What Hat Are You Working On Today?

[jeffgarf]

Sometimes I buy a hat at a good, low price if it looks like one I would normally work on and/or be interested in seeing what otherwise unknown secrets it will yield. Today I got in a Larchmont brand hat. With a 1 7/8" brim, and a plastic liner cover, I'd assume it is from the early 1960's. The hat band is not too wide, as I would possibly expect later in the decade, but other than what is shown in the pictures below, there is no other information I can determine about this hat (except the previous (original?) owners name). Has anyone heard of the brand? I see old discussions where it was mentioned as being owned by 1 or 2 members, but no discussion about it or who the actual manufacturer might be, a la Levenberg or Lee.
Thanks for putting up with my questions and TIA for whatever help you can provide.

 

[RickP]

After yesterdays resizing work on the Three Forks, I decided that I really didnt like the old hard, man made sweatband. Picked out a new nice slightly taller chestnut colored lambskin and got busy. Happy to report zero fingerpricks!... maybe Im getting better at safe sewing lol. Anyway I think it looks way better. I KNOW it FEELS better

Yesterday

Now

 

[jeffgarf]

After yesterdays resizing work on the Three Forks, I decided that I really didnt like the old hard, man made sweatband. Picked out a new nice slightly taller chestnut colored lambskin and got busy. Happy to report zero fingerpricks!... maybe Im getting better at safe sewing lol. Anyway I think it looks way better. I KNOW it FEELS better

Yesterday
View attachment 705245

Now

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Nice upgrade!

 

[RickP]

Solved a little east texas mystery here today.... Have had little mystery spots/ smudges appearing on some of my hat crowns lately....

Realized that when I head out the patio to the yard for pictures, My hat has been running into the dirty pull chain for the ceilng fan lol Guess I need to rearrange the furniture so I dont walk under the fans, clean the pull chains, and shorten them so theres no contact. Only started seeing it when warm weather/ light colored hat weather arrived

Guess ive got to do some cleaning

 

[RickP]

Got a little spurt of ambition on the new western project hat. Just got here this morning and its already had a good gas bath and a bit of brim flattening. No sense putting things off till tomorrow when you can whip things out today!

Cleaned up pretty well. Had one large stain on the back of the brim that I do seem to have removed. Definately seems to have softened up the felt nicely after the gas bath. Liner got a good woolite bath and its no longer crusty. Dropped in the new leather sweat that I fit and sewed up. Did a test head mounting with the new sweat, and its a perfect fit. As soon as the hats aired / dried overnight Ill sew the sweat in tomorrow.

It wasnt horrible when it got here except for the trashed sweat, , but now its all squeaky clean and the brims flat. Crown looks pretty decent without any reblocking so I may just let it live as is with a couple minor character wrinkles. Should make a nice shooting range hat. I actually like the look of flat brim hats, so Im leaning towards pretty much leaving it this way for now. Have a nice brownish braided horsehair band with a single tassel inbound sometime this week. Last thing to do tonite is to find my tweasers and finish removing the bits of old thread on the crown. ( That and pouring the white gas back into the cans before it evaporates

as arrived...

as it sits now...

 

[Rollin Rains]

Got a little spurt of ambition on the new western project hat. Just got here this morning and its already had a good gas bath and a bit of brim flattening. No sense putting things off till tomorrow when you can whip things out today!

Cleaned up pretty well. Had one large stain on the back of the brim that I do seem to have removed. Definately seems to have softened up the felt nicely after the gas bath. Liner got a good woolite bath and its no longer crusty. Dropped in the new leather sweat that I fit and sewed up. Did a test head mounting with the new sweat, and its a perfect fit. As soon as the hats aired / dried overnight Ill sew the sweat in tomorrow.

It wasnt horrible when it got here except for the trashed sweat, , but now its all squeaky clean and the brims flat. Crown looks pretty decent without any reblocking so I may just let it live as is with a couple minor character wrinkles. Should make a nice shooting range hat. I actually like the look of flat brim hats, so Im leaning towards pretty much leaving it this way for now. Have a nice brownish braided horsehair band with a single tassel inbound sometime this week. Last thing to do tonite is to find my tweasers and finish removing the bits of old thread on the crown. ( That and pouring the white gas back into the cans before it evaporates

as arrived...

