Western, anyone?

[Landman]

Dave,

I think Texas Hat Store hats were made by Beaver Brand hats. A picture of the inside would help identify it. They usually had a gold size tag and distinctive font on the sweatband if it was made by Beaver Brand. I have a few Beaver Brand hats and they are nice.

When I first saw your pictures I almost wrote that it reminded me of Stevie Ray's hat. If that is the look you were going for you did a good job. Texas Hatters made his hats for him. They still make a model named after him. Here is a link to their site.

http://www.texashatters.com

 

[Crazy Dave]

It has a gold size tag! I was indeed going for that SRV look, he sure wore his hats well. Thanks for the link, so many good hatters still out there.

 

[ManofKent]

Looks good Crazy Dave. I'm not a fan of feathers in Fedoras, but on that hat it looks fun.

 

[H Weinstein]

I like it, Crazy Dave! And good for you for tackling the shape-change on your own.

If there's anything I learned from the gang here, it's that decent-quality fur-felt hats are pretty durable, and it's hard to wreck one beyond redemption if you're reasonably careful in your re-blocking efforts.

Thanks to the info here, I went from no hats to 10 (9 Akubras and 1 Stetson) in under 4 years. And I've changed the shape of every single one (some several times) to be more to my style preference (mostly western, 1 Indy-style fedora).

If you don't like the way it looks, you won't wear it. So why not customize to get the look you want?

 

[John Galt]

CD - It looks good, definitely more rockin'

I like the telescope crease myself on westerns, and have several. Most of mine look like yours, but I followed Mr. Ermatinger's instructions on the last one and had much more professional results.

In a nutshell, steam/dampen the hat until soft, then turn it upside down on the counter & push it down until you get the telescope where you want it. Then, put your hand inside and, leaving the hat flat on the counter, push the slack to the edges.

If you have a toy iron (see above) use it to get the crown smooth & let the hat dry on the counter. If you don't, you can use something like a flat bottomed water glass or coffee cup.

You'll get something like this:

Instead of this:

I guess it is a matter of style, but the first looks more like the real deal to me. Hope you find this helpful.

 

[Crazy Dave]

Thank you, great tip!

 

[Crazy Dave]

Some pics of the sweat and liner:

And I used John's instructions above to redo the crown, much better now!

Mugshot:

 

[frussell]

I lived about a block from The Hat Store in Houston when I was a teenager. The owner (Gary?) is a great guy, and I still have a few hats from there, including my first store bought fedora and a custom cowboy hat or two. Wasn't aware of the Beaver Brand association. Nice Stevie-style Crazy Dave, I got several chances to check SRV's hats out up close back in the 80s, and you've got the vibe right, with your own style added. He was a really nice guy, and generous to the fans. Frank

 

[wuluf]

Hello everyone, I'm enjoying this thread immensely. Here are mine:

Stetson Gun Club Pawnee


Akubra Cattleman that arrived today (this tread made this necessary!)


And a heavily shellacked wool felt hat that I'm very fond of

 

[Joao Encarnado]

Nice ones.
The lever action

 

[Joao Encarnado]

A long hair western I just got.

Resistol Panda. More pictures on "The Resistol roundup" thread.

 

[ManofKent]

Off to the Resistol thread to see more pics

 

[nigeloscar]

The new Dodge western.. From last best west ..

 

[Lando]

The new Dodge western.. From last best west .. View attachment 11252

 

[johnnycanuck]

Holly brim Batman. Great lookin hat. How about a bit of a review?
Johnny.

 

[ManofKent]

That's some brim!

 

[Joao Encarnado]

A new hat for brim wars! Looks cool.

A Dobbs West.

 

[ManofKent]

Looks good on.

 

[nigeloscar]

How about a bit of a review?
Johnny.[/QUOTE]

Happy to!

Well, the ordering process was pretty thorough, lots of additional options, and followed up by an email to check everything was in order and the opportunity to have custom made for Nigel on the sweat.
Then the wait...
It arrived yesterday, pretty spot on for when they told me it would be here, and it arrived in a fairly beat up box and on opening, not as much protection as Everything Australia or Hattery deliver.
It did have a Hat jack in there, so impressed with that, but overall the product itself does not seem as polished as I would have hoped for.
Now this may be because it is a replica of a 1920's design, but it seems cheap. I am almost exclusively Akubra and the finish on the Akubra's is a different class. The gold name inside is smudged to buggery - nice idea but total fail, and I will have to remove that with some product because it looks so naff. The stitching is petty basic, and the finish just seems a bit sloppy to me. Maybe it is an original hat from the 1920's after all...
Would I buy from them again.. probably not. Hat looks great (from a distance) though! Cost was approx $470 Aussie, so right at the top of my price range. I hope that is not too damning for them - but I am a Whinging pom, and this is my immediate reaction to a hat I have been looking forward to for almost 2 months. One of teh challenges of not being able to inspect before you buy. I will post some pictures, then let you judge whether the hat is poorly finished or not!

 

[Lando]

Would I buy from them again.. probably not. Hat looks great (from a distance) though! Cost was approx $470 Aussie, so right at the top of my price range. I hope that is not too damning for them - but I am a Whinging pom, and this is my immediate reaction to a hat I have been looking forward to for almost 2 months. One of teh challenges of not being able to inspect before you buy. I will post some pictures, then let you judge whether the hat is poorly finished or not!

I had worried as much. The little bit I could find about them was so so, leaning to negative, with one reviewer saying he had to have the hat brought elsewhere to finish parts that were left very rough. Granted, none of that was on the lounge so I was unsure how much to trust. I had debated making an experiment out of it and seeing what I ended up with, but it didn't seem worth it. But after a review like this, I'll probably stay clear. There's plenty of other places to go with better reviews and I'd rather put my money on a sure things as far as quality goes. Shame though, they have a lot of nice styles on their site.

Thanks very much for the review. I'd been wondering about them for a while.