Adventurebilt restoration

[bond]

Was recently sent this adventurebilt hat to restore and while deconstructing hat and trying to remove the liner I noticed that the liner was heavily glued into the felt . Why are hat makers using glue to glue in a liner still? In my mind this is what low end cheap or lazy hat manufacturers did to slap in a liner and forget about it. But when it comes to restoring a hat this is probably the biggest pain in dealing with having to scrape off the excess glue from the inside of the hat that’s stuck to the felt in globs. I am mentioning this as it’s almost impossible to push a needle through the felt to install both the sweatband and reattach the ribbon again. I know that there’s a following here on the lounge for these adventurebilt hats so I felt the need to comment if it’s not already been mentioned. The felts are nicely pounced and bashed but a liner glued in like this is a pretty astounding discovery to me as this is the first adventurebilt hat I’ve come across and to restore for a customer. I would not have thought that any hat maker would be gluing in a liner like this as it is a very primitive way to do so . Here’s pics of glue residue inside of hat. The liner and sweatband are both heavily soiled from wear and the reason why the new owner wanted the redo.

 

[belfastboy]

Was recently sent this adventurebilt hat to restore and while deconstructing hat and trying to remove the liner I noticed that the liner was heavily glued into the felt . Why are hat makers using glue to glue in a liner still? In my mind this is what low end cheap or lazy hat manufacturers did to slap in a liner and forget about it. But when it comes to restoring a hat this is probably the biggest pain in dealing with having to scrape off the excess glue from the inside of the hat that’s stuck to the felt in globs. I am mentioning this as it’s almost impossible to push a needle through the felt to install both the sweatband and reattach the ribbon again. I know that there’s a following here on the lounge for these adventurebilt hats so I felt the need to comment if it’s not already been mentioned. The felts are nicely pounced and bashed but a liner glued in like this is a pretty astounding discovery to me as this is the first adventurebilt hat I’ve come across and to restore for a customer. I would not have thought that any hat maker would be gluing in a liner like this as it is a very primitive way to do so . Here’s pics of glue residue inside of hat. The liner and sweatband are both heavily soiled from wear and the reason why the new owner wanted the redo.

Not sure if they are to be considered 'high end' hats but they are at least expensive.......I just picked up a Worth & Worth - Orlando Palacios hare felt hat, $700 full retail ($100 Ebay new which perhaps says something) that had an heavily glued in liner. The Nick Fouquette hat I handled also had a liner glued in place with what looked like a glob of hot glue gun goop. On a pleasanter note I picked up a used Herbert Johnson (not an Indy hat) that has a nicely sewn in liner.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Was recently sent this adventurebilt hat to restore and while deconstructing hat and trying to remove the liner I noticed that the liner was heavily glued into the felt . Why are hat makers using glue to glue in a liner still? In my mind this is what low end cheap or lazy hat manufacturers did to slap in a liner and forget about it. But when it comes to restoring a hat this is probably the biggest pain in dealing with having to scrape off the excess glue from the inside of the hat that’s stuck to the felt in globs. I am mentioning this as it’s almost impossible to push a needle through the felt to install both the sweatband and reattach the ribbon again. I know that there’s a following here on the lounge for these adventurebilt hats so I felt the need to comment if it’s not already been mentioned. The felts are nicely pounced and bashed but a liner glued in like this is a pretty astounding discovery to me as this is the first adventurebilt hat I’ve come across and to restore for a customer. I would not have thought that any hat maker would be gluing in a liner like this as it is a very primitive way to do so . Here’s pics of glue residue inside of hat. The liner and sweatband are both heavily soiled from wear and the reason why the new owner wanted the redo.

I’d expect this on about any “cheap” hat but seems ridiculous on a hat supposed to be held in esteem.
Doesn’t surprise me one bit that the Fouquette uses hot glue.
Any idea of the age on the Adventurebilt? It would be interesting to know if they all were glued.
Hopefully others chime in.
And yes, picking, scraping, sanding off glue is maddening and soils the hat forever.

It’s good to see you’re still around @bond. I always enjoyed your posts and work.
B

 

[belfastboy]

I’d expect this on about any “cheap” hat but seems ridiculous on a hat supposed to be held in esteem.
Doesn’t surprise me one bit that the Fouquette uses hot glue.
Any idea of the age on the Adventurebilt? It would be interesting to know if they all were glued.
Hopefully others chime in.
And yes, picking, scraping, sanding off glue is maddening and soils the hat forever.

It’s good to see you’re still around @bond. I always enjoyed your posts and work.
B

Yes, I often refer folks in the eastern half of the US to Bond that require restoration work.

 

[jlee562]

The Henry was a factory produced model under the AB branding, separate from the Steve Delk (and now Penman) made hats.

 

[bond]

Took me a half an hour to scrape the dried glue out of the inside of hat and fortunately most of it came out before resizing the adventurebilt hat up to 7 5/8 from 7 1/2. Plenty of crown height to work with and the felt is very nice quality so we didn’t loose anything on the brim . Also Added a new Silk liner in olive and a vented leather sweatband in chocolate per owners request . Fini pics

 

[Darrell2688]

Was recently sent this adventurebilt hat to restore and while deconstructing hat and trying to remove the liner I noticed that the liner was heavily glued into the felt . Why are hat makers using glue to glue in a liner still? In my mind this is what low end cheap or lazy hat manufacturers did to slap in a liner and forget about it. But when it comes to restoring a hat this is probably the biggest pain in dealing with having to scrape off the excess glue from the inside of the hat that’s stuck to the felt in globs. I am mentioning this as it’s almost impossible to push a needle through the felt to install both the sweatband and reattach the ribbon again. I know that there’s a following here on the lounge for these adventurebilt hats so I felt the need to comment if it’s not already been mentioned. The felts are nicely pounced and bashed but a liner glued in like this is a pretty astounding discovery to me as this is the first adventurebilt hat I’ve come across and to restore for a customer. I would not have thought that any hat maker would be gluing in a liner like this as it is a very primitive way to do so . Here’s pics of glue residue inside of hat. The liner and sweatband are both heavily soiled from wear and the reason why the new owner wanted the redo.

Hello Bond,
Sorry about being late to respond to this post about the Adventurebuilt Hat, I have a Indy hat that was made by Steve Delk and I can tell you that the liner is sewn into the hat. I keep this hat stored in a sturdy hat box in my closet, I have taken it out of the box about 8 times just to look at it, I have looked at everything on this hat, a beaver felt was used to make the hat and I can tell you that Steve did not use any glue when he made the hat, The edges of the hat liner was cut using pinking shears before it was put into the hat and the liner has the emblem of the head piece ironed onto the liner in gold color. I have taken the hat out of the box to measure the dimensional cut of the brim. I have been reading on the dimensional cut, seems the brim width starts out at 3" for some people and others the widest is 2 7/8".
I don't know who is making the Adventurebuilt hats now, but Steve didn't use any glue on my hat. I hope this helps a little.
Have a good week,
Darrell