Quality Fedora

[PeterJ]

I'm sorry, but is that hat on the BED?

Yep,,, the floor was too far to bend over.

 

[WR Moore]

I checked the Akruba website, it'd help if they also listed width of the brim. Wonder what happened to the old Aussie service hat?

BTW, this is picky but in the pictures of the 4 stylish dudes, the ties seem too thin for the era-at least judging from the car in the center background. Somehow, the lapels don't quite look right either. The old man was something of a minor grade clothes horse, I've got faint memories of the tailor nattering on about such things.

 

[Chubbs103]

The Akubra site gives the brim in metric for each of their hats. The Cattleman has a 88mm brim (3.46"). I looked the site over quite a bit when I was looking for my most recent hat.

Akubra Hats - Cattleman - Fawn

I ended up finding a 20X Stetson in a shop when I was on a trip and have been very pleased.

 

[harleyvato]

Try O'Farrell hats they're in Santa Fe New Mexico. They will make you a bespoke hat custom fitted to your head. They are expensive but very much worth it! I have a fedora made by them and eventually I will get them to make a wide brimmed cowboy hat for me as well.

 

[Moo Moo]

Naturally, being Australian, I've got an Akubra. They aren't cheap but they are good.

If you guys are having trouble getting Akubra Hats shipped to the US, let me know if I can help. Can always get sent to my house and I'll send it onto you.

The Hattery at Katoomba in The Blue Mountains is only about 1.5 hours from my place in Sydney. They always keep a good range.

The Hattery Katoomba | Leading AKUBRA Stockist

What was the golden age of the fedora? I always remember George Constanza saying it was a "bald man's paradise".

 

[VaTom]

When I retired in 2014 my wife and I took a Christmas Market Cruise down the Danube River from Nuremberg to Budapest. In preparation for the cold we both bought packable wool hats before we left. She bought a Stetson and I bought a Conner. First fedora type hat I have ever had. Didn't realize how warm it kept me. It is still going strong. I believe Conner is an Australian brand.

Picture of me on top deck of the river cruise boat on the Danube River with a glass of wine and a nice Cohiba cigar.

 

[AJ]

When I retired in 2014 my wife and I took a Christmas Market Cruise down the Danube River from Nuremberg to Budapest. In preparation for the cold we both bought packable wool hats before we left. She bought a Stetson and I bought a Conner. First fedora type hat I have ever had. Didn't realize how warm it kept me. It is still going strong. I believe Conner is an Australian brand.

Picture of me on top deck of the river cruise boat on the Danube River with a glass of wine and a nice Cohiba cigar.

I guess we both have good taste....I have the same flight jacket.

 

[03hemi]

My dad wasn't really much of a hat guy, but back in the late 60s he wore a Stetson exactly like the one in the bottom picture. Brings back great memories.

This one's from the fifties I'd place it, came with the original box too.
I added the later edition "Stetson" pin though.
You don't see a lot of Open Roads bashed like this, usually they have the Cattlemen's Crease.

 

[03hemi]

I wonder, where Indianna Jones got his hats?

His hat was a "Herbert Johnson" and the name/style was called "The Poet". fwiw
My Cristy's is his exact hat down to the 100% hare too.
Cristy's out of London own Herbert Johnson now, but still make his hat to order, that's how I got mine.

 

[03hemi]

A little hat trivia:

The old expression "Mad as a hatter" is a reference to the old days when hatmakers worked the felts by hand using mercury in the process. Mercury is a toxic heavy metal that can be absorbed through the skin and, over time, causes serious brain damage. The damage was frequently the cause of aberrant and violent behavior.

Great point, but do you know what the mercury was used for in the old process?

 

[Telecaster]

I have a couple. The green one, I bought in Esteli, Nicaragua. No one there wears fedoras, so the shop was probably catering to the tiny number of tourists that pass through. The other one is from Cracker Barrel.

 

[VaTom]

I guess we both have good taste....I have the same flight jacket.

Nothing like leather to cut the wind! Have had that jacket for many years. The lining started to fall apart / come out and I found a seamstress in our hometown who put a new lining in it. She was a Ukranian immigrant and had a small shop. She did it all by hand. Charged me $60.

 

[Whit]

Will the fashion police get you for wearing a fedora with very casual attire, like jeans or cargo pants? Seems to me that in past eras the hat was worn with all types of clothing. It was as much a staple of a mans wardrobe as a ball cap is today.

 

[Mule Packer]

Will the fashion police get you for wearing a fedora with very casual attire, like jeans or cargo pants?

Probably not. A fedora seems to go with just about everything. At least Johnny Depp and Keith Richards seem to think so.

 

[Telecaster]

Keith, I can almost accept with that shirt and jacket. Depp, fuggetabouit. Looks like a slob.

 

[UncleEd]

If you watch old movies,
meaning those from the
1920s until about 1950s,
fedoras were worn all the
time in all context: On
Fifth Avenue, in soup lines,
guys exiting steel mills,
in jungles and around
the farm too.

One of my favorite fedoras
is Bogart's in "The Treasure
of Sierra Madre." That one
really had a few miles on it.

Pawngal mentioned it and I'll
second mentioning it, the
Stetson Stratoliner. One of
the best looking hats Stetson
ever produced though maybe
not quite "fedora like."

 

[DWalt]

Great point, but do you know what the mercury was used for in the old process?

"Mercury was used in hat making to toughen the fur's fibers and make them mat together more efficiently. The compound used to moisten the fibers was Mercury Nitrate Hg(NO₃)₂, and the process is called carroting. It produced a superior-quality felt, which in turn, resulted in higher-quality hats."

BTW, just like using radium for watch dials, mercuric nitrate was in use in hat felting until the mid-1950s.

 

[StrawHat]

…Pawngal mentioned it and I'll
second mentioning it, the
Stetson Stratoliner. One of
the best looking hats Stetson
ever produced though maybe
not quite "fedora like."…

Any fur felt hat can be steamed and reshaped to whatever fashion choice you prefer.

Kevin

 

[StrawHat]

New Fedora

For my birthday, my wife got me a new fedora. Well, the kit version! I like wide brimmed fedoras and what most hatters consider wide brimmed doesn't do it for me so she bought me this one.

This is a 4 or 6x beaver felt hat. The first thing I do is steam the area I want to reshape. I use one of those travel steamers sold to remove wrinkles in clothes.

This is all done by feel, once the hat is steamed enough, about ten seconds, I remove the creases. It may take several tries to get back to the basic shape, go slowly and steam often. Let the moisture and the heat do the work. Your hands merely move the felt to where you want it. Here is where I like to start.

Then, I steam small areas and start shaping them to my style.

Eventually, it is pretty close to what I want.

I still have to work a bit on the brim to loose the western flavor but it is pretty close.

If you have any questions, let me know. It is fairly easy but might be intimidating the first time

Kevin

 

[03hemi]

Great hats, but does anybody have "The Heisenberg?"