What Hat Are You Working On Today?

[RickP]

An older coffee co-hort asked me today if I could fix his hat and an old belt. Hes an old late 80s rancher here and his gear shows it lol.. The belt buckle ( a nice old Montana Silversmiths western buckle) was almost folded in thirds after a horse stomped on him about 20 yrs ago. He said he could still fasten and unfasten so he never bothered getting it fixed. After he saw a couple belts Ive made he figured I could freshen it up. I used my meager knowledge of silverwork to get the buckle flat again without cracking anything. Western belt end was missing and hes evidently lost about 70 lbs over the years... no telling how long hes been running around with a bit over a foot of belt sticking out beyond the buckle lol. Just happened to have a silver belt end thats a close match, so weve now got it cut to length and a new end installed. Leather all saddle soaped and cleaned, a coat of neatsfoot oil slathered on, and now its hanging with a bit of weight so we can straighten a few waist curves out. Got the silver all polished out and it looks a lot more like a belt buckle instead of a scrunched up tin can now.

His hat is a nice old Resistol 7x beaver from the early 70s. Hat and sweatband are in decent shape but the threads on the sweatband are coming loose and IT IS DIRTY . Should be a simple clean, sweatband resew, and a bit of steaming/ shaping. Hat came from the E.M. "Bub" Richardson Saddle shop in Madisonville Tx... One of the oldest saddle shop/ western wear stors in this part of Texas. Shop was first opened in the 1920s... closed in mid 70s when Bub died. If an active cow hand/ ranchers' hat is still in decent shape after all these years of wear, it says a lot for older felt. Always fun to handle something with some local history of hard, honest use. With all the years of accumilated sweatstains, Im thinking this one will get a good gas bath on the felt and a woolite bath on the liner while I have it apart. This is what a working central texas ranchers hat looks like

My game plan is to get the works all done and hand the hat and belt over with a "Pay me what you think its worth"

When he met Mr Bear they got along great and we got invited out to his ranch so bear can swim in one of his cleaner ponds. That alone is worth it to me lol. ( think I also just got invited to hunt over there). In my book it never hurts to be friends with someone who owns a bit over 2000 acres

 

[jeffgarf]

An older coffee co-hort asked me today if I could fix his hat and an old belt. Hes an old rancher here and his gear shows it lol.. The belt buckle ( a nice old Montana Silversmiths western buckle) was almost folded in thirds after a horse stomped on him about 20 yrs ago. He said he could still fasten and unfasten so he never bothered getting it fixed. After he saw a couple belts Ive made he figured I could freshen it up. I used my meager knowledge of silverwork to get the buckle flat again without cracking anything. Western belt end was missing and hes evidently lost about 70 lbs over the years... no telling how long hes been running around with a bit over a foot of belt sticking out beyond the buckle lol. Just happened to have a silver belt end thats a close match, so weve now got it cut to length and a new end installed. Leather all saddle soaped and cleaned, a coat of neatsfoot oil slathered on, and now its hanging with a bit of weight so we can straighten a few waist curves out. Got the silver all polished out and it looks a lot more like a belt buckle instead of a scrunched up tin can now.

His hat is a nice old Resistol 7x beaver from the early 70s. Hat and sweatband are in decent shape but the threads on the sweatband are coming loose and IT IS DIRTY . Should be a simple clean, sweatband resew, and a bit of steaming/ shaping. Hat came from the E.M. "Bub" Richardson Saddle shop in Madisonville Tx... Shop was first opened in the 1920s... closed in mid 70s when Bub died. If an active cow hand/ ranchers' hat is still in decent shape after all these years of wear, it says a lot for older felt. Always fun to handle something with some local history of hard, honest use. With all the years of accumilated sweatstains, Im thinking this one will get a good gas bath on the felt and a woolite bath on the liner while I have it apart. This is what a central texas ranchers hat looks like

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My game plan is to get the works all done and hand the hat and belt over with a "Pay me what you think its worth"

When he met Mr Bear they got along great and we got invited out to his ranch so bear can swim in one of his cleaner ponds. That alone is worth it to me lol. ( think I also just got invited to hunt over there). In my book it never hurts to be friends with someone who owns a bit over 2000 acres

I'm thinking we're gonna need to see that belt.

