Brim edges...

[epic610]

raw....stitched...welted...bound ?? are there any particular considerations? which is most desirable? any reasons to choose one over the others?

thx in advance; a lot of considerations in buying a good hat.

 

[dressed2the9's]

brim edges

Obviously the most common is the raw edge,
I personally like bound edges and I know many people like them more than just a raw edge. I know on Borsalino Como's they do a stiched edge since I have one but makes the brim which is 2 1/2 look like is 2 3/8 so I don't wear it. I am not so sure what the difference between welted and bound edges are but I would know it if I saw. sometimes the treatment to the edge of the brim " not always but especially if it is wide welt is done by the company in which the brim is stiff on snap brims and makes the brim look a bit smaller. If the brim is stiff, you could always take it to a hatter and he could take some of the body out or just use alot of steam but be careful. Any ways I like the bound edge especially when it matches the band and people seem to notice that detail. when treatment to the brim is done welt, stitch, or bound it is usually a higher grade hat. Hope this helped.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

In the old days when the hat co's started making thinner hats the bound edge gave some support to the brim. Today with so many choices I think its a matter of style and what you like.

 

[PutALidOnIt]

Hmmm - Never gave it any thought, but I'm feeling a bit 'ignernt' - I never imagined that a raw edge was most common! Out of some 30 hats, only one western and one 50's Stetson that aren't bound or finished Cavanagh-ish (Selv-Edge, Guild Edge, etc.).

Must be my unconscious taste for what looks right...that's a good thing, isn't it???

 

[fedoralover]

Bound edges were more common in the vintage hats than raw edged ones.


fedoralover

 

[havershaw]

Actually, this is something I've always wondered about. I have a whole truckload of 30s and 40s catalogs, which always proclaim the raw-edged hats to be their most popular hats and their best sellers. And I feel like I see a lot of raw-edged brims in old films.

But I agree with Fedoralover - raw edges are hard to come by on vintage fedoras. I have three 1930s Borsalinos with raw edges, and maybe two or three Stetsons. That's out of the maybe 70 or so vintage hats I've owned over the years. I don't know why, if raw-edges were most popular, you wouldn't find more that have survived. Maybe Art can shed some light on this...?

 

[fedoralover]

I shouldn't have sounded so dogmatic, but I've owned probably around 80 fedora's and only a few were raw edged. I've looked at 1000's on ebay and in vintage stores, the vast majority all had an edge treatment of some sort, very few were raw edged.

fedoralover

 

[havershaw]

Right - me too. But the catalogs say that raw-edged were their most popular style. I'm just wondering why, if they were so popular, aren't there more around?

 

[Mr. Rover]

Perhaps they were the ones worn the most, which makes them used the most. They'd be hard pressed to stay in good shape for 80 years if the owner was wearing it for 50 years.
Maybe the bound edges were worn by the stars, because the stars could afford them and look the best in them. Afterall, every little imperfection gets blown up ten fold on the silver screen! I think we had this discussion about tailored suits.

 

[fedoralover]

Or it could have even been a marketing ploy. You always say it's the most popular just to make everyone feel like they don't have the latest and so they have to run out and buy it. I really have no idea, but can only attest to what I've actually seen, which is mostly bound edges.

fedoralover

 

[dressed2the9's]

hat edges

when I said raw edges were the most common I was purely speaking about modern hats not vintage, your right back in the day bound edges were much more common.

 

[dressed2the9's]

hat edges

Maybe this has just been my experience when I go to hat store I see more raw edges, and other people have see more bound edges in modern hats, I can not speak for them. All I know is out of the hat catolgs I have recieved form Bencraft hatters, Hartford york ect..When I go to Hollywood hatters in L.A or HATS-PLUS in Chicago or Miller Hats in Houston every year since I have family there, I look for bound and welted brims and for me they are harder to find.
I can not speak for vintage hats since I only have a LEE a HUB "nice hat but other than that I have I've never heard the company HUB" a Champ and Mallory. Surprisly as I counted them from my shelf to say which brands they are they all have bound edges which all came form ebay.. Weather raw edges were more popular in vintage or bound edges were in terms of the history of
pre 50's or any vintage genre hats, I don't know
as well as some of the otheir people in the lounge can. I only speak for the times I have looked at brims of modern hats.

