The Open Road Guild

[The Good]

Hello everyone! I'm just curious, what is the average durability of a Stetson Open Road? I love the way it looks, especially in the silverbelly color, with either a cattleman's or a fedora bash, but I was wondering if in your experience, it's worth it to shell out the $170 bucks on it. I've heard... err, things, about Stetson's quality, specifically the fedoras, not sure about the cowboy hats, are those supposed to be of better quality overall too than their fedoras?

 

[gtdean48]

Hello everyone! I'm just curious, what is the average durability of a Stetson Open Road? I love the way it looks, especially in the silverbelly color, with either a cattleman's or a fedora bash, but I was wondering if in your experience, it's worth it to shell out the $170 bucks on it. I've heard... err, things, about Stetson's quality, specifically the fedoras, not sure about the cowboy hats, are those supposed to be of better quality overall too than their fedoras?

compared to an Akubra Campdraft, not worth that price at all. I just bought a Sovereign Stetson Roadmaster for $148 shipped & still think that was overpriced. For $125 I'd look into the Beaver Brand River Runner in Silver Belly.
http://www.johnhelmer.com/prod.itml/icOid/35

 

[John in Covina]

Hello everyone! I'm just curious, what is the average durability of a Stetson Open Road? I love the way it looks, especially in the silverbelly color, with either a cattleman's or a fedora bash, but I was wondering if in your experience, it's worth it to shell out the $170 bucks on it. I've heard... err, things, about Stetson's quality, specifically the fedoras, not sure about the cowboy hats, are those supposed to be of better quality overall too than their fedoras?

*********
Here's the deal, a Stetson today is an OK hat not fabulous. The thing is Open Roads today are steamed and shellaced into the Cattleman's Bash, it does not come with an Open Crown so you can set it up as you'd like. (There is talk that Stetson is considering releasing more of their hats as an open crown s in the future OR's may come that way.)

You have some options as to watching Ebay for an older Stetson Open Road, Playboys or Stratoliners and with some good timing should be able to pay a bunch less than $170. The other brand models to look for on Ebay are Dobbs Westward, Mallory Dallas, or Resistol San Antonio which are the more famous OR clones.

You could aslo take a look at getting an Akubra Campdraft from one of the Australian outfits but you need to see what colors are available and how the money exchange rate is going.

 

[St.Ignatz]

I own a modern 4x (2006) and a vintage Royal Deluxe OR as well as a Royal Stratoliner. The vintage I treat like vintage, reasonably nice weather etc.
The modern 4x takes a beating. Like a Camp Draft it seems to actually enjoy the rain. The OR keeps getting softer with no down side. Compared to Stetsons I bought new 20 plus years ago it is a MUCH better hat. No OR on the sweat but a tag attached to the liner under the sweat states or.
Tom D.

 

[JimWagner]

I bought my OR in the early 80's and it's still going strong. That's it in my avatar. I did replace the thin ribbon with a home made leather band just this year.

That said, I baby my hats. If the weather is going to be bad I wear a canvas beater. Even though they are supposed to be able to take it, I don't wear any of my fur felts into the rain.

I'll sacrifice a $25 hat to the elements but not a $150+ hat.

 

[Stan]

Hello everyone! I'm just curious, what is the average durability of a Stetson Open Road? I love the way it looks, especially in the silverbelly color, with either a cattleman's or a fedora bash, but I was wondering if in your experience, it's worth it to shell out the $170 bucks on it. I've heard... err, things, about Stetson's quality, specifically the fedoras, not sure about the cowboy hats, are those supposed to be of better quality overall too than their fedoras?

Hi,

Well, I cannot speak for current, or even recent, production. I don't have an OR newer than around 1960 or so.

However, that OR I'm wearing in my avatar, the one that is now missing it's writing on the sweatband (I looked this morning and it's completely faded away at this point), is my wear-it-everyday-on-the-farm hat. And, has been for the past two years. I gave a fellow lounger $50 bux for it.

This one was the first vintage hat I'd bought once I went looking for a new hat after a couple hand-me-downs I'd worn since a teenager were lost.

It had already been recreased, and suffered from a few moth bites here and there, but was otherwise in decent condition. It had obviously been well worn, but it had held up just fine.

I wore it daily as a good hat, but as time marched on and as I acquired other hats in better condition, even a couple custom-made OR clones, this one moved to the go-to-the-farm-store hat. Finally, it became the do-everything-on-the-farm hat.

At this point, it's been blown off in the chicken pen more times that I can count. You know what's on the ground in a chicken pen, right? Well the hat is tan and the 'stuff' is brown so it matches. I turn the sweatband out every so often an wash the hat in the sink when there's too much 'brown stuff'.

Anyway, this poor old OR has held up very well to the daily use and abuse and even frequent cleanings and washings. It gets soaked with rain on a weekly basis it seems, and lately wound up loaded with snow and ice. All I do is hang it up on the hook to dry.

I recently noticed a bit of tapering to the crown from all the weather it's been through the past couple months. So, I wet it down and hot blocked it and straightened the crown up a bit.

