Brim Curls: Kettles, Pencill, etc.

[Neophyte]

Hi Tennessee

You need to make a road trip to Corinth MI C. D. Jarigan and get fitted for a tan or black over coat from the Civil war.

http://www.jarnaginco.com/confedcatframe.html

$329.00 right now.

They're pretty thick wool.
I think that the Mosby hat would look too much like the Akubra's you already own. A Western Homburg like Bat Masterson or Garrett wore would be good, or probably a Gus with about a 3.5-4 inch curled brim. I think you need to make a trip to see the Major too. Other side of the state right? Drop by Dixie Gun Works while you're over there too. I buy from them, but my cousin said that the store is basically a museum.

Later

Thanks for the recommendations! The Confederate Enlisted Foot Pattern Overcoat looks awesome, but all these coats look just a tad bit much for use on my college campus lol!

I think you're right about the Mosby, too. I would like to visit Buckaroo Hatters, even in state that's a good 6-hour drive. Perhaps of the holiday season...I'm thinking something like this (posted earlier in this thread), with some stampede strings, a different color and one of the Major's tooled leather bands and voila!

...what can I say; ever since seeing the Mosby, I've been a total sucker for brim curl .

 

[Dinerman]

Take a look on ebay for surplus European overcoats. German, Swiss, Swedish, or WWII US ones. They can be had very inexpensively if you poke around a bit. Swap out the buttons (or not) and you have yourself a bulletproof vintage overcoat at a price that can't be beat.

As far as leather bands go, If it were me, I'd go with one about 1/4" - 1/2" overtop the wider grosgrain ribbon.

 

[Neophyte]

As far as leather bands go, If it were me, I'd go with one about 1/4" - 1/2" overtop the wider grosgrain ribbon.

:eusa_doh: Silly me...that's the same thing the Major suggested as well, but I keep forgetting to include it in my plans lol!

Here's kinda what I'm planning (Chemistry class was well spent lol):

Yes, that is supposed to be me lol. I even tried to add the curl to the doodle .

EDIT: You know, it's actually kinda creepy how close the North Valley Hat Co. pic comes to the "design" I had lol.

 

[Neophyte]

Oh, and on The Last Best West company's website, I found this AWESOME image of Robert Duvall in a western with an amazing brim curl. Seriously, this lid is awesome!

 

[mayserwegener]

Hückel Melone (Bowlers)

 

[mayserwegener]

Hückel Homburg

Another nice Hückel Homburg but from Weilheim.

 

[Neophyte]

Stunning! Both those hats look amazing :eusa_clap!

 

[Neophyte]

Alright, 5 pages in one day is pretty impressive. Thanks everybody!

Here's a question though about kettle and pencil curls: are they achieved through the same processes?

Seems to me that without any beforehand knowledge of these types of brim treatments, pencil and kettle curls would look the same (the difference being the portion of the brim's circumference---pencil on the sides, kettle all around---that the curl envelops) to the casual onlooker.
Would that in any way be correct, or am I TOTALLY off base here?

 

[Neophyte]

While I'm waiting for a response to a previous query, here's a bevy of homburgs with really nice brim curls that a fellow member posted in the Homburg Nation thread (hurray for piracy!):

 

[scottyrocks]

While I'm waiting for a response to a previous query, here's a bevy of homburgs with really nice brim curls that a fellow member posted in the Homburg Nation thread (hurray for piracy!):

I had asked for some info about homburg curls on another thread and have heard nothing, as well. Have we stumbled upon a topic that no one here knows about? <shrugs> Or maybe, hopefully, those that do know just havent seen it yet.

 

[Neophyte]

I had asked for some info about homburg curls on another thread and have heard nothing, as well. Have we stumbled upon a topic that no one here knows about? <shrugs> Or maybe, hopefully, those that do know just havent seen it yet.

That was my initial impression as well. There are about 4 threads total specifically about brim curls, the longest having made it to two pages in length. Even BradBower's incredibly informative thread about the derby curls was only a page long.

