Brad Bowers
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 4,187
Matt Deckard said:
Missed this one. Thanks, Matt! It was your collection that inspired me to start researching this topic.
Now, I am invoking my disclaimer and officially updating this thread with some new information. I’ve recently hit the mother lode on Crofut & Knapp information, and discovered something interesting about the Cavanagh Edge process. Cavanagh Edge hats were NOT flanged from the C & K factory, nor were the brims ever ironed. The curl you see in a Cavanagh Edge brim is there naturally through the process, which makes perfect sense to me now.
Other factories may have used irons, as several were invented, and they may have flanged their own hats, but that I don’t know for sure. It would explain a piece of information I have stating that special flanges were used on hand-felted-edged hats. But flanges and irons weren’t used by the C & K factory.
Moreover, the “Cavanagh Edge Process,” which C & K pushed in their advertising in the ‘20s (indeed, it was even emblazoned across the front of their new factory in 1923, was about more than just the edge itself. The process, where the brims are worked entirely by hand in hot water, was supposed to give tighter felt and impart extra strength to the brims that couldn’t be achieved in a regular hat felting process. I haven’t figured out how much substance there is behind this claim, or if it’s merely marketing. I’m still working through the science of it in my head. This part of the process is not described in the patent, and is something I have hitherto not run across. It’s not described in enough detail for me to really get a handle on it.
But C & K thought enough of it to advertise it quite a bit, even on hats that had a ribbon bound over the Cavanagh Edge. On some hats, the Cavanagh Edge was even cut off to make a raw edge, but with this supposedly better strength. (Oh, the horror!)
Something else I found out, though not about the Cavanagh Edge, is that the new factory was designed with a large warehouse area to store rough hat bodies for at least six months to age them, because new felt is not yet stable. I know we’ve discussed this at length here and at COW, but this is the first time I’ve seen it documented in a publication from the period.
Actually, I’ve got all kinds of “new” information about the Derby, straw hats, velour hats, just need to finish writing this book.
Here’s another tidbit: At one time, Disney hats were produced by the C & K Factory, as well as Chase hats, which are unknown to me.
That’s all for now.
Brad
