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[Rabbit]

Wow thank you very much! I hope this will work!
There are also the Letters " F " and " W " in it, but I don't know what they'd mean, becuase it wouldn't fit to any Name.

That was fast. Nice.

Well, the letters F W are definitely initials, there's no doubt about that. The hat does look like fairly recent vintage.

 

[Vintage Betty]

Hard Top Bowler Hat Help Needed

Hiya fellas!

I hope you are all well, and I'm sure you are as handsome as ever.

Can someone please tell me some information about this hard top bowler I've found? I can't seem to find information about it. Black wool, banded grosgrain trim, plastic lined interior as shown.

I can't seem to upload any images, so click here please:

Hat

Label

Thank you!

 

[RBH]

Good to see ya VB... I cant get the photos to show up.

 

[Neophyte]

Here you Go

Though we may need to see parts of the sweatband as well to help.

 

[Vintage Betty]

Hiya RBH! ::winks:: How's one of the handsomest bartenders doin' tonight?

And thanks so much Neophyte - I appreciate it. The band is pretty standard, but I'm happy to take pics if desired. There is no unusual ribbonwork - standard bow ribbon treatment with fanning of the edges (adhesion with a stitch to each edge - just trying to be fancy)

 

[Neophyte]

No problem. There's a trick to posting pics now that involves making sure an option box goes unchecked.

Ah, and pics of the sweatband will be helpful if it has markings for brand, city of origin, model name, shop where it was sold, that kinda thing. If it's blank, then what you've got now will probably suffice.

 

[el Mongoose]

Hi people.

I got severe haircut. Now my hat is too big. I can get the size right by putting liner under the interior band. But it makes the interior band rippled rather than smooth.

Does anybody have some advice as to how I can smooth out the interior band while keeping the liner underneath it?

Thanks!

 

[gtdean48]

...
Does anybody have some advice as to how I can smooth out the interior band while keeping the liner underneath it?
...

Lots of noggin time has been my method.

 

[suitedcboy]

I distorted the sweatband on a favored but slightly large hat with the foam stuff years back. Since then I use cereal box cardboard or similar and cut strips 1-1 1/4 " wide and put behind the sweatband. I get a full size with a full circle of that or a half size if I do 1/2 and put it in the back or front, whichever is more comfortable. The 1/32 or so thickness makes a more significant difference than you would think but it doesn't "puff" up the sweatband and make it wrinkle. To make a semi-permanently attached alternative I used double sided tape and strips of velour cut from the household stache of sewing scraps. The cardboard strips may walk out or fall out when hat is resting on crown.

 

[Vintage Betty]

I am having LOTS of problems with this picture uploader - sorry!

Thanks for the tip about unchecking the box - that helped a little.

Here are lightened photos of the bowler hat

Band is synthetic leather - run of the mill brown synthetic vinyl. No markings at all, no history from previous owner.

 

[Vintage Betty]

Sometimes you can cut the cardboard a bit shorter and push it into the band as tight as you can and it won't fall out. Your results may vary.

I distorted the sweatband on a favored but slightly large hat with the foam stuff years back. Since then I use cereal box cardboard or similar and cut strips 1-1 1/4 " wide and put behind the sweatband. I get a full size with a full circle of that or a half size if I do 1/2 and put it in the back or front, whichever is more comfortable. The 1/32 or so thickness makes a more significant difference than you would think but it doesn't "puff" up the sweatband and make it wrinkle. To make a semi-permanently attached alternative I used double sided tape and strips of velour cut from the household stache of sewing scraps. The cardboard strips may walk out or fall out when hat is resting on crown.

 

[Neophyte]

Two Ways to Post Pics

The first way is through the forum's image insert icon, the method you are probably using. When posting from a URL such as pictures uploaded to photosharing sites (Photobucket and the like), you must click the "From URL" tab. After posting the URL code in the space provided, you must uncheck the box that says Retrieve remote file and reference locally.


The second way, which I think is easier, is to physically type this in the comment box:

.

 

[el Mongoose]

Thanks

Thank you. I'll start by replacing it with cardboard. If that doesn't do the trick I put the foam back in and try to log in some serious noggin time.

I distorted the sweatband on a favored but slightly large hat with the foam stuff years back. Since then I use cereal box cardboard or similar and cut strips 1-1 1/4 " wide and put behind the sweatband. I get a full size with a full circle of that or a half size if I do 1/2 and put it in the back or front, whichever is more comfortable. The 1/32 or so thickness makes a more significant difference than you would think but it doesn't "puff" up the sweatband and make it wrinkle. To make a semi-permanently attached alternative I used double sided tape and strips of velour cut from the household stache of sewing scraps. The cardboard strips may walk out or fall out when hat is resting on crown.

 

[John in Covina]

I distorted the sweatband on a favored but slightly large hat with the foam stuff years back. Since then I use cereal box cardboard or similar and cut strips 1-1 1/4 " wide and put behind the sweatband. I get a full size with a full circle of that or a half size if I do 1/2 and put it in the back or front, whichever is more comfortable. The 1/32 or so thickness makes a more significant difference than you would think but it doesn't "puff" up the sweatband and make it wrinkle. To make a semi-permanently attached alternative I used double sided tape and strips of velour cut from the household stache of sewing scraps. The cardboard strips may walk out or fall out when hat is resting on crown.

I seem to recall there were a couple of ways to shrink a leather sweat without damaging it. There was a thing about using some types of heat on Akubra sweats but i can't seem to recall the exact method (light bulb?)
Any way they had a way to snug it up a bit.
John

 

[Erehwon]

Does the Akubra Squatter have a more tapered crown than the FedIV? Or other way: is the Squatter a straight sided hat? On some pics it looks like the crown has got a little taper backsides.

 

[Neophyte]

The Squatter's crown is definitely more tapered than the FedIV, but you can still achieve a straight-sided crown with the right crease. It's got a shorter crown as well, so if you want those straight sides you'll want to avoid a deep crease.

Another consideration is that the crown of the Squatter is more round and less oval than hats like the FedIV and Campdraft. So if you've got a long oval noggin you're going to end up stretching the front/back, which might result in some front/back taper if severe enough.

There have been anomalies in the past, however, such as Lounge member FatDutchMan's Squatter purchased from DavidMorgan that had reverse taper. That was some years ago, though.

Found the post:

Here's my squatter from David Morgan. It came open crown with the most magnificent bulbous crown shape.

 

[jlee562]

I seem to recall there were a couple of ways to shrink a leather sweat without damaging it. There was a thing about using some types of heat on Akubra sweats but i can't seem to recall the exact method (light bulb?)
Any way they had a way to snug it up a bit.
John

If you have an incandescent bulb in a lamp still, you can just pop the hat on top of the lampshade. This may work with CFLs as well, but I'm not sure if they throw off enough heat. Dampening the inside of the sweat will help as well.

 

[Erehwon]

The Squatter's crown ....

Thank you!!

 

[Mystic]

I posed this question on the Resistol Roundup thread. I think it got lost in the mix over there. so I thought I would try it here.

Does anyone have an idea about the time frame of these two Resistol liner logos and if so which one would most likely be older or would they be about the same time frame?

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[/IMG]

 

[Landman]

The top liner is definitely older. The Byer-Rolnick firm was founded in 1927. Before that it was just Harry Rolnick by himself. I don't think that necessarily makes the top liner pre-1927 though. They may have just put Rolnick's name on the hats initially because he was the hat maker and Byer was the money guy.

The bottom liner looks to be from the 1960's to me.