The magic of Major Mike Moore

[majormoore]

Thank you for letting me work on that hat. It looks great on you, hope you are going out tonight to dinner and have it and the suit on, combo looks very nice on you.

Major Moore

I am happy to say that I got my el Presidente back from Major Mike Moore

I have renamed my new hat The Major

This is an exerpt from an email I sent Mike when I first saw the hat: "Mike I cannot believe my eyes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The craftsmanship, the care, and the design are exquisite."

What this artist has done was bring a new dimension to my wardrobe. His demeanor, price and eye for detail are impeccable. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[majormoore]

Dundee, your hat is ready to ship out to you.

Major Moore

I sent a resistol 4X that I had started to convert. It was a regular oval. Mike is going to make it a long oval, retrim the brim, add brim binding and a hat ribbon and bow. I eagerly await the professional conversion. Here are pictures of what I did. I will post the finished product when it arrives.

 

[indycop]

That hat is beautiful CB! Great job Mike!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Thanks everyone!!!!!!

 

[barrowjh]

Soft-As-A-Cloud

Buckaroo Hatters to the rescue! Excellent work by Major (Mike) Moore; with regard to vintage felt, full-service hatters can really ‘raise the dead.’ There is a long story here:

Begin with OFAS auction 170259752541 which closed Sept 14 ’08 (listing no longer active now). The seller’s title was ‘vintage mens borsalino size 5 paris macotta hat’ and I knew that size 5 (French) equates to 7 1/8th American sizing. The description went on to say ‘vintage custom made paris france borsalino mascotta’ and ‘hat is in overall excellent condition.’ I am not quite sure how everyone else on the planet overlooked this one, but I won it for $22.06 plus $8.95 shipping, or $31.01.

I was greatly disappointed upon discovering that the sweatband was in fact falling out of the hat; how could a shot sweat warrant an ‘overall excellent condition’ description? This remains the only auction for which I never gave the seller any feedback at all. The liner was taped in, and we all know Borsalino stitched the liners in vintage times, so that is a clue the hat had been through at least one thorough cleaning during its life. The liner, though stained beyond reuse, clearly stated ‘custom made.’ I showed it to my wife, and we agreed that the felt itself was special, so I gave it a thorough naptha bath and set it aside until my next trip out of town to a full-service hatter town, and I would ‘explore’ the possibility of restoring the hat.

That opportunity came around on the morning of February 6 ’09 when several of us got together for a tour of the Winchester felting operation. I carried the felt in a bag, with a ribbon color sample the wife and I had in mind, and showed it to the Major. It took him all of about 10-15 seconds to confirm that the felt was special and needed to be brought back to life. A ‘Custom Made’ Borsalino is not a guarantee that the felt is any better than a stock Borsalino from their top-shelf line, but we mused it was very likely that the felt was at least hand-inspected to begin the ‘Custom’ process and a fair chance the felt was equal to ‘top-shelf.’ I advised him that I was in no hurry, go ahead and fill all the hat orders you pick up this weekend, do this last.

The Major emailed me on fool’s day (hmmm?) to tell me it was on the way, total charges for blocking, some pouncing, a new sweat, new ribbon, box, and shipping came to just $47.50. So, for a total of $78.51, a really fine NEW HAT! Truly, raised from the dead.

This felt is unbelievably soft, probably a result of the fact that it started out its life as superior felt, and several naptha baths over the years have really beat the stiff out of it. The nap is somewhere between a suede and velour, and I believe it probably started out as a suede and the nap has been raised just a bit by all the cleanings. The Major’s description of this hat – ‘soft-as-a-cloud’ - this hat draws compliments everywhere it goes. I compare this felt to my olive Borsalino (which also had a rough life before I got it; it had to be restored also). The only ‘new’ felt that comes close is the lite felt that Winchester makes such as the VS hat from Art Fawcett, which is very soft also. The plush suede finish on this felt makes it look and feel really ‘soft-as-a-cloud.’
(the olive Borsalino, and the VS in morning sun)

Thanks to the Major! Full-service hatters can perform miracles; trust them with your best felts.

