Northwest Hats, Eugene, Ore.

[Tukwila]

Heading down to Eugene to see Mike tomorrow morning... the excitement is growing!

 

[belfastboy]

Heading down to Eugene to see Mike tomorrow morning... the excitement is growing!

I am in terrible envy of you....both for being able to visit Mike and for the new hats!!!

 

[Tukwila]

I'll be picking up 5 hats, and taking down at least 2 more...

 

[belfastboy]

I am in terrible envy of you....both for being able to visit Mike and for the new hats!!!

But the Canadian gov't just announced a likely border opening for vaccinated US citizens by mid August if the downward infection rates continue. Could the end be insight? I am assuming the USA will reciprocate and allow us to travel south.

 

[belfastboy]

I'll be picking up 5 hats, and taking down at least 2 more...

5 hats is just not fair to the rest of us! Say hi to Mike from Robert in Canada.

 

[Tukwila]

5 hats is just not fair to the rest of us! Say hi to Mike from Robert in Canada.

Will do, Robert!

 

[Rmccamey]

And tell him Hi from Randy and see how he is coming along with the old black cherry felt.

Will do, Robert!

 

[Tukwila]

And tell him Hi from Randy and see how he is coming along with the old black cherry felt.

He did mention you today, too, Randy but I didn't think to ask about the status of hats you might have in the queue. He did say his backlog is around 100 hats right now.

 

[Tukwila]

I spent a couple hours with Mike today. I picked up 2 new hats, a complete reblock refurb and 2 more with new ribbons. I took 5 or 6 down with me, but only left one for Mike to work on.

1) New Dark Moss. Darn. I waited too long to get a hat in this color. I really love it. 6" x 3" with ribbon and bound edge in Ashen Green. Note there are at least 3 different hues of vintage Ashen green out there. Michael Gannon has the wide (2" ??) greyish green ribbon that is on my daughter's Dark Moss from Gannon Hats, and I bought some 6L that looks more like dark moss and yet another 1-1/2" ashen green that is more medium green (both from Art's ebay listings) and all of these are listed as Ashen green on the spool of ribbon.

2) Nutria natural, 6-1/2" x 3-1/2" with a cream/bone colored "fray" style crown ribbon and matching brim binding. This baby looked like Hoss' hat in Bonanza with the open crown, but steamed into a diamond, it looks like a large western fedora.... and I love it. It is tall, even with the deep diamond bash up top. My wife likes this one best of all.

3) Rebuild of Indy style Penman Everyman. Reblocked to fit me perfectly, new sweatband and new maroon ribbon with a center boxcar and basting stitches, with double shark gills on both sides. Another diamond bash has this one looking fantastic. Shout out to Charlie @hatsRme for the ribbon treatment.

4) Champ, ca. 1950s, that I cleaned as good as I could, but had Mike put on a new ribbon in the same style as the original. Very sharp indeed.

5) Charles Knox 60s beater stingy brim. This was so faded the black ribbon looked like a nasty brown rag. Underneath the ribbon is dark charcoal felt.... the rest of the felt is now a faded grey color. We had to stay with a wide ribbon to cover the faded felt so I had Mike put a nice navy blue ribbon on it. Sweet knockabout hat with a felted edge! One of very few stingy brim hats I own.

6) One more back in the queue. Four years ago I snagged an ebay featured parabuntal hat body that came rolled up in a handmade bamboo tube. Mike put it on a 60cm block and steamed it smooth. Looks like he can make me a hat with a nice blocked crown and a 2-3/4" brim. A very nice surprise. I was afraid it would only yield a smallish hat for Mrs. Tukwila or Lil' Tukwila (daughter).

Mike says hello to everyone on the lounge... especially those who asked me to say hi.... Robert, Randy, Brent, Bill and others my tired brain has forgotten.

I need to make room for these now! These were gone from the house for a little shy of 5 months...

@deadlyhandsome Brent, My nutria hat is pretty stiff on the brim, the crown a little more giving but still needed steam to put in the creases. IMO, not near a beaver felt hat body but maybe better than winchester rabbit (which are now discontinued I hear).

The Tonak rabbit featherweight is nice. I might have to get one, although colors are limited. The 80/20 (rabbit/beaver) from Tonak is nicer for a bit heavier hat.

