How to "age" bright yellow cavalry hat cords?

[Doc Glockster]

I have a hat conversion going where I'm taking a Stetson Hutchins and turning it into a tan Indian Wars cavalry campaign hat.

My problem is, the hat is on its way to looking nice and rustic, but the yellow hat cords look garish on it. The yellow is way too bright. I need a way to take these hat cords and make them look like the well-worn ones like in the John Wayne movies.

I've tried soaking them in tea. That didn't work.

There's got to be a way to artificially 'age' them.

Any ideas?

 

[tonyb]

Any idea what kind of fiber it is? If you can separate just a little bit of it, you can do the Quick-and-Easy-Is-It-Natural-Or-Is-It-Synthetic Test (TM), which involves putting a match to it to determine if it leaves ash or a melted glob.

I suspect it's a synthetic, or a blend. You may wish to leave the cord out in the weather for a spell. I've seen garments of various fiber compositions fade from longterm exposure to bright daylight, although I would guess that a natural fiber with natural dyes would fade more rapidly than synthetics.

 

[Doc Glockster]

Any idea what kind of fiber it is? If you can separate just a little bit of it, you can do the Quick-and-Easy-Is-It-Natural-Or-Is-It-Synthetic Test (TM), which involves putting a match to it to determine if it leaves ash or a melted glob.

I suspect it's a synthetic, or a blend. You may wish to leave the cord out in the weather for a spell. I've seen garments of various fiber compositions fade from longterm exposure to bright daylight, although I would guess that a natural fiber with natural dyes would fade more rapidly than synthetics.

Just looking, I'm guessing they're synthetic. They look like the ones on the modern army cav hats. They're just to get me by until I can acquire authentic Indian Wars cav cords.

I've thought of leaving them out in the sun for a month or two.

 

[Edward]

Synthetics are gonig to be harder to tone down as they won't absorb tea and that sort of thing. If you have a theatrical / screen professional make-up shop near you, it might be woth dropping by with them. There are all sorts of products you can buy now that are designed to artificially dirty-up clothes and such, mimicing dust, mud, snow.... you name it, without odd smells or actual degradation to the costume (important over somethingl ike a long theatre run). Bound to be something in that sort of range that will work for your purposes. Might not be cheap (you're likely looking at a bottle of something at in and around fifteen or twenty dollars), but it'll get the look down perfectly.

 

[WesternHatWearer]

I have a hat conversion going where I'm taking a Stetson Hutchins and turning it into a tan Indian Wars cavalry campaign hat.

My problem is, the hat is on its way to looking nice and rustic, but the yellow hat cords look garish on it. The yellow is way too bright. I need a way to take these hat cords and make them look like the well-worn ones like in the John Wayne movies.

I've tried soaking them in tea. That didn't work.

There's got to be a way to artificially 'age' them.

Any ideas?

I would recommend taking the acorn with cords and getting them dirty in some mud, snow, grass, out near an outdoor fire and rub in the stains. Soak the cords in water and then throw them around outside in dirt. Once you feel you have nice bit of dirt built up, heat up your oven to about 170 degrees, place the cords in the oven on a towel and bake the grime in.
Treat 'em rough.

 

[T Jones]

Why not buy something along the lines of a beige color? A beige or a silverbelly type color would be a lot more toned down than the bright yellow and would probably be easier to work with as far as aging it....also, either of those two colors would make a nice contrast to the tan hat.

 

[WesternHatWearer]

Why not buy something along the lines of a beige color? A beige or a silverbelly type color would be a lot more toned down than the bright yellow and would probably be easier to work with as far as aging it....also, either of those two colors would make a nice contrast to the tan hat.

Doc is wanting to know how to age these cords so the cords appear well used and have a unique character. I do not believe that the hat will be yellow.
Just thought the image may help.

The color of the cords have meaning.
Gold/Yellow: Cavalryman (Enlisted)
Black and Gold: Cavalry Officer
Maroon: Medical
Light Blue: Infantry
And there are many others colors.

