To clean or not to clean this is the question.

[bond]

I just wanted to share a personal experience that I had with a vintage Borsalino which I mistakenly let a so called professional in the cleaning buss. Attempt to clean and proceeded to eventually ruin the hat. I would suggest not to have any vintage hat chemically cleaned because first of all as in this case the dyed color of the hat was removed in the cleaning process .
Secondly not only did it remove the color it also removed the patina of age and the overall look of the hat. Due to this mistaken advice by the cleaner I am now trying to recoup the $150.00 that I paid for the hat and after 3 months it's been a hassle to say the least. Fortunately I have the original receipt from eBay and the pre cleaning photos as well .
The moral of the story is get as much info as you can before attempting to listen to anyone regarding having a hat cleaned and try to avoid the process if at all possible. Sometimes a little steam and a vigorous brushing will suffice . Good luck! And be ware of so called professionals who think they know what they are talking about when it comes to your fine vintage hats.

 

[zetwal]

I assume that you took it to a dry cleaner rather than a hatter?

 

[HatsEnough]

I've never had a problem cleaning a hat. Sometimes I do it myself, but when I don't I send it to a hatter. Why would you go anywhere else but a hatter?

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

There are fixes to such issues I have had hats fixed that had bad color stains. It is a touchy thing to do.

 

[T Rick]

I understand your reluctance to name names here, but could you please at least say if it was a Dry Cleaner, a Hatter, or some other type of business? It will help us understand your plight.

Every business known will at some point screw up, and have an unhappy Customer. This includes the "greats", I am sure Optimo has some (I saw a story here on a Stratoliner that they IMO badly bungled, though I think in the end the Customer was happy enough, as they made some adjustments).

Thing is, I am reluctant myself to have anything done to my vintage hats, partly because of stories like this, and partly for fear this is what I will experience. My Mallory 10 could perhaps use a cleaning, but the first hatter I spoke to wanted to clean and block it, and to replace the ribbon. I don't WANT a new ribbon on a 60 year old hat if I can help it, and I don't need a hat with some nice patina to be "blocked", when it's shape is just fine how it is.

I do have a 50's Open Road I'm considering this with, mostly because a blocking would benefit it. But I am still debating, as it's not really "bad" now. And then there is the inherent risk associated with anyone working on a vintage treasure.

 

[gtdean48]

I've had clean & blocking done by South Street Hats in Philly on a vintage Resistol & a 1940's era Stratoliner.
They did a great job with all the original equipment = sweat, brim binding, hat band, liner
I've also had renovating/restoring done by Optimo & Catalena Hats which basically takes your felt body, cleans it best they can & puts new everything back on it.
I would never do that to a nice, vintage hat that just has a little character & needs preserving. That is what I used Oscar at South Street for.
I understand to get a vintage hat to a certain size, the hatband may not be salvageable.
I basically make a choice between preservation & restoration based on how far gone the hat is & how I intend to wear it.

 

[Undertow]

I understand your reluctance to name names here, but could you please at least say if it was a Dry Cleaner, a Hatter, or some other type of business? It will help us understand your plight.

I think this is what we're all waiting to find out.

 

[buler]

Bond, can we see the before and after pics of the Borsalino?

B

 

[bond]

Well ,technically I took it to a dry cleaner,but they have been in buss. for over 100 yrs and have a history of working on hats re;ribbons,
swewatbands and cleaning. So I mistook their history as having relevance when it came to the hat,that said it was a mistake.

 

[bond]

Yes I will post before and after when I get the hat back,hopefully in the next wk. Now to make the story worse they are trying to put color back into the hat ,they have apparently sent it out somewhere to be redyed.

 

[wgiceman]

Yes I will post before and after when I get the hat back,hopefully in the next wk. Now to make the story worse they are trying to put color back into the hat ,they have apparently sent it out somewhere to be redyed.

This is starting to sound like a suspense-filled horror story.

 

[Undertow]

That's really a shame. And they've sent it out to be dyed? Boy, sounds like they should have just given you your bleached, mishapen hat and a fat check, honestly.

You may have been correct regarding their hat cleaning reputation, but mistakes happen to the best of us. There could have been a new guy working/training, or maybe someone mistook the material (cotton vs felt). Who knows. Really too bad. Sorry to hear you've lost a nice hat in this manner.

If you're interested in a DIY approach, you may want to browse over these threads:

STEP BY STEP NAPTHA BATH

Hat Cleaning

Crazy Hat Cleaning Situation

 

[HatsEnough]

I took it to a dry cleaner,but they have been in buss. for over 100 yrs and have a history of working on hats re;ribbons,
swewatbands and cleaning.

I will guarantee you that a) there is not a single person in the company that ever had any experience with a hat, and b) the original owners are looooong gone and the people that own the company now bought out the family and are not in any way near been in business long. This happens all the time. Few companies that are 100 years old are owned by the original family or employing older employees. They have usually changed hands many times with the old ways long lost.

Yeah, it was a huge mistake to go to a dry cleaner for hat work. In the future look up a custom hat maker lake the many discussed here on the Lounge.

Or, clean it yourself with the instructions also found here. I've done it with great results.

 

[buler]

I'll add a plug for my "basics of hat cleaning" thread.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?51442-Basics-of-cleaning....

 

[bond]

Thanks for all of the sage advice re ; cleaning vs non cleaning. I will post pics soon.

 

[Undertow]

I'll add a plug for my "basics of hat cleaning" thread.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?51442-Basics-of-cleaning....

Haha, no kidding; I must have forgot to add your thread on here Buler! I thought I did already, oops!

(I must have backed over it or something, it was on my original list of links :eusa_doh: )

 

[rachelolive92]

I've never had a problem cleaning a hat.

 

[Matt Deckard]

The worst is when you have a slight spot on the hat and the hatter sands it down to a divot.

 

[Undertow]

The worst is when you have a slight spot on the hat and the hatter sands it down to a divot.

Oh lord!

 

[VetPsychWars]

I think I know the cleaner he's talking about, since we're both in Milwaukee and there's exactly one place in town that cleans hats any more.

They did a couple for me, one was a Mallory and the other a Borsalino, and they came out fine. If anything, they're a little conservative on how they treat hats. As mentioned, they've been cleaning hats for a hundred years, and the people who do the hat cleaning and blocking have been personally doing it for probably 40 or 50 years.

I would guess that there was something unusual about your hat, and if they sent it out to be redyed, they're at least trying to make you happy. I wouldn't be so quick to blame them for using accepted, industry-standard practices.

Tom