Hat Storage Advice

[jamespowers]

When I was out last week for the meeting most of the hats belong to his wife :kick:

Yeah, until she looks away and I stretch them to fit.
A week's worth, nah, I have bought that many in a day.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Matt Deckard]

If you store your hat in the box, make sure it has one of those rings which allows you to store the hat upside down so it does not rest on the crown.

If no box, then hanging from a peg or rack is best.

Is is key to know that soft hats and stiff hats are different. If you store a soft felt on it's crown you are likely to create a flat spot on the top of the crown. Since the hat is meant to be floppy and soft, you can sit it on the brim with little concern.

A stiff felt hat like a cowboy hat usually has a stylized brim which you want to maintain, and since the hat is stiff you can store it on it's crown with less worry of a flat spot.

I have often heard that if you have a wet hat that the best thing to do is turn the leather out and let it dry. I have found over time that if you turn the leather out on a soft felt hat that the brim tends to be forced into a drooping position. If your soft felt hat is wet, just flip the brim up and sit the hat on a towel on a table.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Boxes

If you store your hat in the box, make sure it has one of those rings which allows you to store the hat upside down so it does not rest on the crown.

If no box, then hanging from a peg or rack is best.

Is is key to know that soft hats and stiff hats are different. If you store a soft felt on it's crown you are likely to create a flat spot on the top of the crown. Since the hat is meant to be floppy and soft, you can sit it on the brim with little concern.

A stiff felt hat like a cowboy hat usually has a stylized brim which you want to maintain, and since the hat is stiff you can store it on it's crown with less worry of a flat spot.

I have often heard that if you have a wet hat that the best thing to do is turn the leather out and let it dry. I have found over time that if you turn the leather out on a soft felt hat that the brim tends to be forced into a drooping position. If your soft felt hat is wet, just flip the brim up and sit the hat on a towel on a table.

I wonder if we could get Art or a hatter to order us hat boxes and then we could order direct from Art for the storage boxes. They are a pain in the arse to find.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Art uses regular square boxes from what I have seen, though a vintage silouettes box in oval with the logo would be a nice touch.

I think you can get Optimo boxes for 12 bucks.

You can sometimes find round boxes at Target on the cheap, though they don't have a ring for storing upside down.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Art uses regular square boxes from what I have seen, though a vintage silouettes box in oval with the logo would be a nice touch.

I think you can get Optimo boxes for 12 bucks.

You can sometimes find round boxes at Target on the cheap, though they don't have a ring for storing upside down.

I love the Optimo hat box. Its the shipping that i'm worried about.

 

[jamespowers]

I get my hat boxes from Art but with all of the activity lately he has been short on them. I am sure he can get them if you order them ahead--with the cardboard ring. Shipping is something else though. :cry:

Regards to all,

J

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Heart Attack.

I get my hat boxes from Art but with all of the activity lately he has been short on them. I am sure he can get them if you order them ahead--with the cardboard ring. Shipping is something else though. :cry:

Regards to all,

J

Art, I need 62 hat boxes please let me know the total with shipping.
Thanks,

Sharpey

 

[Merlin]

Welcome to the party Merlin. Nice avatar.

Thanks, it's great to be here. I should probably revise what I said initially about everyone needing "at least one vice", though. Taking another look at my avatar, it's pretty clear that hats aren't my only weakness. . .
:beer:

 

[jamespowers]

Thanks, it's great to be here. I should probably revise what I said initially about everyone needing "at least one vice", though. Taking another look at my avatar, it's pretty clear that hats aren't my only weakness. . .
:beer:

Nothing wrong with a little weakness as long as it doesn't get out of hand. I raise my Old Fashioned in a toast. :cheers1:

Regards to all,

J

 

[John in Covina]

I have seen a couple of hat boxes
that are similar to a luggage piece
in some of the web site offerings.

Any one used any of these?
Reccomendations?
Best value?

Thanks!

John in Covina

 

[Matt Deckard]

If you are looking for something in which to store your hat for travel, you should check out some of the hat cans at www.Millerhats.com

If you are looking for a traditional hat box mainly for storage that has a string for carying, call up Graham Thompson at www.optimohats.com as the the boxes are made better than those you'd get with your hat back in the 1930's.

 

[Serostrer]

Newbie question about hat storage

If I don't have a hat box, and I don't have one of those classy hat racks I've seen that some people have, what's the best way to store my fedora? Upside down on the top of a flat dresser?

Off to reshape the brim for the first time... I'm so glad this site exists!

 

[Feraud]

Your suggestion is fine. You could also try hanging the hat off a bedpost or coatrack hook.

 

[Serostrer]

You mean like one of those freestanding wooden coat racks?

One of those would be great to have.

Am I misremembering Bogart flippantly tossing his hat onto a rack in The Maltese Falcon?

 

[Hemingway Jones]

In those days, people treasted their hats like we treat our jackets, or at least their everyday hats. It seemed nothing to toss one on a chair, or a couch.

Personally, I have a few hat boxes. They are easy to come by, in Marshall's or Home Goods, you kind find very nice ones. Also, vintage shops sell vintage hat boxes. I have one of those for my Borsalino. Other hats are perched atop this and that, such that the brims are not effected.

 

[John in Covina]

Suspended!

A good fedora usually came in a hat box that had a circular hole in a suspended piece of cardboard and a second piece like a oval tube sticking up from the suspended piece. Some may have had some tissue paper over the cardboard. You put the hat in the box crown side down and the tube surrounded the crown and hit where the brim begins near the base of the ribbon. That way the hat was suspended and the brim could be snapped up and rest in a relaxed stated, tended by the fedora elves and the magic bears.

Oh wrong story!

Anyway you could find such a box at some hat stores, or check on ebay, antique shops etc.

sincerely,

 

[gekisai29]

Panama storage question

Do the same rules apply as to storing on the crown not he brim, etc.?

 

[GA Wildlifer]

I assume so ...

That is what I have always done with my cheap straw hats and how I have been treating my Panama Bob special since I got it a few days ago. It seems like the same reasons for resting it on the crown applies to Panamas as well as felt hats.

Robert

 

[Panamabob]

Rest the panama on the brim, with the front hanging over the edge.

 

[gekisai29]

Thanks for the info. I assume you mean the edge of the shelf?