View attachment 711260
as it sits now...
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You've got a real winner here! Always nice to find such a good candidate for a revamp.

 

[RickP]

Yesterday was cleaning... today the new sweatband and cleaned up liner on the new project Stetson are all sewn back in! Its a hat again! I did decide to trim the brim down from 3-1/2" down to 3", and did a little bit of steaming and brim shaping. Hopefully tomorrow the braided horsehair band will be here!. (cover up a couple holes) This was my first start-to-finish hand fit sweatband Ive done... way less waviness than most the premade ones Ive used ( Im halfway between 58 and 59cm so pre-made sweatbands never quite seem to fit right.... this one is a perfect fit). Really like how its turning out for a rather quick rehab. Basically down to the braided hatband and a bit of brim edge sanding left. Oh... and I had zero finger *****s sewing the sweatband in! No blood on the hat!!!

 

[RickP]

Woo Hoo!, Whoop! and hooray! despite it being the Juneteenth holiday today. my local mail carrier DID deliver the braided horsehair band today. I debated going with the brown/ black or black/white option but decided the brown would be a bit more subtle. I really like the look of the brown/black combination against the silverbelly. Also like the single tassel more than some of the double tassels.

Hat is ready for public just as soon as I tack-sew the band into place. Its a complete recovered hat now!!!

 

[RickP]

Glad I really like the brown band because its all sewn on and its going nowhere now!

I sure seem to have been accumulating light colored and silverbelly hats this year!

 

[jeffgarf]

Glad I really like the brown band because its all sewn on and its going nowhere now!

I sure seem to have been accumulating light colored and silverbelly hats this year!

View attachment 711576

Great work!

 

[carouselvic]

Yesterday was cleaning... today the new sweatband and cleaned up liner on the new project Stetson are all sewn back in! Its a hat again! I did decide to trim the brim down from 3-1/2" down to 3", and did a little bit of steaming and brim shaping. Hopefully tomorrow the braided horsehair band will be here!. (cover up a couple holes) This was my first start-to-finish hand fit sweatband Ive done... way less waviness than most the premade ones Ive used ( Im halfway between 58 and 59cm so pre-made sweatbands never quite seem to fit right.... this one is a perfect fit). Really like how its turning out for a rather quick rehab. Basically down to the braided hatband and a bit of brim edge sanding left. Oh... and I had zero finger *****s sewing the sweatband in! No blood on the hat!!!



View attachment 711407

Long time fan of PPL…recently got my turntable going after decades without…PPL has been spinning once again…

 

[RickP]

Theres a little Imperial Ultimate felt Stetson on my wall thats had quite the journey. Was a hot mess when it came to me, but cleaned up well and got a new ribbon. Its a dark charcoal grey felt with a contrasting gold-ish tan brim binding. I had done a 1" ribbon that was a close match to the brim binding, but after looking at it for several months, I decided the extra contrasty ribbon was giving off an uncomfortable **** Tracey and pimp-ish vibe.

My kid brain kicked it around and decided what it really needed was a braided two-tone horsehair band with a light colored tassel ( I did a similar horsehair tassel that I really liked on a stetson western rehab a couple weeks back, so why not? lol). Ive got the only one like it in town for sure! Couldnt figure out how to take the "Acorns" apart yet to shorten the adjuster... ( dont want to accidentally unravel it lol) thinking it would look better if the acorns werent quite so far apart, but for now, its all tacked in place... will see if it grows on me or if Ill plan for another remodeling session in the future. One of those "cant leave well enough alone" moments lol

As arrived

After a bit of shaping and ribbon work

And now

 

[Real McCoy]

Any suggestions for a first hat brush? The hats are 2 Westerns, 2 Fedoras, and 2 OR style (Stetson OR and a San Antonio). Used is okay although some seem curved or otherwise unique in the wild and not sure about what to buy.

Your ideas would be appreciated!