 

[Razzman]

Great looking hats gentlemen!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap Mike does some fine work, and he is easy to deal with. A gentlemen too. I can certainly attest to that.

 

[Dundee]

Major Mike's finished product

I just received my hat today. The Major did a fantastic job. Thanks again for the wonderful job on the resistol western.

 

[indycop]

I just received my hat today. The Major did a fantastic job. Thanks again for the wonderful job on the resistol western.

Beautiful!!:eusa_clap Is it Silverbelly? You would have to show this now! I won a silverbelly western on ebay that I was going to send to him to do something with.:eusa_doh: I was leaning toward keeping it western but turning it into a Gus...

 

[RBH]

I just received my hat today. The Major did a fantastic job. Thanks again for the wonderful job on the resistol western.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Colby Jack]

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap Oh yeah...Mike does it again!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[barrowjh]

Nice!

Dundee, you wear that hat (and that brim, a bit wider than 2.5 inch?) well, looks great on you. Another great example of the Major's work!

 

[Dundee]

Thanks. The hat is silver belly. The brim is 2 3/4 inches. Major Mike knows hats!

 

[majormoore]

Dundee, again thanks for allowing me to work on your hat, hope it is just what you were wanting.

The brim had to be trimed a little due to having a little uneven brim cut, so I could sew the bound edge.

It should make you a nice wearable everyday hat that will last many years down the road.

Just got home from the shop, trying to get a few things done, and I blocked 8 western hats and 1 dress hat tonight, will start sanding on them and platting the brims this weekend.

I look forward to the day, I can do this worke every day full time, but until then , I will do what I can and hope for the best and I know that the day will come.

Major Moore

 

[gtdean48]

Thanks. The hat is silver belly. The brim is 2 3/4 inches. Major Mike knows hats!

Looks great Dundee! What are the other specs, band & brim binding size & color? What kind of Resistol did it start out as, 3X , 4X? [huh]

 

[Dundee]

GT the ribbon is 1 1/2 inches, the binding is 1/4 inch. I asked for a light gray in color. I think the color matches the hat in a wonderful way. It reminds me of a hat my Dad wore when I was very young. My Dad liked hats. He had a very small size compared to my 7 5/8 long mellon. The hat started out as Resistol 4X beaver. I like the final outcome very much.

 

[gtdean48]

Thanks Dundee & I'm with you as I like the final outcome very much, also. Nice tribute to your father. I may be heading to the open house on May 16. Are you thinking about it?

 

[Dundee]

May 16th

I would like to go to the openhouse but I will be participating in the Reenactment being held at Resaca, GA. I do WBTS artillery reenacting with the Cherokee Artillery out of Rome, GA.

 

[gtdean48]

Man, I totally forgot that was Resaca weekend! I figured Major Moore would be at that one, too. A friend & fellow alumni of the Battle of Resaca & I have talked about coming over to watch the battle. Decisions, decisions....[huh]

 

[JPMcAdara]

My New Buckaroo Fedora

So here it is!! My contribution to the Major Moore fedora thread!! Just a little bit of background; I asked for a thin ribbon because I really like the look that RBH has on his fedoras. The problem was that when I got it with this color (Sahara) it almost looked like an "outdoorsy" (is that even a word?) hat and I really wanted a fedora. I sent it back to Mike to have him try a different ribbon and he told me he had acquired some vintage ribbon (brown) that was between 50-70 years old. I seriously could not be any happier with how it turned out. With warmer days coming, this will be a great, light hat. Thank you so much, Mike!!

Here is the detail of the vintage ribbon. It has a 2 1/2 inch brim but I am unsure on the crown height;

Detail of the bash;

The great Buckaroo Hatters liner;

Proudly displayed;

Thanks again, Mike. I could not be more pleased and it was such a pleasure working with you. I will be back for another!!

JP

 

[gtdean48]

Looks Great, JP! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap
Can't wait to get mine...