I figured as long as I kept finding pics and discussing the curls in my own thread, both to bulk up the page number and to bump it to the top, others will eventually chime in.

I'm a persistent b*st*rd, too; I'm planning a custom hat with a curled brim, and I know nothing about curled brims, so while I'm gathering the resources to commision the custom hat, I might as well do my best to gather information via the Lounge . This is a selfish thread, as I'm using it to establish a reliable reference in the future.

 

[scottyrocks]

Selfish, maybe, but we know that others will benefit, as always.

I had wanted to know why vintage homburgs, stylistically (not necessarily quality-wise), are superior to a particular company's (Miller) homburgs, as far as brim curl is concerned. The Miller hats' curls were referred to as lazy, I assume because the brims arent as curled as (most?) vintage. Is it that vintage homburgs are known for severe curl (see posts 45and 46 for curls) whereas less severe is not as 'right?' I can only assume, again, that a well done tight curl is more difficult to do than a looser one. Just looking for confirmation.

 

[Neophyte]

Selfish, maybe, but we know that others will benefit, as always.

I had wanted to know why vintage homburgs, stylistically (not necessarily quality-wise), are superior to a particular company's (Miller) homburgs, as far as brim curl is concerned. The Miller hats' curls were referred to as lazy, I assume because the brims arent as curled as (most?) vintage. Is it that vintage homburgs are known for severe curl (see posts 45and 46 for curls) whereas less severe is not as 'right?' I can only assume, again, that a well done tight curl is more difficult to do than a looser one. Just looking for confirmation.

To tell the truth , this is something I'd like to know as well. I love the look of homburgs, and if my head wasn't built for wider brims I'd prefer one over my fedora.

I think you're assumption may turn out to be correct, though.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

So, do you two want the well-dressed gun fighter look of the old West, or the Winston Churchill look? It seems like the Western look is a wider brim and more curl than Winston's Homburg's.

Later

 

[mayserwegener]

Homburg brims became more Bowler (Derby, Melone) like into the early part of the 20th Century. The down fall of Homburg brim work parallels the fall of the Bowler which took place around the early 1960s. I haven't seen any modern Homburgs that match the older ones regarding brim work. I haven't seen any modern Bowlers that match vintage ones in anyway. With decline in demand plus cost cutting the skilled work force that did this type of work disappeared. I am sure Brad, Robert and others will chime in with more details / corrections.

 

[scottyrocks]

<< So, do you two want the well-dressed gun fighter look of the old West, or the Winston Churchill look? It seems like the Western look is a wider brim and more curl than Winston's Homburg's. >>

Well, see, thats kind of what has me confused.

I saw a critricism in another thread of a modern Miller homburg as having a lazy brim, and that it was a western trying to be a homburg (or vice versa). Either way, I got the impression that vintage homburgs have tighter curls than either modern ones, or westerns, either vintage or modern. Youre saying that a western has more curl than a vintage homburg (Churchill's). So, are there any hard and fast rules? Or is kind of wide open to opinion, just like with fedoras?

 

[scottyrocks]

Thanks, mayser, that makes sense.

 

[mayserwegener]

Here are some my P. & C. Habig Homburgs.

 

[donnc]

Youre saying that a western has more curl than a vintage homburg (Churchill's). So, are there any hard and fast rules? Or is kind of wide open to opinion, just like with fedoras?

Well, I have little knowledge of this myself, but maybe if we make enough questionable assertions here, someone will be annoyed enough to offer some specifics.

My impression has been that the hats you see in Westerns do indeed have more curl, than the European homburg, but by this I mean the curl of the whole brim - so that the front dips down noticeably, etc.

The pencil curl around the edge might be smaller. What I'm seeing in the pictures is a narrower binding, on the Miller hat (and my Beaver), so the pencil curl shows a lot of felt, while the pictured European hats' wider binding covers some of the curl.

My Beaver homburg, by the way, has a much more pronounced Western curl. With that as my basis for comparison, I would have said the Miller Winston is more of a European style.

 

[rlk]

Varied USA Homburg brims

Cavanagh:

Hardemann '37:

Dalton: