Beater Brotherhood

[RJR]

Peters Brothers Shady Oaks beater.

 

[itsallgood]

A submerging and thorough soaking, and all bets are off re shrinkage

Right, but this fur felt is rather amazing stuff. Steam it and it melts like warm clay in your hand. Allow to dry a few minutes and it stiffens and holds its shape, with no memory of its prior shape. (The closespins I put on while drying were completely unnecessary.) Shrink? Steam and it stretches readily. The Angler is now clean and much softer than before the dunk.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

I'd try a bath in white gas first. I took apart a beater Stetson No. 1 and nothing got it clean. White gas first, then hot soapy water. It took forever to rinse out all the soap and the felt was still dirty. As it dried over the next several days at room temperature, I kept stretching it over the top of my head to keep it from shrinking too much.

It's still sitting here while I figure out what to do with it. Maybe I'll dye it a dark moss green color and go from there...

Ha ha Doug sounds familiar.
Mine is SB and wasn’t filthy, just dingy with crease ghosts, some ugly rust/sweat stains in front and that burnished color that develops around the binding. This was one of my first real hats a year or two before i joined the lounge.
I did not know squat about cleaning hats and had yet to read about dumping a hat in Coleman fuel, gasp, but i knew they used Dawn dish liquid to clean oil soaked birds so into the shower with Dawn. I used warm water, a babys hair brush and a soft tooth brush with Crest on the rust ribbon.
I did put it on a block, (think i posted elsewhere no block) and it did take forever to rinse out the Dawn. I let it dry on the block for a couple days and these pics are of it now. Don’t think i ever creased and wore it yet. I did remove the liner pre-shower. I got lucky, had a block or it would have been bye bye 50. All in all, Dawn works good, use a block, live and learn.
She took a beatdown so i guess she fits here. GMMV
Be well. Bowen

 

[itsallgood]

I steamed the crown again and gave it more fence post, this time to stretch the vertical height for more crown. Here it is with a different bash. And added just a touch of cowboy curl. I like it better this way.

 

[Kane]

Hi folks, I’ve recently begun to wear a felt fedora after years of wearing straw and canvas hats. I have always treated my hats as daily working garb. I work outside and it gets a little hot and dirty. I am not overtly hard on stuff, but my older hats have sweat stains and dirt, like a patina. I have a Stetson felt fedora that I’ve been wearing out quite a bit, and it still looks pretty nice. I’m looking forward to watching it become more broken in, although I doubt it will ever get to the point of Fred C. Dobbs’ or Indiana Jones’ fedora. So, who wears their nice felt fedora as a hard working daily driver, and how well has it held up?

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Hi folks, I’ve recently begun to wear a felt fedora after years of wearing straw and canvas hats. I have always treated my hats as daily working garb. I work outside and it gets a little hot and dirty. I am not overtly hard on stuff, but my older hats have sweat stains and dirt, like a patina. I have a Stetson felt fedora that I’ve been wearing out quite a bit, and it still looks pretty nice. I’m looking forward to watching it become more broken in, although I doubt it will ever get to the point of Fred C. Dobbs’ or Indiana Jones’ fedora. So, who wears their nice felt fedora as a hard working daily driver, and how well has it held up?

Like many here, I have several hats and rotate them so no one hat receives all that much wear. I’ve acquired a few well-worn vintage hats, but when I’m shopping the vintage markets I’m trying to find hats that are as close to pristine as possible.

 

[belfastboy]

Hi folks, I’ve recently begun to wear a felt fedora after years of wearing straw and canvas hats. I have always treated my hats as daily working garb. I work outside and it gets a little hot and dirty. I am not overtly hard on stuff, but my older hats have sweat stains and dirt, like a patina. I have a Stetson felt fedora that I’ve been wearing out quite a bit, and it still looks pretty nice. I’m looking forward to watching it become more broken in, although I doubt it will ever get to the point of Fred C. Dobbs’ or Indiana Jones’ fedora. So, who wears their nice felt fedora as a hard working daily driver, and how well has it held up?

I concur with Deadly's post above. With so many hats I doubt I will ever wear any one of them enough to beat it up. I do however have hat cata
gories. I have a western weight crossover and an old Borsalino in a mildly western style for my camping/hiking trips, 2 Akubras for any outings in heavy rain and then my "dress" fedoras. Quite likely my dress fedoras will never look that broken in. I carry a foldup silk sack in my pocket so when in doors, restaurants, theatre or church etc the hat gets place in the sack and if not on a chair then underneath. I have an old Stetson milan and a Panama for sweaty days.

