Dillinger hat specs

[TheDane]

PS: The felted/welted edge was not only a fashion-statement. It actually contributes with a lot of strength and stabillity to the brim - especially on lightweight felts

 

[Brad Bowers]

You're welcome. A wild guess is, that the felted edge and the welted edge originally were two concurrent expressions of almost the same fashion-idea. The welted edge could even be the oldest, and the reason for Mr. Cavanagh's thought: "Haha ... I can do that a lot better. I just need to sew the edge before felting!". This is pure speculation on my part, though

The latter statement is the accurate one, Ole. Welted edges had been around since at least the nineteenth century, and who knows how far back they actually date. I suppose they could be centuries old. Cavanagh was trying to come up with a better, more elegant way to do a welted edge, and succeeded in 1913 with the felted edge.

On the matter of overwelts versus underwelts, I'd say the overwelt was far more prevalent than the underwelt, just based on the numbers we've seen on the Lounge. As Ole pointed out, hidden-stitch underwelts can make a convincing Cavanagh-Edge substitute, and examples from the 1940s and 1950s show up here every now and again. I don't think standard underwelts really gained in popularity until the 1960s, up to the present. Just my two cents.



Brad

 

[Blackthorn]

I've learned a lot here, Ole and Brad, thank you both.

 

[TheDane]

Thanks for elaborating, Brad. Always one of our great sources for well researched, hard historical knowledge.

 

[Tedquinton]

Some really interesting replies, thank-you.