Who's riding shotgun? The Resistol Stagecoach Line of Western Hats

[Jedwbpm]

I Thought this would be a fun thread. I have Two Resistol Stagecoach Western hats. The line was defiantly a special line of hats the are typical late 70's early 80's. I would like you guys to post your pictures of these distinctive iconic hats, and what we know about the history that goes with them. Hey HATCO maybe some info from deep in the heart of Texas?

Here are mine

Jeff

 

[barrowjh]

This cordova Stagecoach was a regular telescope and I 'redneck'd' it into a flare crown to mimic the iconic hat that Clint Eastwood's character wore in Pale Rider:

At a recent trip to Major Moore's Buckaroo Hatters outfit in Covington I switched out the hat band for braided horsehair:

These hats are usually not taken, definitely not chased, by Ebay bidders because of the wierd hat band treatments, but the Resistol felt was good quality and sometimes these can be changed into something nice if you don't mind changing out the hat band. Sometimes those out-sized hatbands were attached clumsily, such that removal leaves pits in the felt, a risk.

 

[barrowjh]

The original hatband from that Stagecoach wound up on this Roundup:

Here is the Roundup with it's original 'shag carpet' hatband:

It's life began as a telescope also -

 

[bowlerman]

jedwbpm: Nice ones! The ribbon and binding on resistol #2 is really wonderful.

barrowjh: I always enjoy seeing those particular conversions. Man, I'm sending hats to you from now on-- perfect light flare and amazing curl! Good choice on the shag replacement as well. ;-)

 

[barrowjh]

bowlerman - those flare crowns were far from perfect, but they achieved the purpose of determining that style was not for me, and that was enough. Both are for sale now in a local antique store for break-even, if nobody picks them up for halloween maybe I will put them on the 'bay. Both are 7 1/8ths.

 

[Sam Craig]

BJH,
I'll bite!

How'd you do it?

 

[gtdean48]

Purchased new in 1979...

 

[Joshbru3]

Used to be Stagecoach

Now its the Resistol "Thompson-Sub" or sometimes referred to as the Resistol "Chicago Typewriter"

 

[monbla256]

Purchased new in 1979...

Did you get it up in the Pacific Northwest back then? I never saw any "Gus" style creases on hats sold in Texas back then but did travel up there back in the mid 70s and saw quite a few up in Oregon and Washington along with those short "chink" chaps. I like the horsehair hatband and chin strap. Did they come on it as well back in 79?

 

[gtdean48]

Did you get it up in the Pacific Northwest back then? I never saw any "Gus" style creases on hats sold in Texas back then but did travel up there back in the mid 70s and saw quite a few up in Oregon and Washington along with those short "chink" chaps. I like the horsehair hatband and chin strap. Did they come on it as well back in 79?

This hat originally looked like Josh's hat but I had the band & brim binding removed at the store.
I had it in a tycoon/teardrop type crease for many years with the horse hair band. I added the stampede string in 1989 when I started showing reining horses.
I put the Montana crease in it about mid-1990's when I was preparing to do Cowboy Mounted Shooting events.

 

[barrowjh]

Sam Craig, there is a clue in the Ebay string starting on page 1071; somewhere along there I posted this picture -

I was able to get a 6 7/8 vintage stretcher into the crown upside-down and began stretching the crown out in an iterative process, using lots of steam. I eventually made a jig -

and was able to flatten out the top of the crown, but it took a LOT of effort, plus adding some stiffener to the felt in the crown. NOT worth doing again

 

[Sam Craig]

Wow!

I am impressed.

I see what you mean. It certainly looks like more trouble than it would be worth, but, man, they turned out great!

Years ago I had someone give me some antique wool carpet pieces and I got the great idea of making a carpet bag to carry all of my Victorian living history stuff in.
So I did.
I hand sewed the sucker with the old-fashioned heavy carpet thread.... tore my hands up. It was beautiful when it was done and it wore like iron, but I would never have considered doing it again.

Once is enough on something like that.

Sam

 

[woodrow]

Nice hat

 

[job]

I bought a Stagecoach at a thrift store a few days ago. I'll post some pics of what I've done to it soon. I was wondering where does it fall in the quality area with other Resistol felt hats.

 

[job]

I was able to stretch this hat 2 sizes. I soaked the hat in the shower to clean it and to soften it up for stretching. It had a horrendous hatband that I promptly removed leaving small holes in the felt. The only hatband I had big enough to hide the holes was a pleated pug. In some parts of the country I might be laughed at for the pug but around here most people would not notice or care. It's now one of my rain hats. I may have to get me another western style hat since I like this hat so much.

 

[barrowjh]

It took a long while for me to warm up to western style hats; mostly driven by a repulsive feeling for the full 4 inch brim cattleman-creased 'standard' that became so popular with the urban cowboy fad. I have learned to love my 3 - 3 1/8th brim westerns (the hat in my current avatar is a 3 1/8th). Prior to the urban cowboy fad the 3 - 3 1/2 inch brims were more common than 4 inch brims, from what I observe in vintage westerns. I am most surprised at my own reaction to bound brims after getting acclimated to raw-edge westerns. Not quite ready to sell off my collection of OR/Strat styles, but they have lost some of their appeal.

 

[job]

It seems to me that most cowboy hat crowns are similar just like stetson fedora crowns are. There are some vintage westerns and some Akubra westerns that are starting to appeal to me. Most new ones are clones and bland IMHO.

 

[Jedwbpm]

Out tonight to see my Brother's-in-law Country Band and this brown beauty

Man the late 70's were so much fun

Jeff

 

[barrowjh]

Nice ribbon!

 

[T Jones]

This is my 4X Resistol Stagecoach that lounger John Galt is converting to an Indy ROTLA fedora for me. I figure that since the Resistol Stagecoach is a top quality Western it would make for a tough and rugged Indy hat. Probably better in quality than most Indys out there, except for maybe a few custom made ones....here's a few pics John G. sent me on the progress. Just needs to cut the brim and flange it...