Mothers don't let your babies grow up to be cowgirls...

[K.D. Lightner]

Rand hats, a cowboy hat maker in Montana, is selling cowboy hats on Ebay. I saw one I decided I couldn't live without and got it on a buy-it-now.

I will try to show it to you, but, boy, it has more dots and dashes than Carters has liver pills.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT%rd=1#ebayphotohosting

If you cannot open it, go to ebay and pull up item number 8230240497 and you can see the hat.

Anybody familiar with this hatmaker? That hat is so pretty, I can't image why it is called a Gunfighter Gus -- looks purty enough for us cowgirls....

karol

 

[Biltmore Bob]

I got the Cowboy Hat Book he wrote.

Yea, them's some nice looking hats. Ask him for a catalog when he sends you the hat and you'll see some real beauts.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Thanks, Bob, I think I have seen that book, or have seen some of the Rands hats in some book. Will have to investigate.

karol

 

[Slate Shannon]

Yep, that shore is a purty hat, ma'am. As purty as a desert rose on a spring mornin'. A lady could be mighty proud a-wearing that hat!

Seriously, it is a nice hat.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Very nice!

They are a quality western hatter. Love you new hat.

http://www.randhats.com/index.htm Rands

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sabdhi=&fsop=2%26fsoo%3D2&fcl=3&frpp=50&fvi=1

 

[Bebop]

I have been to his shop, in Billings Montana. It is a small shop with only custom hats in various stages of completion to look at. Not a fancy place at all. It is a first class operation. As I walked in I was asked if I wanted to see the whole operation and how he makes hats and it was quite impressive. Very nice people to boot. I think he specializes in western-cowboy hats but he did have a few fedoras that were out of my price range that looked and felt top notch. I don't think you can go wrong with a Rand hat. If you are ever in or around Billings Montana, stop in and check them out. By the way, to me, Billings is a great city to visit. I am not sure why more people don't check out this great little city.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Thanks, Roger, for pulling up that site for me. Don't know why it wouldn't show for me.

One thing I like about the Rand website is the goodly number of hats they have for women -- and not all of them sissy hats, either. The gals have some cool, tough hats.

Well, I got it for a nice price, it is an 8X, which is twice the X I have in my Stetson Gus. Not sure what color "sand" will be, looks gray and black on the ebay site, but says it is sand, which to me means a variation of Silverbelly.

Bebop -- I would love to see Montana, a state I only passed through once, at night on a train. Well, I hope the seller gets some good hits on ebay, those are all nice hats. They show a fedora on the website, too. Were the ones you saw in the shop soft or were they stiff like cowboy hats?

karol

 

[Bebop]

K.D.
The fedoras I saw were very soft.

 

[Zemke Fan]

I would love to see Montana, a state I only passed through once, at night on a train.

K.D. -- If you want to get a feel for the real Montana, you MUST read all of the books by Montana author Ivan Doig. He captures the feel of the place better than anyone. Here are his books that I recommend (and the order I'd read them):

*Dancing at the Rascal Fair
*English Creek
*This House of Sky (autobiography)
*Prairie Nocturne
*Bucking the Sun

And, BTW, next time you're in Montana, say hi to Jick McCaskill for me!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Zemke Fan -- Thanks for the book list. I love to read authors' works who know how to write about the land and make it come alive. I can write good characters and dialogue, but would love to be able to write about places, mountains, trees and rocks and the sweep of the land and make that just as strong a character as any person in a book.

I am soon off to Barnes & Noble with a list of books by Doig. Any suggestions as to what to read first? Are these fiction pieces or nonfiction?

karol

 

[Zemke Fan]

Doig

Karol -- Buy the first two right away. Dancing at the Rascal Fair and English Creek. (Although Doig wrote them the other way around, read Dancing first and then English Creek). Brgds, Fred

 

[Flitcraft]

"Dancing at the Rascal Fair"? That's an awesome title. Reason enough to read it. Thanks!

 

[jamespowers]

This one isn't bad and I could reblock it to make a great fedora. :cheers1:

http://www.randhats.com/cgi-bin/randscat/45-Two-Dot.html

Two Dots would end up being C crown.

Regards to all,

J

 

[K.D. Lightner]

James -- Yes, I think it would make a neat fedora. Rands has several hats that look like that, and also do have fedoras.

Now that BeBop has told me about the soft fedoras they have, I am watching to see if they have a fedora on ebay. They did have one black cowboy hat that looked like an Aussie hat, but the others were really Wild West.

karol