And, that's the only thing I can say that's happened to it. I don't think that's bad at all.

later!

Stan

edit:

p.s. I'll post a full sized pic of me wearing that OR later on this evening. I don't have that shot online and the 'puter it's on is not with me today.

Stan

 

[ScottF]

I'll sacrifice a $25 hat to the elements but not a $150+ hat.

You can get a '50s O.R. for $40-60 in nice shape if you keep your eyes open, and it can withstand the elements and will be fun (and more pleasant) to wear than a non-fur hat....but you might have to be willing to give it a good scrubbing when it arrives in the mail.

 

[JimWagner]

You can get a '50s O.R. for $40-60 in nice shape if you keep your eyes open, and it can withstand the elements and will be fun (and more pleasant) to wear than a non-fur hat....but you might have to be willing to give it a good scrubbing when it arrives in the mail.

No doubt. But mine is probably only worth that now. Except to me, of course, since I bought it new.

 

[gtdean48]

You can get a '50s O.R. for $40-60 in nice shape if you keep your eyes open, and it can withstand the elements and will be fun (and more pleasant) to wear than a non-fur hat....but you might have to be willing to give it a good scrubbing when it arrives in the mail.

They are pretty tough but don't run over it with the bushhog...

 

[Stan]

Bushhogs are bad

Hi,

I mean, look at what one does to the bushes! How about what it does to some poor critter in the field of brush that didn't run fast enough? Any hat has no chance at all! Nice fix on that hogged OR, BTW.

Also, don't run over it with a bulldozer, either. The only fortunate part is that the hat is likely to fly off towards the rear of the dozer, so it'd miss getting run over. Unless, one had the brush hog on the back of the dozer, which is exactly what I do when I'm hogging.

The dozer blade on the front will pop out the larger stuff that the hog would not like, and what bends down under the blade will get whacked by the hog. Add in the tracks, and one can go into any field and whack it even if the ground is soft. Plus, if you run over a sharp stump from a previous pass, you don't have to worry about getting a flat tire!

Now, y'all are wondering what in heck does this have to do with an OR? Well, it leads into that pic I'll be posting later this evening!

Later!

Stan

p.s. For the overly curious, note my new avitar. I'm on a vintage John Deere. Note that my hand is on a lever, and it has no steering wheel......

Stan

 

[Stan]

Hi,

Ok. This is now going to be the Farm Equipment Open Road Guild. Between brushhogs and bulldozers, we've got it covered!

Not to mention the Deer puns a few posts back. Well, *here* is a Deere for y'all!

Do I need the lol lol lol Icons?? lol

Anyway, here is a Stetson brand 4x Open Road that actually used to have that printed on the sweatband. I've managed to wear it off now.

Gene, you recognize an old friend?

This one had a few moth nibbles. It was the first vintage hat I acquired oh, about two years back, I think. I had prior to this one a couple vintage hats that, well, let us say 'got gone'. I didn't like the modern offerings, so I started looking for vintage, and right here to boot.

It was my good hat for awhile. Then, as I acquired hats in better shape, it became my 'go-to-the-farm-store' hat. You know, a hat to wear to places that might not be so clean. These days, that job is held by another Stetson Open Road.

So, now this one is my everyday-work-on-the-farm hat. Well, there has to be some hat for this job, and what better? It gets dirty, and I clean it. It gets soaked and after several times, I use the hot block to pull the taper out of the crown that develops. It's a great hat.

So, here's the pic I promised:

The machine is from 1958 and the operator is from 1961 and the hat is from around the same vintage.

BTW for those that care, the machine is a Phase-III 1958 John Deere 420 Crawler with model 62 manual-angle Bulldozer attachment.

I had my wife take the shot as I was about to head out and peel the berms from each side of our mile long driveway into this farm. That's a typical springtime task.

Later!

Stan

 

[univibe88]

Awesome pic Stan!

 

[JimWagner]

I feel another song coming on.

Green Acres is the place to be...

 

[Stan]

I feel another song coming on.

Green Acres is the place to be...

Ha! lol

I sing that quite often when working out in the hay field!

That's not a crawler job, of course. There are three other wheel tractors here besides the crawler and the lawn riding mower!

Later!

Stan

 

[RBH]

Awesome pic Stan!

SUPER!!

 

[TomS]

Hi folks:
I'd like to post my OR here with it's cousins...

Best,
Tom

 

[Matt Deckard]

I feel another song coming on.

Green Acres is the place to be...

[YOUTUBE]28hk97-vZdQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[St.Ignatz]

[YOUTUBE]28hk97-vZdQ[/YOUTUBE]

Thanks for the post Matt. It's one of my three favorite cartoon's.
I Love to Singa
Small Fry
My Green Fedora.
Tom D.

 

[jimmy the lid]

Here are some photos of a 3X Open Road that arrived at the end of last summer. Posted them in the New Hats thread, but I think they belong here. This provides a good example of a vintage OR in its natural state -- never worn or creased, open crown condition...

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Michaelshane]

What a great hat...:eusa_clap