Fondled a mink hat body.... nice, smooth. Chinchilla is nicer still I hear, but couldn't make a fair comparison as this one is not pounced yet.

 

[Rmccamey]

Thanks Doug. Hats are looking good as usual.

I spent a couple hours with Mike today. I picked up 2 new hats, a complete reblock refurb and 2 more with new ribbons. I took 5 or 6 down with me, but only left one for Mike to work on.

1) New Dark Moss. Darn. I waited too long to get a hat in this color. I really love it. 6" x 3" with ribbon and bound edge in Ashen Green. Note there are at least 3 different hues of vintage Ashen green out there. Michael Gannon has the wide (2" ??) greyish green ribbon that is on my daughter's Dark Moss from Gannon Hats, and I bought some 6L that looks more like dark moss and yet another 1-1/2" ashen green that is more medium green (both from Art's ebay listings) and all of these are listed as Ashen green on the spool of ribbon.

2) Nutria natural, 6-1/2" x 3-1/2" with a cream colored "fray" style crown ribbon and matching brim binding. This baby looked like Hoss' hat in Bonanza with the open crown, but steamed into a diamond, it looks like a large western fedora.... and I love it. It is tall, even with the deep diamond bash up top. My wife likes this one best of all.

3) Rebuild of Indy style Penman Everyman. Reblocked to fit me perfectly, new sweatband and new maroon ribbon with a center boxcar and basting stitches, with double shark gills on both sides. Another diamond bash has this one looking fantastic.

4) Champ, ca. 1950s, that I cleaned as good as I could, but had Mike put on a new ribbon in the same style as the original. Very sharp indeed.

5) Charles Knox 60s beater stingy brim. This was so faded the black ribbon looked like a nasty brown rag. Underneath the ribbon is dark charcoal felt.... the rest of the felt is now a faded grey color. We had to stay with a wide ribbon to cover the faded felt so I had Mike put a nice navy blue ribbon on it. Sweet knockabout hat with a felted edge! One of very few stingy brim hats I own.

6) One more back in the queue. Four years ago I snagged an ebay featured parabuntal hat body that came rolled up in a handmade bamboo tube. Mike put it on a 60cm block and steamed it smooth. Looks like he can make me a hat with a nice blocked crown and a 2-3/4" brim. A very nice surprise. I was afraid it would only yield a smallish hat for Mrs. Tukwila or Lil' Tukwila (daughter).

Mike says hello to everyone on the lounge... especially those who asked me to say hi.... Robert, Randy, Brent, Bill and others my tired brain has forgotten.

I need to make room for these now! These were gone from the house for a little shy of 5 months...

@deadlyhandsome Brent, My nutria hat is pretty stiff on the brim, the crown a little more giving but still needed steam to put in the creases. IMO, not near a beaver felt hat body but maybe better than winchester rabbit (which are now discontinued I hear).

The Tonak rabbit featherweight is nice. I might have to get one, although colors are limited. The 80/20 (rabbit/beaver) from Tonak is nicer for a bit heavier hat.

Fondled a mink hat body.... nice, smooth. Chinchilla is nicer still I hear, but couldn't make a fair comparison as this one is not pounced yet.

 

[Tukwila]

Thanks Doug. Hats are looking good as usual.

We talked about your cool Derby hats, and Mike mentioned that he has blocks now for top hats.... hmmm.... I might like a top hat someday. But Mike's @Redfokker new long hair Lord's hat is the bomb!

 

[Rmccamey]

I don't have a top hat yet, either, but if Mike can make one, hmmmmm???

Have not gotten to wear my Cambridge bowler much yet...come on winter!

We talked about your cool Derby hats, and Mike mentioned that he has blocks now for top hats.... hmmm.... I might like a top hat someday. But Mike's @Redfokker new long hair Lord's hat is the bomb!

 

[belfastboy]

He did mention you today, too, Randy but I didn't think to ask about the status of hats you might have in the queue. He did say his backlog is around 100 hats right now.

It is so cool thatMike is thriving in his business. I purchased my first hat from him when he was still managing the truck rental place and had a small office off the main office with his hat operation. I applaud is vision and his great skills as a hatter.

