BUCKAROO BONANZA! - The Hats that Major Mike Moore Makes

[Neophyte]

That is brilliant :eusa_clap. Congrats!

 

[scooter]

Ok, here you go fellas, at Rusty's request a "noogin shot" of the new Buckeroo fedora, the Major made for me. Sorry Rusty, I had to do it. Last one is a little blurry, but you get the idea.

 

[RBH]

Blurry or not that last one is a fine noogin shot!!!!


Looks great on you and the fit seems perfect!

 

[gtdean48]

...

...

Verdict = guilty of sweet ribbon treatment. Like the width & styling along with blending with the edge binding.
Sentence = more labor to produce more fine lids!!!!

 

[danofarlington]

That is really a fine hat, and it's very good on you. Those two things don't always go together.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

The hat looks great. What is the open crown height? I have a similarly colored hat, so Obviously I like that combination. I especially like the shape of the hat, it complements you facial features etc petty well. I have to get a similar hat in size etc, but different color combinations.

Later

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I just received this hat from the Major. I went to see Mike and Rocky on Saturday November 3, 2012. I took my cowboy hats, and we did some work on deciding on a decent size brim and crown. The brim is 4.25 inches with a Pencil Curl. I believe that the crown is 6 inches. Most of my other hats are 5.75 inch open crown, and touch my head. This Doc Holliday styled hat is the result:

Front View:

Side View:

Love it. I'm looking at a Hat for cowboy action shooting, both Indian war and civilian. This hat fits well and looks pretty good if I say so myself. Big Thanks to Mike and Rocky.

Later and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

[DJH]

Mike, that is one serious hat.

Not everyone could pull off that look, but it works for you.

I'd love to visit Maj Moore's store to be able to try some of his hat styles.

 

[RBH]

Great hat Mike!
The Major does some fantastic work and you wear it well.
Maybe we can meet up at the shop sometime.

 

[Neophyte]

Great colors and proportions on that one. That side profile is striking!

 

[Preacher Man]

Great Hat 1961 MJS!

That hat looks like it fits the era! That's another quality built into it. You wear it well, looks really good on you! Enjoy! :eusa_clap:eusa_clap

 

[memphislawyer]

I have been dithering on a hat and read this entire thread. I am driving to see major mike as early as this weekend I just owe it to myself to have his expertise to guide me. I know art fawcett has a lite beave and it seems like that may be the major lite? So much to decide like whether to get a bound edge and if so matching or contrasting ribbon and bow work. Not to mention what I look good in. And he has straws!! Gonna take my panama bob in and let him see that and my Stetson Saxon. I may have to sell the Stetson because of what he can offer. Are the hats in the shop a lower price than the customs? Being able to see beaver in hand and seeing it all is gonna be worth the extra cost of what I would pay. Mr hats is a good store but major mike is gonna be like rodeo drive by comparison,

I was gonna get just a feet but will consider a straw or modification to my panam bob

 

[1961MJS]

Great hat Mike!
The Major does some fantastic work and you wear it well.
Maybe we can meet up at the shop sometime.

Hi Rusty

I'll try and set something up this spring. Mike is ordering me a Silver Mist to make a John Wayne Cavalry hat. He's special ordering it to have more crown room than normal. The plan is to keep trying crowns until it seems to work. This is probably months away though. I guess I'm big enough to pull off 4 inch plus brims. I'm used to wearing most of my hats with the front of the brim dipped down quite a bit, I'm trying to keep the brim level, except for the Doc Holliday twist on the left side. I grin more wearing this hat, probably cause I'm channeling the Doc and he was a warped guy.

I wore the hat all day for Black Friday, wearing it with an Olive Drab Field Jacket. I took my Mom shopping for clothes so I sat up front with the hat reading an old Star Trek novel. No one talked to me??? I just don't understand why everyone would be so unfriendly.



Everyone was friendlier at Rural King though.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

It is great to see what the custom hats are looking like, makes me want to own them all. So far, I have not yet made the leap towards any hats being made yet. I beat myself up each time I see some of these amazing works of art, as that is what they are....art work at it's finest.

 

[memphislawyer]

Update: I drove the one hour from my house to Mr. Moore's shop. The drive was worth it. In my mind, when I hit the store, I was going to sell my Stetson Saxon and probably get a dress hat from him. Took all my hats in, even the Panama Bob one that was giving me problems with my brim. But I left them in the car at first. He had me try on hats, some with higher crowns, and brims, and he agreed that for my frame and face, the bigger brims did not look right. My wife had said as much (and no where near the experience Mike has) and that the color (acorn) was all wrong for me. He said that the 2 inch brim of my Saxon was going to be the right fit, give or take. I went out and got it and he said it looked great on me.

