Hat Cleaning Services

[OldHatGuy]

I have seen an add posted by "Clean A Hat" located in Mississippi. They charge $25 for a cleaning, which seems very reasonable. Does anyone have any experience with this company? Or any other suggestions for a company that can do just a cleaning without a full hat restoration?

 

[Feraud]

Here is the page for Worth & Worth located in NYC.
http://www.hatshop.com/site/hat-repair.php

 

[gtdean48]

Optimo offers just cleaning & blocking form $30 to $40. http://www.optimohats.com/hatcare.htm

 

[Alex Oviatt]

I have had very good service from Baron hats in Burbank, CA. They also sell a range of hat care items, as well as some really cool hats.

 

[Lefty]

Matt JH has posted that a clean and block at South Street Hats in Philly is practically free compared to other shops.

click here for the thread

 

[tortswon]

The Answer

Call Oscar at South Street Hats. The telephone number is 215-829-1600. I just had my VS Mojave (a very light colored hat) cleaned and blocked for $8. That is not a typo, eight dollars! It is a really neat shop and Oscar is a great guy. Best, Sam

 

[daizawaguy]

I was just admiring that hat on the VS thread...what happened Sir, if I can ask...surely a hat a few months old does not need a clean so soon?

 

[tortswon]

No worries

DG, nothing bad happened to the hat. Living in the middle of a big dirty city, a light colored hat becomes a smudge magnet. For $8.00, why not have the hat pristine all the time? And thank you, sir, for your kind words about the hat. Best, Sam

 

[majormoore]

Is the owners name Drew by any chance???

Major Moore

QUOTE=OldHatGuy]I have seen an add posted by "Clean A Hat" located in Mississippi. They charge $25 for a cleaning, which seems very reasonable. Does anyone have any experience with this company? Or any other suggestions for a company that can do just a cleaning without a full hat restoration?[/QUOTE]

 

[tonyb]

Call Oscar at South Street Hats. The telephone number is 215-829-1600. I just had my VS Mojave (a very light colored hat) cleaned and blocked for $8. That is not a typo, eight dollars! It is a really neat shop and Oscar is a great guy. Best, Sam

Wow. Gotta wonder how he can afford to charge so little. You folks in Philly and environs are fortunate to have him in the neighborhood.

 

[tonyb]

DG, nothing bad happened to the hat. Living in the middle of a big dirty city, a light colored hat becomes a smudge magnet. For $8.00, why not have the hat pristine all the time? And thank you, sir, for your kind words about the hat. Best, Sam

Yeah, that's a great color, but handle it with dirty hands or let it land on a wet sidewalk and you'll likely see evidence of it.

FWIW, hatter's sponges are often enough to lift those surface smudges. But a proper reblock sure can sharpen up a hat, eh?

 

[tortswon]

Tony, with so few real hat shops remaining, I do all I can to support Oscar and his shop. I bring a hat in at least once a week for a clean and reblock. Oscar is a great guy and talking with him and some of the guys who hang out in the shop is worth the eight bucks even if it didn't include a cleaning and a block. I don't know how he can do it for so little but as long as we can keep a real hat shop within walking distance of my home, I'm there.

Additionally, whenever I bring in a vintage hat that I have not brought in before, I get a story about the manufacturer and the style. I'm not sure if the stories are 100% accurate, but they are always interesting and Oscar is as much a vintage treasure as any hat I own. Best, Sam

 

[M6Classic]

I have my felt hats maintained by Gary White, I send each hat to him about once every two years. This is not cheap, but it assures that my hats always fit properly and are clean, in good condition, and sport new ribbons and leathers as needed. Gary has kept one fedora I have worn since 1978 in exceptionally fine shape which has certainly been worth the cost to me!

Milt Johnson in Santa Fe maintains my panamas, some of which are twenty-five years old, and they all look great and fit wonderfully. Also, Milton knows how I like my hats delivered...unlined, un-dented and un-starched, and he always has exactly the ribbon I want.

I do not know about everyone else...I am sort of new here...but I find that my hats need to be re-sized more than they need to be cleaned every couple of years.

Buzz

 

[Lefty]

He certainly is a little pricey.

Each time I see this, the "your" drives me crazy.

 

[M6Classic]

He certainly is a little pricey.

Each time I see this, the "your" drives me crazy.

Yeah, he is more than a little pricey, but I for one do not consider it excessive to spend an average of about thirty bucks per hat per year to have clean hats that actually fit and whose lifespans can thus be measured in decades!

Buzz

 

[Red McCutcheon]

s

"If you're not impulsive, you'll never own a good hat."

Not to hijack, but truer words are rarely spoken (or written). Play it too safe and you'll wind up with a bland brim that does nothing for you.

 

[tortswon]

Curious

What a price difference!! Buzz, do you have any idea what your guy does when he cleans and blocks a hat? I always thought cleaning and blocking was a pretty standard process. While $8 is admitedly inexpensive, I wonder if your guy does anything unusual with his clean and block? I'm going to ask Oscar what he does when he cleans and blocks and will report back here. Maybe you could inquire of your guy what he does and post what he says. That way we can know more about the process. Best, Sam

 

[M6Classic]

What a price difference!! Buzz, do you have any idea what your guy does when he cleans and blocks a hat? I always thought cleaning and blocking was a pretty standard process. While $8 is admitedly inexpensive, I wonder if your guy does anything unusual with his clean and block? I'm going to ask Oscar what he does when he cleans and blocks and will report back here. Maybe you could inquire of your guy what he does and post what he says. That way we can know more about the process. Best, Sam

Every two years I have each hat re-fitted which usually requires a new leather. Gary also inverts the hat...turns it inside-out...each time he gets it which extends its life by making it age equally. Throw in a new ribbon and the actual cleaning and...well...I can see how the price gets up there. However, I still look at this as an investment in longevity and I have the thirty-year-old hats to prove it; at least to prove it to me.

Buzz

 

[tortswon]

Gotcha

Buzz, that is really a full blown refurbishing of the hat. I can understand why the price is so much higher, sort of analagous to having a car washed vs. detailed. Best, Sam

 

[tonyb]

Refurbishing an old hat can be as much or more work than making an all-new one. If you gotta strip it down, clean it, block it, and put it all back together again -- whether or not you're replacing the sweat and/or ribbon and/or liner -- well, you could feel justified in charging an amount approaching that of a new hat.

There are often very good reasons, by the way, that hatters prefer replacing ribbon and sweatbands (sweatbands especially) over reusing the original pieces. And it's not just that the replacement parts are less hassle to work with, although they usually are. It's often that the customer would end up with a better hat if the hatter replaced those pieces. Old sweatbands are often falling apart, or about to, even when that isn't immediately apparent. And there are new replacement sweats available that are of very high quality -- every bit as good as the old stuff, and usually better. And if the hatter is using NOS vintage ribbon, the replacement bands and bows will likely be superior to what had been there. This is almost universally true in the case of hats less than, say, 45 years old.

I'm interested in knowing what all South Street Hats does for that eight buck price. So yes, please do report back on that, tortswon. I'm guessing that it's something akin to the "hats blocked while you wait" service I've heard that some hatters offered way back when. I suspect they (the guys way back when) put a hat on the block without stripping it down (or "ripping," as it was once commonly called, or so I've been told), perhaps on a block with an old brimless body covering all but the lower inch and a half or two inches of it, so that the sweatband would be less likely to "telegraph" through, and then did some sort of surface cleaning and called it good. And it likely WAS good, I suppose, if the hat wasn't deeply soiled.