 

[HatsBySam]

I'm thinking we're gonna need to see that belt.

Co-sign

 

[RickP]

I'm thinking we're gonna need to see that belt.

Ill get some pics up when Im done..... kicking myself that I didnt take and pics of the buckle before I got straightened. On the bottom part you can see whats remaining of the bend where it was folded in half. Glad it was an actual silver buckle, a plated buckle wouldnt have held up with a bend like that. Well call all the wear and tear on the surface a severe case of honest wear lol. I love old silver

 

[RickP]

Got the belt ready to go home monday... He said hes had that belt and buckle since 1970.... its not new anymore but after cleaning, conditioning and buckle straightning, it should have several more good years left

 

[HatsBySam]

Got the belt ready to go home monday... He said hes had that belt and buckle since 1970.... its not new anymore but after cleaning, conditioning and buckle straightning, it should have several more good years left

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Wow! Looks great!

 

[RickP]

Also got most of the work on his Resistol done. Sweatband removed, cleaned and leather conditioning applied. Liner got a good woolite bath and its now tan and soft instead of brown and crusty. It will look nicer once its dried and gets ironed. I DID try some spot cleaning with denatured alcohol first before the gas bath in case it was dissolved stiffener or something. Felt got a good gas bath while it was stripped..... can I say it was dirty? lol The top of the hat looks good and black again, but whatever he uses around the barn and cattle left its mark on the bottom of the brim..... it WASNT sweat or dirt, and a few of the spots are NOT coming out.... no prob, if he doesnt take his hat off no one will ever know.... . Im halfway expecting someone to say something like " Dang Johnny, just how many years had it been since you had your hat cleaned? youre gonna have to go throw it down in the dirt to make it look right again" lol

Before and after

Now just need to let it finish airing out and do some final steaming and shaping. Then I can resew the hat ribbon and liner in. Before the bath I did some steaming and general reshaping.... Ironed the brim flat and got a few creases taken care of. Got some of the sharp shaping creases turned back into gentle curves. Fortunately he said he liked the shape it had but just needed it freshened up... Got some good before pictures and got the general lines back in it. Worst comes to worst he can drop by the house and play with the puppy while I do some final shape tweaking.

We had a drizzly rain almost all day today... Of COURSE after eating my white puppy went out and found some mud lol... I think Labradors really are genetically geared to find mud. Thank the good Lord above that Labradors have a high Teflon content in their coat... He was solid brown from the knees down one minute and white again shortly afterwards

 

[RickP]

Great news.... after the gas pretty much dried off, I got the denatured alcohol out again and spot worked some of the light spots......Ive almost got the majority of the light colored stains out of the bottom of the brim! Ill hit it again in the morning for good measure and call it good. Maybe is WAS some hardned shellac or something

 

[RickP]

Sweatbands back in, Liners in and ribbon is sewn on. The old Resitol should be ready for a few more years. Think its about a pound lighter without all the ***k, and its basically black again! Still has some light spots after a gas bath and several blots of denatured alcohol, but its way cleaner than it was...All I was really going to do was resecure the loose sweatband, but I just HAD to do some cleaning. Goes back on Rancher Johnny's head tomorrow.

 

[RickP]

After a couple weeks with the big flat brim Stetson, I officially decided against a brim curl. I really like the flat brim look. As such I made a command decision to reduce the brim from 4-1/4" to a 3-1/2 brim. Still plenty of felt for shade but now its just a hair slimmer, and I dont bump the brim nearly as much getting in and out of the truck lol

Before:

Now:

 

[jeffgarf]

Just got this Stetson Sovereign Twenty with Mode Edge in today. The first photo shows the condition I received it in, with the second being the first stiffening and steaming.