Tried some on with high crowns and he also agreed those were too much hat. Then I tried on a brim of 1 3/4s, maybe 1 1/2 and he said it looked wrong. I agreed.

Well, the more we looked at hats and talked, and by this time we are at least 30 minutes into it, I tried on hats with a more casual look, but keeping in mind that the brim was needing to be 2 inches or so. I had the nice Saxon and yes, I do look, if I may say so, powerful in that hat in a suit. With him saying it was a great hat on me, I would have been wrong to get rid of it. So now what, another grey hat? I still have the Bailey Barr in dark grey coming and is expected at my house today.

Well, I dont always wear suits to the office when I have just paperwork, or clients that I am doing ongoing litigation for coming in (though with new clients I do like a shirt and tie). I don't wear t shirts and I tend to the blues a lot, with some grey and black and red sweaters and shirts.

Well, I got out of my comfort zone and said, let's try something with a casual look. Or maybe truth be known, Mike kinda sensed this before I could verbalize it. We looked at sand, camel (wow, a lovely color), silver mist, bone (and I liked that) and silverbelly. Saw a ribbon treatment that has not a bow, but more like an arrow approach with two colors of ribbon. Mike suggested a 6 ligne or maybe something narrower than that (and the narrow band had like two strings that loop over and look liked half-untied shoe lace) I thought the shoe lace look was fine for a more western hat but we went with the 9 ligne looked in a royalish blue with a very light blue contast, and then we went with a silverbelly ribbon to bind the edge of the hat. (He did tell me my Saxon has an underwelt and that makes the brim a little stiffer, and I did get to see what a pencil curl does).

Wow, to me, this is stepping out of my comfort zone in many ways. First, I don't typically go with light colors and with the bad experience of the acorn color and the big brim, the idea of a casual hat was off-putting in a conceptualized way. Also, Mike suggested we go with a 2 1/4 brim and we can cut it down before he sews the ribbon on, and it may be that is fine or that 2 1/8 is going to be the probable result. Second, a casual hat, I feel may not get used as much and with the cost of the hat being more than a factory production, I'd typically get a hat that I would be able to justify the cost.

Well, right after the 1st of the year, I go back for the fitting and adjustments. I am so pumped.

I know, it did not happen unless pics are posted, so I will get those up when it is made and on me.

I did get him to look at my Panama Bob hat as the brim on that never really took on a fedora shape. He put it in a flange and gave me a neat tip - turn the brim up when I am not wearing it.

Mike also properly fit me. He looked at me and said I was a long oval (and I had only read what that means here, never having been told that is what I was). He took out his measuring conformers and lo and behold, the long oval fit better. Then he took his block and I was lucky - my Stetson was a long oval. I would never have known that without having gone into Mike's in person. I know Art Fawcett uses conformers, but to be fit properly and to know this, well, it was worth the extra money.

I did see some Optimo style panama hats. I was thinking he might have some, and he had some cheaper ones he would have sold me, but he told me I would not be happy. $55 to $80 or so and they are better than the tourist ones in Destin, FL, but too stiff. I am suspecting that the one I loved, $225.00, was a Monticresti grade as it felt like silk by comparison, and though I thought delicate, it is not a delicate hat. And I dont think I looked bad in an Optimo style and it was a more brownish hue. He had me to flip the brim up in a homburg sort of style and he and Rocky both thought I looked good in that configuration - they had said the same thing in the fedoras I tried on. Who knows, but he did set aside the panama hat so that I can bribe my wife into coming back in January and looking at the town (by telling her we can antique and have a quaint lunch) and letting me get her opinion on this Panama as a birthday gift (I turn 53 in late January)

Guys remind me to carry Mike some Diet Coke with Limes in the can. He, like me, drinks Diet Cokes a lot, but he has not tried it with lime in it. I order it that way in the restaurant and get it in the cans for home.

I did try on the lite version of the felts and not enough body to my liking. I can see where someone might say it was a bit airier for spring to summer usage but I can feel like it might not be as durable.

I wish everyone could get fit in person so that you can see in person what different shapes, colors and treatments look good on you. I am going to get a c-crown crease, but he can change it into a soft diamond if I want to. I did get to try on the form that is going to be used to make my hat which was kinda cool, and I did get to hold beaver and rabbit forms to feel the difference.

 

[danofarlington]

You accomplished a lot with one visit to an excellent store. Think of all the conversations and imaginings you've saved yourself. There's a lot to know about hat styles, by which I mean, how they look on you and how you like them, given all the types out there. Therein is the big advantage of a bricks and mortar store with a good hat guy, and good styles. Unfortunately, your run of the mill local hat store probably won't have as many interesting styles, or as knowledgeable a shop owner.

 

[bowlerman]

Wow, everyone should be so lucky to have an eye the likes of Mike Moore's only an hour away! Congratulations-- sounds exciting, and can't wait to see pics!

 

[1961MJS]

Wow, everyone should be so lucky to have an eye the likes of Mike Moore's only an hour away! Congratulations-- sounds exciting, and can't wait to see pics!

HI

I drove from Norman OK to see Mike, then drove home to see Mom in Illinois. It was (obviously) worth the extra 150 or so miles to get an opinion, and a hat that's what I wanted. I live a whole 4 miles from Schaefer Hat Works, who also does Cowboy action shooter's hats, but I've never seen the place open. The other hat places in Oklahoma are the current model rodeo hats (blehhhh).

Laer

 

[memphislawyer]

Now, when I went to pick out the hat, a week or two before Thanksgiving, I had looked at some parbuntal straw hats that Mike had found that were 60 year old hat bodies. The hat body was super, super light, and not all that hard shellac that some hats are. I was worried about durability, and even then, some hats made from shantaung straw (which I read were paper) can feel hard shellacy and sometimes floppy. However, these things are so light and airy and one man that was there to visit Mike had one and he said he weighed it and it was like 3 ounces and maybe half of it was the ribbon:

interior shot of the weave:

I was worried about that optimo style, but the longer I had it on, the more I got over any objections. Besides, that man visiting said you wear the hat and not the other way around. Besides, he had like 25 hats, or maybe he said 35, that Mike had made for him and while I was there, he got another!

Now, there were several hats in my size there, maybe 6 or 7, and various treatments. One had a thicker black ribbon, b ut I have a panama hat with Black ribbon. There was a brown ribbon I liked. But I had an idea. Well, Mike did. He has a green ribbon with a design in it that looks great for a summer hat. But I dont do green much and I wanted something versatile. Mike had some felt fedora hats that had a contast in color with the keeper, and I asked him if he could do up a khaki color ribbon with the brown keeper. He did! I was thinking brown ribbon with khaki keeper, but Rocky and Mike thought the ribbon I have pictured would work better. Then Mike had an idea. What if I watned to come back and have him do up a new ribbon in other colors I changed my mind this summer. I wanted a blue and so he picked out a khaki keeper and a grey and I chose grey. He made it so that the ribbon treatments would not be tacked down, and I can change them out. Here is the other treatment, the khaki one:

Mike is so easy going and, I was there for two hours and it seemed like five minutes. He really is an artisan, and what I liked is that he did not view other hatmakers so much as competition, but as keeping an artistry alive, which was a refreshing air.

I dont think Ill have 35 hats, but I can see me getting another one to two hats. I wish everyone could go to a hat maker, not just a hat shop, as it is neat to see the tools of the trade, and also ask questions. Having someone who can suggest and guide is nice, because Mike was able to tell me what did and did not work. I can see where having custom color combinations can be addicting, and it can be like a kid in a candy store experience. I tried on a few western hats, and because I was in a suit after church today, remarked that I felt like I had on a JR Ewing hat in one black hat. They thought it looked fine, but Im not a western guy. Mike even turned the brim up on the Optimo panama hat into like a homburg and said it looked good that way. Me in the Optimo:

 

[memphislawyer]

I actually got two hats today. My custom fedora from Major Mike at Buckaroo Hatters was to be ready today for me to pick out the ribbon. I was between a 12 ligne (medium width ribbon ) and the thinner treatment, I think a 6 ligne. I was able to see each on a hat and for some reason, the smaller ribbon made sense. I also was able to decide the color and wanted something to compliment the fedora and not be so much of a contrast. Mike was very helpful in suggesting the color. So tell me what you think?

this pic is more representative of the color. As others have noted, lighting can play a big part in how it is perceived. In fact, I remarked that it would be hard for me, maybe not for others, to distinguish between the colors dova, silvermist, silverbelly, maybe natural, and the like. However, I did see a few silverbelly hats and some ribbon colors brought out a blueish tone, others a browner

Also, I was not originally a fan of the brown color of my acorn Akubra Stylemaster, and the fact that it has a much bigger brim was always off-putting. Rocky and Mike said I looked fine, but the crown is 4.5 inches, vs. 4.0 in the Stetson Saxon. Seems as though it is too tall, but I trust them. Also, Mike suggested going with a 2 1/4 brim and make it a bit bigger than the 2.0 brim of the Stetson. I agree. I had tried on other fedoras and 2.5 and wider was too big for me and without my even asking, Mike said they were too big. Here is a pic of me in each hat.