 

[WarHorse]

View attachment 23015
The color of the cords have meaning.
Gold/Yellow: Cavalryman (Enlisted)
Black and Gold: Cavalry Officer
Maroon: Medical
Light Blue: Infantry
And there are many others colors.

This brought back a funny memory.
Before being posted to Ft Hood I had never seen anyone other than another cavlaryman wear a Stetson ( a bit of a misnomer since not all of them are made by Stetson), thus only yellow and gold cords. The first day I signed in was the change of command date for the CG so the entire DIV formation was wearing Stetsons with their cord colors matching their branches. It was amazing to me and I remember thinking nothing looks crazier than this.....until I saw a female BN CDR march past during the Pass in Review wearing Tanker boots.
Sorry for hijacking the thread but appreciated the memory jog.

 

[WesternHatWearer]

I have a hat conversion going where I'm taking a Stetson Hutchins and turning it into a tan Indian Wars cavalry campaign hat.

My problem is, the hat is on its way to looking nice and rustic, but the yellow hat cords look garish on it. The yellow is way too bright. I need a way to take these hat cords and make them look like the well-worn ones like in the John Wayne movies.

I've tried soaking them in tea. That didn't work.

There's got to be a way to artificially 'age' them.

Any ideas?

Have you had any success in aging the cords of late?

 

[jlee562]

Fullers earth

 

[Edward]

Fullers earth

That's the brand name I was trying to recall and couldn't. Effective stuff, without any of the rot/smell/hygien issues that genuine dirt can cause.

 

[Doc Glockster]

That's the brand name I was trying to recall and couldn't. Effective stuff, without any of the rot/smell/hygien issues that genuine dirt can cause.

I'm actually not familiar with that product. What is it? Where do you get it? How do you use it?

I haven't found anything else so I'm willing to entertain out-of-the-ordinary solutions.

 

[RJR]

Just Google Fuller's Earth,its readily available.I doubt that it will have much effect on cavalry cords.

 

[moehawk]

Just an idea, but you might try taking the cords and tying them in a loop and wear like a necklace under your shirt for a while and see in body oils and sweat will give them that aged look after a while. Like I said, just an idea...

 

[LuvMyMan]

Hummm fullers earth, coffee. a bit of kerosine, sand, put em on your driveway and walk on them.....let you dog or cat use them for a chew toy....place in the sun. Wrap them tight on a ball bat and hit some softballs right on the cords?

 

[gtdean48]

River Junction Trade Company may share their techniques of how they distress hat cords....

 

[RJR]

2nd a call to River Junction Trading.

 

[Edward]

I'm actually not familiar with that product. What is it? Where do you get it? How do you use it?

I haven't found anything else so I'm willing to entertain out-of-the-ordinary solutions.

It's a product used by the film / theatre industry to artificially age costumes. They have a full range to simulate everything from dust to mud to grass stains. It lets them make costumes look dirty and distressed without them smelling foul and rotting as can happen with actual dirt. Should be something in that range that will help tone down the colour on artificial fibres, though until it fades from the sun you might have to reapply here and there as it's a surface treatment, really (sticks pretty well, though). Artificial fibres don't tend to redye at all well, as you've discovered.

 

[WesternHatWearer]

I have a hat conversion going where I'm taking a Stetson Hutchins and turning it into a tan Indian Wars cavalry campaign hat.

My problem is, the hat is on its way to looking nice and rustic, but the yellow hat cords look garish on it. The yellow is way too bright. I need a way to take these hat cords and make them look like the well-worn ones like in the John Wayne movies.

I've tried soaking them in tea. That didn't work.

There's got to be a way to artificially 'age' them.

Any ideas?

Take a look at: http://www.wccsupplystore.com/aging-supplies/?sort=bestselling
It may have something will help age those cords.

 

[Ordinary Guy]

Doc, don't know if this will help or not but try out the cav store:

http://www.cavhooah.com/cav-shop/stetsons/cavalry-stetson.html

They have over 60 different stetson hat cords some identical to WWI, civil war etc

Hope this helps