 

[wsmontana]

A dirty old Rancher gets a second life as a western weight Indy-style fedora. Of course the mustard yellow is far from the original .

 

[HatsBySam]

A dirty old Rancher gets a second life as a western weight Indy-style fedora. Of course the mustard yellow is far from the original .

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Looks great! Was that the result of a dye bath?

 

[wsmontana]

Looks great! Was that the result of a dye bath?

Thanks! The ribbon and thread were dyed in a bath (originally natural color). The felt was dyed with a brush on technique — (brush on and let dry on block) X 5. I then washed in a mild detergent to test color fastness.

Also, the dye recipe for the cotton/rayon ribbon is different than that for the fur felt.

 

[Blare]

A dirty old Rancher gets a second life as a western weight Indy-style fedora. Of course the mustard yellow is far from the original .

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Well done Bill!!

 

[ShadowXY]

A dirty old Rancher gets a second life as a western weight Indy-style fedora. Of course the mustard yellow is far from the original .

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Wow, such a wonderful transformation of a stained but otherwise structurally sound hat.

 

[wsmontana]

Well done Bill!!

Wow, such a wonderful transformation of a stained but otherwise structurally sound hat.

Thanks Joe and Shadow!

 

[RickP]

getting around to some wool experimentation today.... I picked up a "vintage Mallory" on ebay late one night. When it got here to my chagrin, it was a wool "Mallory by Stetson". Dirty, wouldnt hold its shape, shrunken sweatband thats hardened ... and on and on.

Got a good woolite bath and rinse done for the felt and the liner this morning. When I got all the dirt out, its substantially darker and greener so theres hope. Got it corded down over a block and got the crown rounded and smoothed.. now it can dry for a while, and then do some brim flattening. Yesterday I mixed up some super blonde shellac, so Ill do some stiffening. and get a normal hat shape again. Going to get rid of the cheap leather hatband and do a decent ribbon band.

Gameplan is to get it back to a true 7-1/4...Sweatband doesnt look bad but it is a bit stiff and shrunken a bit. Have it on a beveled stretcher to coax it back a bit larger. If it doesnt cooperate, Ill just fit and sew a new sweatband in. ( that would let me get rid of the wool label on the sweatband anyway) I know its putting lipstick on a pig, but Im aiming to at least get it looking better and wearable. if the wool behaves moderately well, theres a Stetson Buffalo sitting in the wings that will get some work too ..... I just hate sloppy, floppy hats that wont hold their shape. I normally dont like wasting good time on wool hats, but these are already here and unusable as they were

 

[RickP]

Hats almost dried out and should be able to get some shellac on it by the end of the day. Absolutely amazing how much the wool shrinks as it dries ( no heat... Ive actually got it drying in the breeze in 40 degree temp outside). I went back and reblocked to a bit larger than the sweatband needs ( 7-3/8 block with a felt cap layer on top of the block) so its got a bit of "shrink" room. Im hoping that once fully dry, the shellac will help hold the size a bit. thinking after another hr of drying Im going to put it on my head and let it pull down to fit... Its a rather short crown to begin with, so Ive got to be careful with shrinkage. its definately going to have a head bump in the top. So far the brim is behaving

Im rather confident we WILL be successful, but I dont think im going to try and intentionally work on wool hats if I can help it lol

Time to have another rum drink and let it dry

 

[RickP]

Shellac is dry enough that I can see it WILL do the job once dry. Threw on one of the random hatbands laying around just for appearance sake. Still think it will end up with a bit of grosgrain before im done. Letting it dry overnight and Ill sew the sweatband back in place in the morning. Im optimistic that it will be appealing to SOMEBODY soon

At least I know that Everclear dissolves the shellac flakes very well, and my 4oz flakes to 1 qt 190 proof cut works decently lol