rclark
Call Me a Cab
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- Central Texas
Very nice Royal DeLuxe Open Roads, Roger and Tommy!
OK, now I want to try one! I will wear it with a fedora crease of some sort, not the cattleman's. I'll look for vintage on ebay. But I have a question on sizing as I've never tried on a Stetson before. My head measurement is 22.25". Depending on the maker, it puts me at 7 1/8 or 7 1/4. 57 more often than 58. Which size should I look for an Open Road from around the 1960s? --Greg
Great looking hat Tommy!
Guardian, you should be able to reshape the hat fairly easily. The only thing that might be a problem is if the previous creases had been pinched into the felt and / or the Felt is really dirty or dingy where the old creases were and the lines will remain visible without a good cleaning.
So if one were to buy a vintage (say early to mid 50's) Open Road with a cattleman's crease, how easy would it be to reshape it into a fedora crease of some sort? I understand the current production models are so stiff it would be very difficult to do, but with one that old that's presumably much more pliable, would it be a pretty easy thing to do on one's own?
Get a tea kettle and use the steam to make the hat really claylike and moldable, my Open Road was a little stiffer than some fedoras. If you're really crazy you can get a hat block and use that to get it back to open crown, then you've got a blank slate to start over
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But you don't have to go that far with it, just a little steam will help you lock in the shape you want. If you don't get it right the first time you can do it again. These old felts can generally take it.