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Brim edge, naked or covered?

Aureliano

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,753
Location
Macondo.
It's very rare to find raw edged vintage hats. At least it has been for me.

Interesting... not for me, I have six Borsalini from 40s-late50s in the mix, all raw edge. 2 Knox, 30s'40s respectively also raw edge. Cavanagh edge, now those I find harder to fish.
 

RBH

Bartender
This has to be my new favorite fedora.
FANTASTIC!!!


A nicely executed raw brim on high quality thin felt can be elegant too, as in this Beaver/Vicuna 100:

vicuna2.jpg


vicuna4.jpg
 

job

One Too Many
Messages
1,325
Location
Sanford N.C.
I love that hat. Do you know the dimensions?
My next custom was planned to be much like that but with a bound brim. I'm rethinking that now.
 
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scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
The edge of the brim is of little consequence to me when looking for a hat. The size and shape of the crown comes first, the size of the brim second. If those two are within my speck, whatever the edge carries is fine.
 

DavidJ

One of the Regulars
Messages
190
Location
Norman, Ok
I'm not much of a raw edge fan, though I do want one. I enjoy over and underwelts, as well as any kind of bindings, thin or wide. I have a hat with a thin binding that I think would look amazing with just a bit bigger binding.
 

Rabbit

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,561
Location
Germany
Alan, the decorative stitching on that raw edge is truly amazing! I haven't seen this particular type of stitching on any brim edge before.
 

Benzadmiral

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,815
Location
The Swamp
Most of my hats until a few years ago (the Stetson Temples, e.g.) were raw edge. The vintage Crofut & Knapp in green has a bound edge, and the Stetson Ashland had a welted edge, but usually, it seems, I went for the raw edge. That included the Akubra Feds and my VS Tucker.

Now, though, after two Whippet-like Royal Stetsons and several ORs and clones, I much prefer the bound edge. The Cavanagh style of my Resistol Kitten Finish and the Borsalino Torino are cool, but there's something extra sharp about the bound edge.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,081
Location
London, UK
I have hats with a whole bunch of different edge styles. I like them all. If I was having a custom made, I'd go for a bound edge in silk grosgrain - really wide, half an inch. Just like you see on some vintages, or what you'd get if you flattened the brim on the average Homburg. The latter would probably be the fastest route to it for me, but I'd not feel right changing the nature of a hat that way, no matter how many vintage black homburgs there are kicking around.
 

Rabbit

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,561
Location
Germany
The brim binding on this Stetson Vogue (late 1940s) is a little over the top, but in a good way.

P1040347.jpg


P1040354-1.jpg



My favorite brim treatment on my VS hats:

P1040317.jpg


P1040562.jpg
 
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bowlerman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,294
Location
South Dakota
That's beautiful, Alan. The first pic looks almost heathered in detail. I can't tell, however, what the Tailored Edge is. Help?
 
Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
Thanks Jeff. No heather, just finely pounced nutria felt - reminiscent of Stetson clear beaver, but coarser and stiffer.

We've only seen a couple of examples of the Tailored Edge, which seems to have had a brief run beginning in about 1937. This hat is a little later than that. Clearly it is what we would commonly call a raw brim edge... perhaps sanded and rounded slightly. From a western perspective, looking at the many pages posted of Miller-Stockman catalog there appear to be fewer raw brim styles in the 20s and 30s than in the 1950s. Brims were more often bound or rolled - sometimes both. By the 1950s, most of the western brims are cut and a 3" brim width is not uncommon at all. This is a generalized comment, of course - there were many, many variations. And how the "advanced" 1937 Whippet with tailored edge fits in is something else altogether.

%2524%2528KGrHqJHJDME63ZMUdQ%2528BO1Z7Vzn6w%257E%257E60_57.JPG
 

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