 

[RickP]

This morning I received a new Stetson bowler that came with an odd Peacock feather (??? what sort of brain dead rodent puts a peacock feather in a vintage bowler?) Think I found the perfect hat for it... a turquoise Stetson Hemp Stratliner..... just need to figure out how to trim, position and fix in place... Figures that when given an exotic feather, that Id have the perfect hat for it lol

 

[singlechange]

In fond rememberance of a good friend Mr. Vince Corvelli who passed away a few years back in Maryland just outside Washington, D.C. Vince was a master hatter who learned his trade from his dad, who worked in the Borsalino factory in Italy before WWII. This morning I gave it a good clean and wanted to install a new ribbon but changed my mind. This parabuntal was made for me by Vince after I found the parabuntal hat blank still in an original bamboo tube on eBay. The tube had a label dated 1940's I remember. Though I own a fabulous vintage Montecristi signed by the weaver that has a weave count as many as the stars in the sky and is a once in lifetime find, this parabuntal is my favorite summer wear. If you haven't tried one on, you would not believe how feather light it is.

 

[jeffgarf]

In fond rememberance of a good friend Mr. Vince Corvelli who passed away a few years back in Maryland just outside Washington, D.C. Vince was a master hatter who learned his trade from his dad, who worked in the Borsalino factory in Italy before WWII. This morning I gave it a good clean and wanted to install a new ribbon but changed my mind. This parabuntal was made for me by Vince after I found the parabuntal hat blank still in an original bamboo tube on eBay. The tube had a label dated 1940's I remember. Though I own a fabulous vintage Montecristi signed by the weaver that has a weave count as many as the stars in the sky and is a once in lifetime find, this parabuntal is my favorite summer wear. If you haven't tried one on, you would not believe how feather light it is.

Parabuntal was the straw and the hat that led to my participation on FL after years of lurking. No matter how fine a Panama weave is, there is just something crazy special about a parabuntal.

 

[The Shoe]

In fond rememberance of a good friend Mr. Vince Corvelli who passed away a few years back in Maryland just outside Washington, D.C. Vince was a master hatter who learned his trade from his dad, who worked in the Borsalino factory in Italy before WWII. This morning I gave it a good clean and wanted to install a new ribbon but changed my mind. This parabuntal was made for me by Vince after I found the parabuntal hat blank still in an original bamboo tube on eBay. The tube had a label dated 1940's I remember. Though I own a fabulous vintage Montecristi signed by the weaver that has a weave count as many as the stars in the sky and is a once in lifetime find, this parabuntal is my favorite summer wear. If you haven't tried one on, you would not believe how feather light it is.

Third Parabuntal I’ve seen on the lounge of late, and each one has been spectacular.

 

[RickP]

Another feather day... Got a new-to-me Resistol 880 in today with a badly deteriorated feather.

Played with few bags of feathers and decided on a simple end of a ***iea feather. I like it, but might cut another just a bit longer ( lucky to have a friend who has a whole heard of ***ieas that I can get feathers from). The background feathers blend into the felt nicely

 

[RickP]

Got a little cleaning, steaming and re shaping done on the Two-hat-thursday hats. FINALLY got most the little acetate "glitter" pieces off the Resistol 880 ( that stuff went EVERYWHERE...) even after vaccuming, brushing, and tape Im still finding little remnants... and after dusting, vaccuming, sweeping and mopping, the dining table and floor still have shiny bits all over. What a mess! The flat-in-the-envelope Stetson Eagle got some steaming and light reblocking... not so scrunched up now

Tried a different used feather set on the Resistol, but Im thinking Im going back to the Guinea feather. Just looks snappier and less like a wet parakeet. still thinking about hat the black Eagle needs.

Always to get a bit of "civilized" back into an abused hat

 

[singlechange]

Got a little cleaning, steaming and re shaping done on the Two-hat-thursday hats. FINALLY got most the little acetate "glitter" pieces off the Resistol 880 ( that stuff went EVERYWHERE...) even after vaccuming, brushing, and tape Im still finding little remnants... and after dusting, vaccuming, sweeping and mopping, the dining table and floor still have shiny bits all over. What a mess! The flat-in-the-envelope Stetson Eagle got some steaming and light reblocking... not so scrunched up now

Tried a different used feather set on the Resistol, but Im thinking Im going back to the Guinea feather. Just looks snappier and less like a wet parakeet. still thinking about hat the black Eagle needs.

Always to get a bit of "civilized" back into an abused hat

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