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The Conversion Corral

Harry Jones

New in Town
Messages
34
Location
Gainesville, Florida
Super job, Dogman. Love the blue ribbon, too.

Harry, I had the same issue with a western conversion. The crown was so high that a center dent didn't look right so I went with a C.

The problem with a lot of westerns is that they're so thick that they're not so easy to work with.

A nice soaking with distilled water sure helped! Don't have much experience with westerns, but I suspect this one was not quite as thick as some. Still quite substantial felt but it may also not have had as much stiffener as others. There was some give to the crown before I wet it down.
 

DOGMAN

One Too Many
Messages
1,625
Location
Northeast Ohio
Very cool! You are a brave soul, with that tall crown. When I was playing with my latest, I ended up with a C crown; trying to do a center dent produced a crown that just would not look right: height and taper. Tell us about your brim trimmer. I am particularly interested in the cutter.
I don't think I'm a brave soul,maybe a little eccentric.I wanted a hat with a tall crown and it does take some getting use to. But I really don't mind standing out in a crowd.
 

bowlerman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,294
Location
South Dakota
I like your style, Dogman. My favorite hats have a little bit of a taller crown, but I've been "settling" lately for the smaller ones, especially since my chin shrunk 3 inches last week. :p
How about a noggin' shot of that conversion?
 

DOGMAN

One Too Many
Messages
1,625
Location
Northeast Ohio
I like your style, Dogman. My favorite hats have a little bit of a taller crown, but I've been "settling" lately for the smaller ones, especially since my chin shrunk 3 inches last week. :p
How about a noggin' shot of that conversion?
Soon as I get a new memory card for my camera, I'll get that noggin' shot.My chin also grows and shrinks,I sometimes get tired looking at the same face in the mirror.
 

Joshbru3

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,409
Location
Chicago, IL
Stetson Gun Club Conversion

Well I finally "converted" my Gun Club even though its really not a full conversion. I would call it an "update." From the auction photos it looked like a nice light blue with a tall/straight crown, and nice felt.......well it turned out to be a bit different.

1) The hat is actually a steel blue and not light blue, like the auction photos showed.

2) The crown was only 5 1/2 inches open with quite a bit of taper when opened up.

3) The felt was not finished well AT ALL. I usually only wear vintage hats and the vintage Stetson felt is almost "magical" in its own way. This new stuff doesn't hold a candle to the vintage stuff. The felt on this Gun Club is rough and I do not believe it was meant to be that way intentionally. I've re-creased some modern stetson felts for friends and relatives of mine and its all about the same. The felt doesn't have any "springy-ness" to it and is fairly limp. This Gun Club didn't wrinkle at all when shaped which was good, but the shellac was not dispersed evenly in the felt, so there were spots that were stiffer than others. My biggest complaint however was the dye work. There was so much powder used on this hat it was a joke, and when it was steamed, brushed, and shaped, a good amount came out and what was left was uneven colored spots. They are not too evident now, because I spent a bunch of time trying to hide them, but I still know they are there.

The saying used to be that, "if a hat is high quality in its dying and felt composition, it doesn't ever need powder."

Under the sweatband there was a $54.00 dollar price tag (but NO factory tags of any sort), so it could be from the early to mid 80's. I'm not sure if Stevens still made hats for stetson at that time, or if they were already owned by Hatco. Either way, im pretty disappointed in the factory craftsmanship from that time. The brim edge wasn't even cut properly.

Anyways, all gripes aside, I bought this hat to make into a remake of an early 1900's Chamois thin ribbon that was once owned by Lefty. However, after re-blocking the hat with a very straight 52 block, the crown came down to about 5 1/8 inches tall. So......I did quite a bit of digging in my vintage hat ads and found the perfect early 1900's look.

Here's a clipping from a 1920 Sears Roebuck catalog. This was the style that I was going after (MINUS THE THIN RIBBON), what do you guys think?

1920SearsAdhatcloseup.jpg



Here's the before pictures (auction photos)

StetsonGunClub1.jpg


StetsonGunClub4.jpg


StetsonGunClub5.jpg


StetsonGunClub7.jpg


And AFTER:

DSC07269.jpg


DSC07270.jpg


DSC07273.jpg


DSC07274.jpg


DSC07275.jpg
 

BR Gordon

One Too Many
Messages
1,152
Location
New Mexico
Josh, that is amazing what you can do with Hats. Incredible. It looks really similar to your Hat in the ads.
That is a fantastic job you done. Congrats Josh

Manfred used up all of the adjectives, so I'll just have to second what he said. Josh, you did a great job.
 

Aureliano

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,753
Location
Macondo.
Looks nice. It might be the photo but it looks like the ribbon needs to be swirled as it seems that at the front, opposite to the bow side, it's not flushed against the crown.
 

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