teardrop pinch into the both of them and see how that works. Hopefully they don't have too much stiffener in them, although I suspect they might. What gets that out? Alcohol?
...

Cool... can't wait to see them.
As regards the stiffener, I dunno.
Some months ago, inspired by what I seem to remember being your previous avatar in a cut down Stetson Carson or something similar, I purchased a 10 yr. old Stetson 3x cowboy hat w/ a 3.5" brim & skinny band for cheap, steamed it, gave it a naphtha bath (nasty stuff) and attempted "fedorasation" w/ mixed results.
The stiffness seemed unchanged by the overnight dunk in the naphtha. And I got say, every time since that I have put steam to this hat, I can smell a residual stank of naphtha come up strong from the felt.
I put a previous cheepie through a white gas/coleman fuel baptism and I found the results far more satisfactory as regards reduction of stiffness and also deep cleaning old stains.

I am going to run the one that got naphtha through a denatured alcohol rinse next in hope of eradicating the naphtha smell & getting a little pliability in the brim... we'll see.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

denatured alcohol

Soak it all night in denatured alcohol and that will do the trick.