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Western, anyone?

Messages
11,730
I'm definitely a western hat addict, so I'll try to show some restraint in this thread. I'm gonna start off with a long-winded tale:

In the very early 90s, I bought a complete beater of a cowboy hat at a “Western Collectables/Flea Market” show in Grass Valley, CA. It was dirty, it was crumpled, it had no headband, no tags, and no lining. BUT, it was pretty decent quality felt, it fit my noggin (or would, with a new headband), and it was CHEAP. So it came home with me.

I immediately sent it off to David Johnson (D Bar J Hats) in Las Vegas, whom I’d dealt with before. David cleaned it, put in new lining and a new headband, bound the edge, and shaped it into a Oreana crown. He did a simply AMAZING job. The problem was, it didn’t look good on me. Something about the shape, just didn’t fit my face/head/whatever, at least in my opinion. I wore it off and on over the years to Cowboy Action Shooting matches, but never grew to love it. tried all kinds of re-shaping on my own, different hatbands, whatever I could think of, to no avail. Eventually, it ended up on a shelf in the garage.

A couple of weeks ago, just as I was about to put it in the car along with other clothing to take to a donation drop-off site, I decided to fiddle with it one last time. Somehow, whether through inspiration, or blind luck, I hit on a crown shape/brim curl, that I REALLY liked. I ordered a ribbon hatband for it, which came in several days later. Finally, after 30+ years of fussin’ and fiddlin’, I love this hat, even though it’s now more of a “western fedora” than a "cowboy" hat.

View attachment 573760

That looks fantastic
 

milandro

A-List Customer
Messages
421
Location
The Netherlands
My Hat above is very similar (if not Identical ) to Mark Hall Patton ( Pawn Stars' )



since this picture I have had someone. setting a pencil curl to the brim

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Fra Fillipo

New in Town
Messages
6
Location
SW Minnesota
I posted this in the "What hat are you wearing today" thread and some kind soul there suggested I post it here. So, after several hours of slavering over the 600 odd pages, here I am.
The Mrs and I went out and about this morning and I used the opportunity to show off my new favorite hat.
It's a 4x beaver by RCC. Rapid City Clothing, founded in 1947, bought by Boot Barn in 2012. I don't know if RCC made their own hats or had someone else put their liner in like Biltmore did for Miller Brothers. It's beautiful felt, nicer than my 4x Stetson or Seratelli.
I steamed out the cattlemans crease it came with, seems like everybody wears a cattlemans crease these days. I prefer something that stands out in the crowd so I replaced it with a three dent Wyoming peak and put a jaunty curl on the brim.
It'll be my favorite till I find the next one, lol.
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GabGarde

New in Town
Messages
11
Got my very first Stetson on eBay (mostly got Akubras and a few vintage European hats). Is this the Rancher maybe? Brim is about 3 1/2 inces. Took more than a month to arrive from TX to Brisbane, Australia, which was agonizing. Marked as 4x Beaver (which I gather could really mean anything), and the "United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union" label dates it to pre-1983.

First pic shows how it arrived, with the standard cattleman crease and curved brim. Also a few stains that I've since tried to sand off. I spent 1.5 hours last night changing the crease to more of a Gus, and tried very hard to put a half curl in the brim with no proper tools, with so-so wavy results. Have to either keep trying or bite the bullet and take it to my local hatter for a proper brim curl!

On the upside, a man yelled "nice hat!" at me this morning on my way to work.

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Rmccamey

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,876
Location
Central Texas
There is a short video in this thread that might be helpful.

 

GabGarde

New in Town
Messages
11

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