Fixing my new whippet...

[Aureliano]

I sold my brown Whippet to a fellow lounger as I hardly ever wore it because of its color. Found this mint (except for minor sewing/cleaning details) grey whippet. Would you guys help me date it, please?

Before pictures:

Liner was undone from the felt and sported a "sweet" sweat stain.

I washed it with woolite and sew it back when it dried (sweat stain completely gone! yay!):

 

[Aureliano]

Tags:

Restoring process:

Inserted the hat half way into the hat shaper to avoid shrinking and, using a spray bottle, I made the felt generously wet, not drenched. Proceded to brush the hat throughly to get rid of dirt. Let the hat dry.

Back to the flange to reshape the brim:

Sew the bow properly and put a teardrop in and voila! I started the process at 6:00pm and finished at 10:30pm.

One detail that my brown whippet didn't have is this stitching on the underside of the brim. I like it!

Sweatband:

Thanks for wantching, guys. Please help me out to put a date on this beauty.

 

[Chinaski]

Clues: reeded sweat with IIIIIIII stitching as opposed to XXXXX stitching, embossed at the top edge of the sweat, stitched vs. taped at back of sweat, the distinctive size tag and reorder tags, Royal Stetson on the liner in blue with shiny gold, no oilskin or plastic on the liner? etc. etc. My vote is 1953. Please feel free to take that with a grain of salt and wait for expert comments

 

[Aureliano]

Thanks Chinaski. It doesn't have an oilskin or plastic liner protector.
Are whippets with this plastic/oilskin older than those without?
My brown whippet hat the name on the liner. The grey one, on the sweat. is that an indicative of age, too?
this picture is form the whippet I just sold, it felt newer to me... maybe it's because it had less wear?

 

[BobC]

I may be mistaken here too, but I believe that celanese yarn tag and the fact that the crown of that lid is quite straight suggests that it's a 40's lid. the crown of the newest of my whippets has quite a bit more taper than the older ones.

 

[Chinaski]

Hey I was just getting the ball rolling! Bob, I hadn't heard about the celanese yarn as an age indicator - what more do you know about that?

 

[Mario]

Fantastic job - again! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

Not 50's

Stetson was long gone from Philadelphia by 1953; I think they moved from there in the early-mid 40s.

The absence of "Whippet" from the liner and instead appearing on the sweat is a feature seen on Whippets made in Canada - do you know the provenance of this hat?

I'm betting early 1940's from the reeded sweat and the Philadelphia address for Stetson.

 

[Aureliano]

Hi Salty O',

Besides the sweat saying that it was originally sold at Kline & Gallimore in New Jersey and that I also bought it from a person that has been living in Jersey for years, I have no idea where it might be from. [huh]

 

[besdor]

The hat is probably from around 1950. Stetson was in Phili until 1970. All production moved to St Joseph and Garland after that.
the main point is that you did a great job of repairing the hat. I wish my Whippet looked that good!


Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

I'm sticking with early-mid 40s

based on JTL's Stetson liner thread - the hat in his first post has the same celanese label and black and tan size tag. I think that blocky red size/reorder sticker is pre-50s too; my late 40s/early 50s Whippet has a smaller sticker with size/reorder/block numbers on it and a plain tan size tag.

 

[Aureliano]

This is getting interesting , guys! I like the idea of it being from the 40s.
Jimmy, you around?

 

[Aureliano]

Just checked jimmy'a liner thread... It does seem to be from the 40s

 

[fluteplayer07]

Great find, and even better refurbishment!

flute

 

[suitedcboy]

Isn't the stitching on that Whippet brim due to the edge binding wrapping around more to the top than the bottom? In this case the edge stitching seems to be done on the short wrapped edge and then the long wrapped end is pulled over edge of felt and covers the first stitched row. Then the long wrapped side is stitched and that is visible since it is inboard of the short wrap. I have an old Homburg Stetson that had a stained and frayed edge binding. I converted it to raw edge fedora. It had the edge binding wrapped to two different depths and the deconstruction of that hat was where I figured this out.
If only I could find the key to getting all the paste residue off the edge of that black felt! They used some sort of glue in the edge binding process and it is soaked in really well.
I really like that new one and your resto is great!
I think the one you sold is fanatastic too!

 

[Aureliano]

Isn't the stitching on that Whippet brim due to the edge binding wrapping around more to the top than the bottom? In this case the edge stitching seems to be done on the short wrapped edge and then the long wrapped end is pulled over edge of felt and covers the first stitched row. Then the long wrapped side is stitched and that is visible since it is inboard of the short wrap.

Interesting thing about the brim. The binding on my whippet is even on both sides. It looks more like a decorative thing... weird isn't it?
To fix the white stains of glue on your hat you could sand it, you know. Using a thin grit paper and going with the grain.

 

[jimmy the lid]

This is getting interesting , guys! I like the idea of it being from the 40s.
Jimmy, you around?

I am now! First of all, Aureliano -- great job on bringing that Whippet back to life -- very nice! :eusa_clap

My own take is that this Whippet dates mid to late 40's. The liner is absolutely consistent with 40's, as is the logo on the sweat. In fact, the logo on the sweat certainly appears to my eye to be closer to a mid-40's version. The other factor to consider is that, to my knowledge, the use of "Whippet" on the sweat itself (as opposed to the liner) is an indication of an older Whippet, also consistent with a mid-40's timeframe. Obviously, as always, this is all a bit of a crapshoot, but I don't think this conclusion is very far off.

Salty -- as Besdor has pointed out, the doors didn't close at the Philly Stetson factory until 1970.

One other item -- my own working belief is that a red Stetson Philly sticker is evidence that the hat was manufactured at the Stetson Philly plant itself. (How this changed over time is certainly open to more collective "research" here...)


Cheers,
JtL

 

[Aureliano]

Thanks, Jimmy!

 

[Feraud]

Good to see the liner cleaned right up.
When you put the fedora on the brim flange is any weighted material added?

Nice job on the refub.

 

[Aureliano]

Good to see the liner cleaned right up.
When you put the fedora on the brim flange is any weighted material added?

Nice job on the refub.

Yes. A huge home made sand bag!