Ask a question, get an answer

[TheTopHatGuy]

Miller is a 'brand'. As far as I know they do not make hats but get other hat manufacturers to private label hats for them. I have a rabbit hat by them..It looks like a Biltmore to my eye. Not a bad hat, decent quality for the price I paid but definitely not top drawer. But if it is the style you like $300 is not a bad price for beaver.....$50 to $100 less than a custom beaver hat

I see! I had a bit of a bad experience with the new Biltmore fur felt hats, where the leather hat band was not even leather and the fur felt almost like wool! How comparable is the felt from your Miller hat from other hat brands, say Stetson? I am debating buying the hat from my link and the stetson stratoliner.

 

[milandro]

Question:
Has anyone been having trouble the last 3 or so days with the Lounge loading when accessed?

yes and it was on and off today too, it seems to be hanging but then you try again and it works

I thought it was due to maintenance but it happened way too often to be this

 

[belfastboy]

I see! I had a bit of a bad experience with the new Biltmore fur felt hats, where the leather hat band was not even leather and the fur felt almost like wool! How comparable is the felt from your Miller hat from other hat brands, say Stetson? I am debating buying the hat from my link and the stetson stratoliner.

My Miller Hat goes back at least 10 years so may not be a fair comparison to today's offerings. It is a decent hat. Build quality is good, decent leather sweat. Fur is the usual stiff modern felt of medium quality hats. I would put it on par with my Akubra fedoras of the same era.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

While we’re at it…..
How about getting lost in the lounge?

I’m pretty sure i know my way around the lounge. I’m not an old timer lounge lizard but i have a stool, not like Norm or Cliff and nobody yells my name when i come in but lately when i get up from my stool to go play the juke box or throw darts i come back and my stool is gone, the room has changed and i have to find the door and start in again.
Sometimes i’m afraid i’ll p**s myself before i find the bathroom.

Or more directly…anybody else find that when they look at a quote or go to a reference(works fine) then press the return arrow you end up in a total different thread??
Must be another conspiracy?? or global warming.
B

 

[Frunobulax]

While we’re at it…..
How about getting lost in the lounge?

I’m pretty sure i know my way around the lounge. I’m not an old timer lounge lizard but i have a stool, not like Norm or Cliff and nobody yells my name when i come in but lately when i get up from my stool to go play the juke box or throw darts i come back and my stool is gone, the room has changed and i have to find the door and start in again.
Sometimes i’m afraid i’ll p**s myself before i find the bathroom.

Or more directly…anybody else find that when they look at a quote or go to a reference(works fine) then press the return arrow you end up in a total different thread??
Must be another conspiracy?? or global warming.
B

Bowen!

Now I'm going to do that every time you enter a thread.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I see! I had a bit of a bad experience with the new Biltmore fur felt hats, where the leather hat band was not even leather and the fur felt almost like wool! How comparable is the felt from your Miller hat from other hat brands, say Stetson? I am debating buying the hat from my link and the stetson stratoliner.

Many hat makers offer ranges of quality and Stetson et al make some very low quality hats as well as decent quality offerings. The recent Biltmores have been made in the US and all I’ve seen have been disappointingly low quality. The made in Canada Biltmores haven’t all been great, but most have been well-made.

If you’re comparing the beaver Miller to a Stetson Pure Stratoliner (pure beaver), and you like the shape and look of the Stetson, I think the Stratoliner will be a better hat for you. It would be ideal if you could see and evaluate the hats in person before making the purchase.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

While we’re at it…..
How about getting lost in the lounge?

I’m pretty sure i know my way around the lounge. I’m not an old timer lounge lizard but i have a stool, not like Norm or Cliff and nobody yells my name when i come in but lately when i get up from my stool to go play the juke box or throw darts i come back and my stool is gone, the room has changed and i have to find the door and start in again.
Sometimes i’m afraid i’ll p**s myself before i find the bathroom.

