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Dukes Hats to Buckaroo Hatters { A Road Trip }

RBH

Bartender
Here is a shot of the old Dukes store in Newark NJ that the items Mike Moore found about started out at.

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Here is Mike ''Duke'' DeConna at age 14 when he started working in the hatting business.
Duke is in the middle.

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We just arrived in Florida and Mike is checking out the stuff through the window.

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Some of the things we saw.....

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buler

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,380
Location
Wisconsin
Man, that is so cool. Congrats to Mike! My heart would have been racing looking thru that window.

B
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
The stuff a hatter's dreams are made of. So good to see it fall into the hands of someone who will put it to good use.

Imagine how much of that "old junk" ended up in landfills and woodstoves and such back back in the '60s and '70s, when it might have been hard to envision anyone ever having much use for it again.
 

Thunderball

One of the Regulars
Messages
171
Location
North Alabama
Florida humidity takes a toll on metal. I am glad to see this stuff end up where it did. It looks like you need a gallon or so of Kroil. It stinks but is more effective than PB Blaster or liquid wrench at freeing rusted parts. And it comes from TN. http://www.kanolabs.com/google/


Now for bonus points, go back and label all those pictures. I only recognize a couple of those pieces.
 
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majormoore

Vendor
Messages
802
I found some really nice items, but will take a long time to clean every thing up and paint. There was a crown iron, a table top brim jigger, a kettle curling machine and stand, two sweatband sewing machines, hat blocks, sand bagger, flanges, hatters hot plate for curling irons, puller down, pusher down, brim cutter, rubber toliker, and several other items.

Will be getting everything cleanded and freeed up. The sewining machines, sew right now. The crown iron will need the most time on it.
Thanks for the info about the Kroil stuff.

Major Moore
 

DesertDan

One Too Many
Messages
1,582
Location
Arizona
The motherlode!
Congrats on aquiring some great vintage machinery, so glad to know that it will someday be back to work!
 

majormoore

Vendor
Messages
802
Singer 107-1sweatband machine, another sweatband machine, sand bagger, curling irons, hat blocks hat flnges, brim cutter, spinners, brass rings to protect sweatband when flanging, old formillion, crown iron, brim jigger, kettle curling machine and stand, these are some of the items I remember.

Will have to do some bead blasting on crown iron to get the rust off, then repaint and crome some of the parts on it.

Major Moore
 

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