Hat smell...

[Golden Earache]

Mine smell like "beaver".

 

[Lefty]

/thread

 

[Corky]

Brad, you may have stumbled into something big...

Brad, you may have stumbled into something big...

Hmm, I'd never really noticed a difference in smell between vintages of hats.

Kind of , but the other day my wife was grooming the cats, and she had a large pile of fur left over from the brush. I immediately grabbed it, and worked it under hot water with my hands to start the felting process. It felted better than I expected. For some reason I decided to sniff it, and it smelled just like hat bodies when I block them.

In other words, fur smells like fur smells like fur, no matter the type of fur is used. But I'm also talking modern fur, too.

Brad

The New York Times Magazine used to run an ad for Sweaters For Dog Lovers. You were to collect a few sacks of fur from your dog (when the beast went to the groomers, I guess) and send it to them. And they would spin it into yarn and knit it into a sweater.

Consider the business opportunities: The cat lovers of the world could assemble sacks of different colored cat fur and mail them to you to be felted into fedoras.

We might have missed out on the dot com bubble or the real estate bubble, but this might be our chance to get in on the ground floor of the Cat Fur Bubble!

I admit to owning an Irish Setter Dog Hair Sweater back in the day, but I had to stop wearing it. The arm of the sweater nearest to the street had a nasty habit of yanking itself up in the air each time I walked past a fire plug.

Best of luck

 

[Stoney]

The old cardboard box odor seems to take over in several of mine.
Most of these odors seem to fade from heavy wear by me. My odors apparently kick the butts of the others and they pack up and leave.

:cheers1:

I concur!

A good airing out will get rid of those odors, but eventually my hats start smelling like my aftershave.

 

[Dreispitz]

Codger feromons?

Codger feromons obviously do not have a moth repellent effect lol

I have a codger/cigar felt one that has got some moth bites.

Right, the smell I inicially refered to must be something more specific. 1950ies hats smell of it -> can´t be mercury salts, then. Earlier ones also do -> cannot be Eulan, then. It has disappeared in the 1960ies.

 

[Tampahound]

I admit to owning an Irish Setter Dog Hair Sweater back in the day, but I had to stop wearing it. The arm of the sweater nearest to the street had a nasty habit of yanking itself up in the air each time I walked past a fire plug.

Best of luck

HAHAHAHA :eusa_clap lol :eusa_clap

Well played!

 

[zetwal]

Many vintage hats dating pre mid/end 1950ies do have a distinct smell. I did not come across anything else, but hats that do smell like this.

Please try to describe the smell -

 

[Glenville86]

Coffee is also something to use instead of baking soda. I have put coffee inside a sealed bag with a hat or coat and let it sit for week. Does the trick.

 

[hatsRme]

Coffee sounds like an interesting approach, thank you Glanville! Just any coffee, whole bean, ground?

Stupid question; decafe, or regular?

 

[randooch]

I bet that coffee would make a distinctive espresso afterward . . .

 

[dh66]

I bet that coffee would make a distinctive espresso afterward . . .

Uhmmm......no thanks.

 

[hatsRme]

Kopi Lewak comes to mind, Randall. A new strain, perhaps?

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Activated charcoal would likely work for smells too. The kind you use in aquariums. I recently doused myself with gas at the pump, (long story), but I managed to save my shoes by putting them in a fairly large cardboard box with an old sock filled with charcoal to absorb the fumes. Took a long time, as in about a month to get rid of it all, but the shoes are fine now..

 

[Glenville86]

Any coffee will work but I use a dark (stronger) smelling coffee. Old people when I was younger did this. Leave it sealed for a week and if the smell is not completely gone, leave it sealed up for another week.

The trade off is a jacket or hat with a strong coffee smell for a few days.

 

[Glenville86]

Any coffee will work but I use a dark (stronger) blend.

 

[Joao Encarnado]

Uhmmm......no thanks.

After this -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak
I think you shouldn't have any problem making an expresso of Glenville86 coffee.

 

[VetPsychWars]

I know I have a hat with a good fur felt if it smells like a wet dog when steaming for (re)creasing.

Tom

 

[Strapped-4-Cache]

I recently acquired a Stetson Twenty which required a good bit of steaming to get in shape to wear. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the previous owner must have been a pipe smoker, because the smell of pipe tobacco came up from the felt as soon as I began the process. I'm not a smoker and don't like the smell of cigarette or cigar smoke, but there's something very appealing to me about pipe tobacco.

 

[Allenworsham]

I have been working with a couple of my grandfather's 1940's-1950's felt fedoras that have a musty smell. I have treated them for mold and they are clean. I have posted before and it was suggested that I put the hat into a trash bag along with some baking soda and then closing up the bag and leave it for a few days to a week. So I have done this and while the smell is not as strong, it is still there.

So I am wondering if I am doing the baking soda treatment correctly. I put a couple of boxes worth of baking soda into a large bowl in a trash bag and then put the hat into the trash bag set above the bowl using a roll of paper towels to keep it elevated and sealed it up. So is the same or similar way that you have done this process by putting the baking soda in a bowl or did you put the baking soda directly onto the the hat itself? With the fine dust of the baking soda I worried that it might not come out of the felt when brushed or vacuumed off.

 

[viclip]

My experience with musty old books & leather watch straps has been that this process can take months. Also it's best done in a dry environment.