Or more directly…anybody else find that when they look at a quote or go to a reference(works fine) then press the return arrow you end up in a total different thread??
Must be another conspiracy?? or global warming.
B

I just want the old reference threads (stickies) back and for the links to work. I used those threads all the time and they’re so hard to find now that I rarely even look for them.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Bowen!

Now I'm going to do that every time you enter a thread.

Yikes
You dog you!!

Does “The Dayton Devil” have a ring to it??

 

[Frunobulax]

Yikes
You dog you!!

Does “The Dayton Devil” have a ring to it??

"A MELTING POT OF LOSERS!!"

 

[TheTopHatGuy]

Aah I see, the Miller I am looking at is made in Canada, I did hear good things about the ones made there. I am mainly comparing between Miller Beaver with Stetson rabbit fur felt hats though!

 

[TheTopHatGuy]

So does anyone else have experience with contemporary Miller hats?

 

[Blare]

Question:
Has anyone been having trouble the last 3 or so days with the Lounge loading when accessed? Being very slow when changing threads or accessing quotes? Slow to no image loading?
I’m on an iPhone and haven’t changed any phone settings nor Lounge settings and sometimes it just times out.
Even when successful things seem very slow to respond.
Pretty frustrating.
Anybody else??
B

Been particularly bad the last couple days.. like the Drop outs were were getting a year or so ago.

^^^okay
Prob just an ionospheric disruption by that rocket that poked a hole in it or maybe that solar flare outburst just disrupting our electromagnetic karma. Maybe those Canadian fires or could be global warming. It causes everything!!
Def some conspiracy of sorts.
B

You hit the nail on the head Bowen. Yes that. All of that. But it only hit the lounge

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Been particularly bad the last couple days.. like the Drop outs were were getting a year or so ago.

You hit the nail on the head Bowen. Yes that. All of that. But it only hit the lounge

Uh-oh now it IS a conspiracy!!
We’ve been identified, no doubt being located, next we’ll be……err…CANCELLED!!
B

 

[belfastboy]

Aah I see, the Miller I am looking at is made in Canada, I did hear good things about the ones made there. I am mainly comparing between Miller Beaver with Stetson rabbit fur felt hats though!

I am a custom hat maker so I have a definite bias. A contemporary beaver felt hat will be better than a contemporary rabbit felt hat regardless of brand. I think the opinion here in the Lounge would be that neither the Miller or the Stetson are particularly desirable hats. Serviceable, decent hats that will look good and last you years but not likely a hat you would hand down to your children. But if that is your budget constraint so be it.

But if your budget allows consider a custom hat. A custom beaver can be had for not a great deal of money more than the Miller. The same can be said for a rabbit felt. Most custom hatters use felts from the 5 main felting factories left operating in the world. These factories produce better felts than those offered by the large mass producing hat companies. So for the extra $$ you will be getting a better hat all round....better felt, higher quality sweat bands, better trimmings and you will get to chose them all.

 

[Zombie_61]

Question:
Has anyone been having trouble the last 3 or so days with the Lounge loading when accessed? Being very slow when changing threads or accessing quotes? Slow to no image loading?
I’m on an iPhone and haven’t changed any phone settings nor Lounge settings and sometimes it just times out.
Even when successful things seem very slow to respond.
Pretty frustrating.
Anybody else??
B

Now that you mention it, yes. I thought it was just me, or something to do with the lines in this neighborhood that miscellaneous crews always seem to be working on. Click on the "back" button, and more often than not the browser takes me to a random page somewhere on the site. I can't use "slow image loading" as any form of "problem indicator" because that has been a problem in this neighborhood for as long as the Internet has existed and no one seems interested in fixing it.

