The Conversion Corral

[bumphrey hogart]

Thank You bumphery hogart, David Conwill and Sam Craig for your kind words about my work. : Bumphery hogart as far as sending one to the UK just PM me and we can discuss the particulars of what you may be looking for in a Pork Pie.

Sorry,bit new to this computer thing,why I haven't got any pictures ,quotes or anything,really have no idea how to work this thing.What does 'PM' mean?

 

[gtdean48]

PM is Private Message, way to communicate with another member but not posting for all to see...

 

[HamletJSD]

Did you see me wearing mine somewhere? I did the same thing a couple years ago with an eBay Snowy River.

 

[Sam Craig]

That ribbon binding is terrific!
It must be difficult to get it that perfect, though.

Sam

 

[JimC]

Did you see me wearing mine somewhere? I did the same thing a couple years ago with an eBay Snowy River.

Nice job. Did you do the trim by hand or machine?

 

[JimC]

I cut down the brim and put a rough bash in it.

Next I need to sand the brim, shape the brim, and work on a decent bash

Good job! Did you trim the brim yourself?

 

[JimC]

Hello folks,

I would like to make my first post to this forum in this thread. Before I go any further, I want to say that I'm a wide brim man. I like me some brim on my fedoras. Since they're pretty rare, I was wondering about converting cowboy hats to fedoras for a while and then I discovered the Conversion Corral! Encouraged, I hustled back to the vintage shop where I had found a nice newer Stetson and bought it for $32. Then I got to work.

I've done a couple hatbands before but no edge bindings yet I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out. All I did to the hat was rebash it, hand-compress the rear brim's edge while it was wet in attempt to gain some snap (not sure if this really worked), and sew the new stuff on. I left the brim width at its full 3-1/4" since, as I stated, I like me some brim. Still, I have this nagging feeling that it looks too much like a cowboy hat. What do you all think? Should I trim 1/4" off and go from there or leave it as it is?


Before:

[/IMG]

After:

[/IMG][/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

Great job!

 

[Neophyte]

Great job!

I agree! That is a damn fine hat! Very unique :eusa_clap.

 

[scottyrocks]

Wide brim for a fedora, imho, but a beautiful job.

 

[Lloyd]

Great looking hat! But if it was mine I'd chop the brim to 3" or even 2 7/8". Although if you've got a zoot suit hanging in the closet it could be another story entirely

 

[Dundee]

Very nice work. Thanks for posting.

 

[CitizenGenet]

By itself the fedora looks like its brim is outrageously too wide. But when worn, it looks perfect. A job really well done.

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

I finally got my Stetson Open Road back from Optimo just in time for me to fly out to Houston, Texas.

Here is what it looked like when I got it from ebay for $40.

Here is the re-bash I gave it so that Optimo would know what I wanted.

And here is what I had Optimo do to her...

Well, I have to say I am VERY pleased with the results. And, yes, I'll be shaving before I fly out to Texas. LOL

Next month I have another western creased Open Road I'll be doing a similar treatment to. But on that one I'm going with a brown ribbon and a brown brim binding.

 

[gtdean48]

And here is what I had Optimo do to her...

Oh the horror of it all....well it is close to Halloween!

 

[Sam Craig]

Swoop knows what he's talking about.
Let's hope they don't stone you in Texas for putting a wide ribbon on an OR.
The ghost of Lyndon Johnson will be looking for you

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

Oh, boo hoo for the thin ribbon lovers.

I have several other ORs that I would never remove the thin ribbon from (like a beautiful 1950s OR in Silverbelly that I'd never, ever alter.)

But these cheap, cowboy creased ORs from the 1980s? I see no reason to get all mushy over altering them. Plus I'd never wear a cattlemen's creased OR, anyway. That style looks ridiculous on me.

It looks much better than it did and it is not a fine quality, historic hat (both of the ones I am altering are 4Xers made between 1975 and 1985).

Furthermore, I own them. I can do what I want with them!

Of course, I am not taking the hat above with me to Texas, anyway. As I said in another thread a few days ago I am wearing this one to Houston, Texas...

But next month, I'll be showing the next one I am altering just to torture you thin ribbon fans, I guess!

 

[Sam Craig]

Naw, we're just kidding...
Go ahead and slap on the wide ribbons.
Just be careful out West.
You know, if Hickok had kept his back to the wall, he'd be alive today!

Sam

 

[Neophyte]

I like what you've done/had Optimo do, MV :eusa_clap!

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite threads. I'm preparing to branch out into more Western styles, and when I'm finally bored of those, I'll come back to this thread for ideas .

Lots of cool conversions these last couple of pages, everybody. It is always amazing to me to see the before and after pics.

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

Sam,

LOL. Yeah, not wearing wide ribbon to Texas. Taking one of the other thin ribbon ORs I have.

Still, I know posting this would get the OR lovers all torked off. But, C'est la vie, right?

And...

thanks Neophyte.

 

[Sam Craig]

MV
I've converted 2 Resistols, a Miller, and 2 Stetsons from "cowboy" to fedoras ... all but one went from thin to wide ribbon. The only one that did not was a dressy gray Resistol that I'd already put a vintage wide ribbon on when I styled it into a Tom Mix shape for a dress hat ... before the "Gus" became "the" hat.
That one ended up looking just about identical to the one that Ford word on the train in the last Indiana Jones movie ... again, purely by accident.
These days, I get much more wear out of them as fedoras than as cowboy hats, and I don't have to worry about them getting messed up.

Sam