 

[Fedorista]

Work hats vs. dress hats. Raw edge vs. bound.

Work hats weren't carefully stored in boxes. They were used daily. The dressier hats which were a common gift at Christmas have survived in abundance since they were better taken care of and seldom worn.

Most American hat wearers were not actors or Wall Street moguls, they were ordinary people who found it more practical to decorate themselves less lavishly in their work and daily lives than on Sunday morning or other occasion appropriate for "duding up."

 

[Harry Lime]

Cast my vote with "Fedoralover."

I think the catalogue that called it the "most popular style" was doing so on the basis of wishful thinking/steering the consumer. A hat maker, particularly a large maker of quantity hats, would push for the popularity of the raw edge because it's cheaper to manufacture and the difference in price a bound edge commands is slight. If preference could be steered to a cheaper, easier to make alternative with no price cut it would be advantageous (much the same way breweries willingly went to "light beer." Cheaper cost to make for the same/higher price to sell.) Even in modern hats, the bound edge is the hard part. Survival rates have little to do with it, ctalogue copy or not the bound edge was always far more popular.

Harry Lime

 

[PutALidOnIt]

I think that all of the assertions are valid;

a.) The finer, dressy hats would logically be worn seldom, probably on special occasions, and be carefully kept. This would not necessarily apply to those who might have been in a comfortably moneyed position and were dressed to the nines on a daily basis. Considering the depression, wartime and early post-war era, Joe Average or Soup-Line Charlie probably wore one, maybe 2 hats day in day out for years, not knowing if he would ever afford to get a new lid!

When my dad passed a few years ago, I found that his "Sunday hat" of many years (from the 50's) was carefully stored in a nice box with a couple of mothballs (p-u!), but the ones he wore to work (lower line felts) or for casual wear (Milan straws) were somewhat misshapen and dusty, just lying on the closet shelf - with nibbles in the felts.

b.) In the depression and wartime era, the marketing would want to make the struggling fellow feel that he was not getting the short shrift by stating that a certain inexpensive raw edged lid was their "most popular style". Of course, it was - it was the cheapie! And, for those who could not afford a "Fifteen" or "Beaver Twenty", the advertising told them, in a subtle way, that they would not feel any "po' folk" stigma by purchasing the economy model if it were the "most popular style".


I put my 2 cents worth in, and the guy offered me a penny for my thoughts. Then he asked for change!

 

[makll]

I like mens hats with finished edges and generally make them that way.
The higher percent of customers prefer a finished edge as well.

Here is the latest one finished up for a customer:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2116491534&idx=2

 

[spiridon]

Hmmm - Never gave it any thought, but I'm feeling a bit 'ignernt' - I never imagined that a raw edge was most common! Out of some 30 hats, only one western and one 50's Stetson that aren't bound or finished Cavanagh-ish (Selv-Edge, Guild Edge, etc.).

Must be my unconscious taste for what looks right...that's a good thing, isn't it???

Same here. In fact out of my small collection, none are raw edged. I've been looking to pick up a hat with a raw edge brim......I kinda like "the look".

 

[Snrbfshn]

Not many raw edge for me either, but...

I do like the look, and have one good example of an early wide-brim, high-crown raw-edge fedora - the Stetson 3X Melrose:

 

[MattC]

I like 'em all--but raw the least

I have a weakness for the Cavanagh edge--the look with the most class. But a neat overwelt if fine (as is a subtle underwelt). And for that 40s look, I think you need a bound edge. The problem with raw edges is that they can be harder to shape, and, it seems to me, they are more likely to get sloppy.