Stetson Selv-Edge - Tell me everything that you know!

[billyspew]

Well, this is frustrating! I had that hat in my hands, checking out the "Selv-Edge" and thinking it was something I needed to get back to, and now I can't find it. :rage: If I recall correctly it did have a black sweatband. I'll look for it some more later; might not be until this weekend.

Regards,
Tom

Wow, you do have too many hats!

 

[Woodfluter]

I recently posted pics of this Stetson Sovereign (black sweatband, United Hat, Cap & Millinery Workers Union under the size tag, nothing in the way of labels underneath, Vita-Felt on sweat) here - about 2/3 of the way down:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=33257&page=2

Here are other pictures of the edge:





Brad is, in my book, the font of knowledge about Cavanagh edges and equivalents. So, is this a "Mode Edge"? Note that there's nothing anywhere, liner or sweat, about Mode- or Selv-Edge. I've looked at it carefully with a hand lens and can't find any evidence of former stitching, but that might have disappeared in subsequent felting. Looks to me very like the Cav edge or Guild Edge on my only Cavanagh and Knox fedoras.

My primary question is then: did Stetson's Mode Edge (>1940) overlap with the Selv-Edge in its second incarnation (as a stuck edge)? Did they make both at the same time in the late 1950's and 1960's and use those terms to distinguish between the somewhat more expensive Cavanagh edge process (Mode) and the slightly cheaper one (Selv)?

- Bill

P.S. Either is something you can't get in a modern custom hat, it seems! And both are very cool.

 

[Brad Bowers]

Yes, that's a Mode Edge.

My guess is that the Mode Edge and the later Selv Edge overlapped in production.

There is always the offchance that either the earlier Selv Edge or the Mode Edge are not Cavanagh Edges at all, but the Stetson-patented Re-Enforced Edge, made with a different process.

I don't think that's the case, though. The Re-Enforced was probably always the Re-Enforced Edge, and didn't last long in production due to the specialilzed equipment required.

Wish someone were still around that worked for Stetson in the '40s, so I could ask them.

Brad