Sam Craig
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,356
- Location
- Great Bend, Kansas
step by step
To me, it all depends on the particular hat.
I have converted seven western hats to heavy duty fedora types
One, sort of a redwood colored Resistol, had a hand tooled leather band to start with, in its cowboy days. I had the brim trimmed down to a little under three inches and reshaped it into a fedora look. Also reshaped the crown into a rather "Indy-like" pinch. The result was stunning and always gets a lot of comments.
On the other hand, I have a couple of hats where I changed out everything from the brim up and made new ribbons. They ended up looking like they were meant to be fedoras, just made of heavier felt.
Then I had an older silver belly Stetson I was redoing an after having the brim trimmed and the crown reshaped, it looked so good with its original thin ribbon that I just left it that way.
It almost seems like no two are just alike.
Over the years, it's been so easy to get good western hats in this area, it's great to finally have something to do with them that gets them back into use.
I converted a dark green one that was my dad's after he passed away and made it into a sort of Aussie-fedora for my youngest son, who is thrilled to have a hat that belonged to grand dad. He probably would never have worn a western hat, but is thrilled with this new creation.
To me, it all depends on the particular hat.
I have converted seven western hats to heavy duty fedora types
One, sort of a redwood colored Resistol, had a hand tooled leather band to start with, in its cowboy days. I had the brim trimmed down to a little under three inches and reshaped it into a fedora look. Also reshaped the crown into a rather "Indy-like" pinch. The result was stunning and always gets a lot of comments.
On the other hand, I have a couple of hats where I changed out everything from the brim up and made new ribbons. They ended up looking like they were meant to be fedoras, just made of heavier felt.
Then I had an older silver belly Stetson I was redoing an after having the brim trimmed and the crown reshaped, it looked so good with its original thin ribbon that I just left it that way.
It almost seems like no two are just alike.
Over the years, it's been so easy to get good western hats in this area, it's great to finally have something to do with them that gets them back into use.
I converted a dark green one that was my dad's after he passed away and made it into a sort of Aussie-fedora for my youngest son, who is thrilled to have a hat that belonged to grand dad. He probably would never have worn a western hat, but is thrilled with this new creation.