Dukes Hats to Buckaroo Hatters { A Road Trip }

[RBH]

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

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

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

Some of the things we saw.....

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[RBH]

Dukes son Bobby showing us a hat box getter that belonged to his father.

 

[RBH]

Back at the shop.....

 

[RBH]

Those are #52 blocks by the way!

We came across this one marked DUKE...the only one so marked.
We think is was the flange he liked best so he marked it to be sure he 'used' the right one.

 

[buler]

Man, that is so cool. Congrats to Mike! My heart would have been racing looking thru that window.

B

 

[tonyb]

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.

 

[Jedwbpm]

that is so cool so cool. Great find

Jeff

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

What a gold mine Mike. Great pic Rusty.
Good to see such great old equipment get back to work again.

 

[Thunderball]

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.

 

[majormoore]

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

 

[Hoyt Clagwell]

Great to see some of this stuff ending up in the hands of somone who will know what to do with it. I often wonder what became of all the equipment that was in the Biltmore factory when they left Guelph.

 

[DesertDan]

The motherlode!
Congrats on aquiring some great vintage machinery, so glad to know that it will someday be back to work!

 

[Art Fawcett]

Dang Mike, give me some warning here. Almost conked my head on the floor when I went down.
Great find Sir, you'll use that brim sander a lot

 

[RBH]

Art, it was fun hauling the stuff out. We were not sure what we would find.

 

[tonyb]

Dang Mike, give me some warning here. Almost conked my head on the floor when I went down.
Great find Sir, you'll use that brim sander a lot

Yeah, wouldn't mind having one of those myself. I imagine that thing'll speed things up quite a bit.

 

[Chepstow]

Rusty, great road trip, really! It seems you had a lot of fun on your trip. Nice finds, too

 

[majormoore]

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

 

[Thunderball]

What are these things that look like band blocks with metal pieces attached?

 

[majormoore]

There were almost a full set of these, they are blocks with the tippers( tops) used to make the tight crease in the crown, hat would be a very tight pork pie looking hat with a small pinch in the front, would say mid 50's to mid 60's look dress hat.

Major Moore

What are these things that look like band blocks with metal pieces attached?

 

[mikespens]

So kool Major. I think what your doing is called upcycling now. Whatever, Huh-ray!