 

[Pellie]

My beautiful silvermist is still showing on his webpage (custom hat gallery). I'm still a little proud of it

 

[Tukwila]

My beautiful silvermist is still showing on his webpage (custom hat gallery). I'm still a little proud of it View attachment 347591

The Olcutt is the inspiration of @Redfokker here on the lounge and the seeing double caretaker has also been a poster here.

 

[Pellie]

The Olcutt is the inspiration of @Redfokker here on the lounge and the seeing double caretaker has also been a poster here.

Cool, i didn't know that haha. So we loungers have a great taste....

 

[Tukwila]

I'm not on Facebook, Instagram, etc., anymore, but Mike had lots of hats posted there, and many were hats commissioned by people from the FL.

 

[Tukwila]

head shots of the nutria. As creased the front is about 5-1/4" tall. Forgot to mention the natural sweatband... Mike has started hand-sewing these (reedless) into his featherweight hats, which allows them to be rolled up to store away, if you wish. Ingenius.

 

[Tukwila]

The new dark moss 6 x 3 from NW Hats. I waited too long to get a dark moss beaver fedora!

 

[steur]

I spent a couple hours with Mike today. I picked up 2 new hats, a complete reblock refurb and 2 more with new ribbons. I took 5 or 6 down with me, but only left one for Mike to work on.

1) New Dark Moss. Darn. I waited too long to get a hat in this color. I really love it. 6" x 3" with ribbon and bound edge in Ashen Green. Note there are at least 3 different hues of vintage Ashen green out there. Michael Gannon has the wide (2" ??) greyish green ribbon that is on my daughter's Dark Moss from Gannon Hats, and I bought some 6L that looks more like dark moss and yet another 1-1/2" ashen green that is more medium green (both from Art's ebay listings) and all of these are listed as Ashen green on the spool of ribbon.

2) Nutria natural, 6-1/2" x 3-1/2" with a cream/bone colored "fray" style crown ribbon and matching brim binding. This baby looked like Hoss' hat in Bonanza with the open crown, but steamed into a diamond, it looks like a large western fedora.... and I love it. It is tall, even with the deep diamond bash up top. My wife likes this one best of all.

3) Rebuild of Indy style Penman Everyman. Reblocked to fit me perfectly, new sweatband and new maroon ribbon with a center boxcar and basting stitches, with double shark gills on both sides. Another diamond bash has this one looking fantastic. Shout out to Charlie @hatsRme for the ribbon treatment.

4) Champ, ca. 1950s, that I cleaned as good as I could, but had Mike put on a new ribbon in the same style as the original. Very sharp indeed.

5) Charles Knox 60s beater stingy brim. This was so faded the black ribbon looked like a nasty brown rag. Underneath the ribbon is dark charcoal felt.... the rest of the felt is now a faded grey color. We had to stay with a wide ribbon to cover the faded felt so I had Mike put a nice navy blue ribbon on it. Sweet knockabout hat with a felted edge! One of very few stingy brim hats I own.

6) One more back in the queue. Four years ago I snagged an ebay featured parabuntal hat body that came rolled up in a handmade bamboo tube. Mike put it on a 60cm block and steamed it smooth. Looks like he can make me a hat with a nice blocked crown and a 2-3/4" brim. A very nice surprise. I was afraid it would only yield a smallish hat for Mrs. Tukwila or Lil' Tukwila (daughter).

Mike says hello to everyone on the lounge... especially those who asked me to say hi.... Robert, Randy, Brent, Bill and others my tired brain has forgotten.

I need to make room for these now! These were gone from the house for a little shy of 5 months...

@deadlyhandsome Brent, My nutria hat is pretty stiff on the brim, the crown a little more giving but still needed steam to put in the creases. IMO, not near a beaver felt hat body but maybe better than winchester rabbit (which are now discontinued I hear).

The Tonak rabbit featherweight is nice. I might have to get one, although colors are limited. The 80/20 (rabbit/beaver) from Tonak is nicer for a bit heavier hat.

Fondled a mink hat body.... nice, smooth. Chinchilla is nicer still I hear, but couldn't make a fair comparison as this one is not pounced yet.

Killer score, Doug. Wonderful work by Mike Miller. I'm always so impressed by his ribbon work: unassuming, but spot on.