 

[circle_t]

Stopped by my local hat shop the other day and tried on a Stetson Chatham in Sage that I really liked. I know it’s sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison, but can anyone offer me any additional insight/opinions into this hat versus an Akubra Campdraft in Bluegrass Green? The Chatham felt was soft and moldable (at least compared to my Silverbelly Dune) which I liked, but I know many folks generally prefer the quality of Akubra over Stetson. I’m looking for a not-too-dressy fedora, and tend to prefer hats with a >2.5” brim - the Chatham was marked as 2 3/8” but looked noticeably wider than the Stratoliner next to it.

 

[jlee562]

IMHO the question of "quality" splits both ways. All in all, I think modern Stetson hats present nicer than Akubras. I'm not a big fan of the plastic liner tips, for example. But my nit picks on Akubra are detail things for the hat obsessive. Most people won't be able to tell you which hat is finished nicer, you know?

There are pros and cons to either choice. The Akubra felt, in all likelihood, will be more resilient to rain than the Stetson. But the roan leather sweatbands Stetson uses are higher quality than the less expensive leather Akubra uses. Stetson seems to spend a bit more time finishing the felt, as I find they routinely have a slightly plusher finish than Akubra, and a bit more shine as well. Though Akubra does not use the clear poly thread for tacking that Stetson insists on using for some bizarre reason. I'm kind of a broken record on this, but the old version of the Hats Direct website spelled it out:

The finish on the standard Federation is the same as it has been, we have decided to keep the hat as low priced as possible, offering what we believe is one of the best value "open crown" hats available on the market.

Describing the deluxe:

The leather sweat band is a higher quality leather, specially processed for these hats. It is softer and less prone to drying out and shrinkage compared to the regular Federation. It makes up a proportion of the price increase over the regular Fed.

The Deluxe undergoes further finishing over the normal Heritage range resulting in a much smoother finish than the previous model.

The price differential isn't just the Stetson brand name.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Stopped by my local hat shop the other day and tried on a Stetson Chatham in Sage that I really liked. I know it’s sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison, but can anyone offer me any additional insight/opinions into this hat versus an Akubra Campdraft in Bluegrass Green? The Chatham felt was soft and moldable (at least compared to my Silverbelly Dune) which I liked, but I know many folks generally prefer the quality of Akubra over Stetson. I’m looking for a not-too-dressy fedora, and tend to prefer hats with a >2.5” brim - the Chatham was marked as 2 3/8” but looked noticeably wider than the Stratoliner next to it.

They are two very different hats. Do you want a thin ribbon Open Road style hat or a more city-like fedora? The Chatham was available in different quality levels, so I’m going to just assume you’re thinking about the Royal DeLuxe version.

Do you want an open crown hat?
Do you want a bound brim edge?
Do you want a crown with minimal taper?
Do you want a modest brim or a wider brim?

There are some real differences between these hats. I’m also not seeing the Chatham in the current Stetson catalog…is it still in production?

 

[circle_t]

They are two very different hats. Do you want a thin ribbon Open Road style hat or a more city-like fedora? The Chatham was available in different quality levels, so I’m going to just assume you’re thinking about the Royal DeLuxe version.

Do you want an open crown hat?
Do you want a bound brim edge?
Do you want a crown with minimal taper?
Do you want a modest brim or a wider brim?

There are some real differences between these hats. I’m also not seeing the Chatham in the current Stetson catalog…is it still in production?

Thanks Brent and @jlee562 . Yes, this is the Royal Deluxe Chatham, and I’m not sure if this is dead stock inventory or a new off-catalog offering. If I go back for it I’ll try to ask. I think I’m leaning more towards the city hat-look than Open Road, and I like the raw edge of the Chatham as well. The idea of bashing my own crown and having something more suited to the rainy PNW climate is appealing, but I’m also fine with this being a dedicated dry weather hat.

I know these hats are quite different, but I like them both for different reasons so appreciate y’all talking me through this. I’m relatively new to wearing hats and have learned a lot through the Lounge here.

 

[Rmccamey]

Recommendations, suggestions and examples, please, of ribbon colors that pair well with a Natural felt. Thanks in advance.