 

[johnnycanuck]

There was a gentleman here that posted about fifteen years ago showing off a very well worn 25 year old Akubra Squatter and his new replacement one. His 25 year old squatter was stained,holes in the crown and patched. Ribbon frayed, it looked fantastic. Unfortunately all the pictures have been lost. Wish I made a copy all those years ago.
Some of my older hats have sweat stains but I try to keep them in good order. One day they may look that loved.
Johnny

 

[Zombie_61]

Another member here who wears his various hats regularly, so I don't really have one specific "go to" hat that takes more use/abuse than the others and I don't own any vintage hats. My oldest is my first "real" hat (i.e. not a cheap wool felt), a dark brown Fed IV that is now a little over 10 years old. I've worn it in three or four rainstorms that saturated the felt, and a number of times while doing yard work that resulted in perspiration soaking through the felt, and I think it looks as good now as it did when I got it; maybe better:

When I started wearing hats I was looking forward to the day when one or two of them started taking on that "beater" appearance, but I had no idea how resilient fur felt is. At this point I think the only way to get that look would be to run 'em over with a lawnmower.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Hats are worked hard in the Outback.

A couple of wedgetail's Woomera's:

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/akubra-woomera.86749/

And Eric Feinblatt's:

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/akubra-woomera.86749/page-8

 

[Redfokker]

Hats are worked hard in the Outback.

A couple of wedgetail's Woomera's:

View attachment 143778

View attachment 143779

View attachment 143780

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/akubra-woomera.86749/

And Eric Feinblatt's:

View attachment 143776

View attachment 143777

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/akubra-woomera.86749/page-8

Wow!

 

[Kane]

Wow. Jack, that takes “distressed” to a whole new level!

 

[Winston Carter]

Hats are worked hard in the Outback.

A couple of wedgetail's Woomera's:

View attachment 143778

View attachment 143779

View attachment 143780

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/akubra-woomera.86749/

And Eric Feinblatt's:

View attachment 143776

View attachment 143777

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/akubra-woomera.86749/page-8

I like the one with the top of the crown completely gone.

 

[belfastboy]

Wow. Jack, that takes “distressed” to a whole new level!

Yep, from distressed all the way to traumatized!

 

[Frunobulax]

I fall into the category of having so many hats at this point that it's unlikely most of them will actually be "beaters." However, given that I enjoy restoring hats, I have many that I view as more "expendable" than others. I have several customs I wear when I know they are going to get some stress, as well as some older hats of varying condition that I don't baby.

Perhaps Eric will chime in. He wears all of his hats as outdoor work hats and gets great performance out of them.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Rockwater]

Naphta rescues beater...again.

 

[jonbuilder]

At what point do you retire your hat? Or maybe send it off for a renovation job? Lets hear about it, or maybe better yet, see it.

I through the point of the tread was what do we do with are "beaten down" requiring attention. I have a Stetson 7X non clear beaver I am guessing 60s base on sweat and linner the size tag is long gone. I purchased this hat on the bay about 10 years back it was a daily wearer for 3 or 4 years. The stetson is now my shop -yard work hat, rain hat. I removed the sweat because the leather had harden due to wear, many napa baths and rain soakings. I decided the hat was not ready to toss I did not want to spend $150 on a complete refurb and shipping. I still need a beater and my beater needs a sweat so decided to install a sweat I has sitting around with spray adhesive.

Hat at purchase and after new crease

Hat before new sweat and cleaning

Install sweat with spay adhesive

final prodect

 

[Zombie_61]

I sincerely wish I had a hat for this thread. I got my first real hat (i.e., not a cheap mass-produced wool p.o.s.) in August of 2008--a dark brown Akubra Fed IV, looking forward to the day when it would attain the character exhibited by the hats in this thread. 10.5 years later, the damned thing looks just as good as it did the day I got it; maybe better. I'm beginning to think the only way I'll ever own a true beater hat is to find and buy one already in that condition.

 

[scottyrocks]

I have a coupla/few beaten (meaning 'beyond beater') hats.

Unfortunately, the most recent one is my Fed III. I love this hat but it has almost completely lost its ability to hold a shape.

I've already not only reblocked it, but took it apart and reversed the entire hat front to back because a hole was beginning to form at the top of the front pinch.

I got the hat well-used, but wore it, myself, for years, right up until almost a year ago now.

I like hats with character, but this one is now beyond what I would consider wearable-in-public.

 

[Bushman]

I sincerely wish I had a hat for this thread. I got my first real hat (i.e., not a cheap mass-produced wool p.o.s.) in August of 2008--a dark brown Akubra Fed IV, looking forward to the day when it would attain the character exhibited by the hats in this thread. 10.5 years later, the damned thing looks just as good as it did the day I got it; maybe better. I'm beginning to think the only way I'll ever own a true beater hat is to find and buy one already in that condition.

I can relate. The worse wear my hats have are some bleeding on the inside liner, and some cracking in the leather band of my Dobbs homburg that had belonged to my grandfather.