Remove the shine from a fur felt hat?

[nihil]

Hi all

I received a new black Christy's Fedora today, and was quick at removing the tags.
Later when I inspected it in detail, it turned out to have a shine to the felt. It also had a clear "circle" pattern at the very top/center of the hat, probably from where it was blocked.
My brown (sable) Christy's Adventurer doesn't have this shine to it, nor does it have the circular pattern in the felt.
The felts also feel a bit different. The black is slight less substantial than the brown one.
Is this normal for different types/colors of felt used for hats? Should I consider it an errors in the making that it got that circular pattern to the center of the hat?

If not, and I'm not going to return it (can probably only do that if it's downright faulty as I removed the tags >_<), then I would like some advise as how to at least make it less shiny.

 

[Mulceber]

Pics? Can't comment without seeing it, but I would imagine the hat is supposed to be like that. Sounds a lot like the treatment given to top hats, actually. -M

 

[carldelo]

It sounds like the fur has a slight satin finish to it (i.e. the fur is a little long). It's normal for a satin finish hat to have a circular swirl at the top, from normal brushing. Is it so shiny that it looks bad? I have a dark gray satin finish hat that is shiny, but that's why I bought it - it's more formal looking, to go with my dress overcoat. Posting a picture of it side-by-side with the Adventurer would help.

Here's a photo of the swirl on the crown of a silk-finish Stetson Brewster for comparison:

 

[nihil]

It's actually very much like the hat you show in your post. Slightly less brushed, but got teh same swirl pattern to it.
Now when I re-read the article on the sellers web shop, it says 'polished'. Well, now I know what that means.
I guess it's not a problem as such. but I was looking for a slightly less (i.e. not at all) shiny hat.
There probably aren't much I can do about the shine then?

 

[carldelo]

There probably aren't much I can do about the shine then?

I truly don't know - I'm sure those who do will chime in soon...

 

[Mulceber]

You might be able to send it to a custom hatter like Art or Graham and have them pounce it down to a standard finish - might cost more than you're willing to spend though. -M

 

[Yeps]

You might just be able to brush it. A picture would really help.

 

[Midwest Boater]

I have spent hours brushing my longhair Knox to shine and it finely is shining nicely now.
I am betting if you just give you hat a good shake or rub it the wrong way with your hands the shine will almost completely go away with no harm to the hat.

its hard to capture the shine on camera this is the best shot i have of it.
When it arrived i couldn't even tell it could be shined up like this it just happened as cleaned and brushed it.

 

[Aureliano]

Return it. As long as the hat is intact they don't care about the tags. I returned a hat once to them and didn't even send the tags alone.

 

[Feraud]

Back in the old days before artificial distressing become the norm if we didn't like something looking new we'd wear the like-new finish off! This went for sneakers, boots, denim jeans and jackets, baseball gloves, etc. No reason why you shouldn't do it for a hat.

 

[Dewhurst]

If they will not take it back (you could always inquire), do like Feraud says and wear the heck out of it. Two things might happen: a) your eyes acclimate and you end up liking it, or b) it gets kind of beat up and much of the shine is gone.

In the future, make sure to pay close attention to those descriptions. We may wish, from time to time, that there was a binding dictionary of terms used in describing a felt hat and all of it's properties, Alas!, there is not.