When did Stetson begin using powder in their hat colors?

[Blackthorn]

When did Stetson begin using powder to color their hats? If we buy 50's vintage, are we safe, or were they already using powder at that point? If I buy vintage I don't want to see streaks if it gets wet, and I'm looking at a 50's hat I might buy.

 

[Dinerman]

I've never had any problems with they dye in '50s Stetsons running

 

[Blackthorn]

Thanks Dinerman

 

[carouselvic]

dito

 

[Joshbru3]

I've handled 60's Stetson Stingys and never had a problem with powder. I've also handled early 60's Stetson open roads and haven't had a problem with powder. Almost everything that I've handled from the later 60's - early 70's have had powder problems/splotches due to lack of powder. But I will say this, as bad as the powder issue was back then, its MUCH worse now.

 

[1961MJS]

When did Stetson begin using powder to color their hats? If we buy 50's vintage, are we safe, or were they already using powder at that point? If I buy vintage I don't want to see streaks if it gets wet, and I'm looking at a 50's hat I might buy.

Hi Blackthorn

I bought a Stetson Temple a few years ago. I'd heard about the powder so I brushed the hat and did see some of the brown flake off. It's been o.k. in the rain since then. No running onto me.

Later

 

[John in Covina]

It seems that the powder coloring is a more reccent phenomenon. I bought a Stetson in the late nineties that did not employ the powder coloring. Also it seems like some people don't have as much trouble with the powdered color as others. At this point I'd like to ask if other makers are using the same method or not?

 

[jlee562]

On my ca. 60s Resistol OR clone there was some powder. At first I thought it was just dusty, so I kept brushing it and stuff kept flying off. Then I noticed the area I had been brushing was very slightly lighter.

Or maybe it's still dirty, haha. Either way, I quit brushing.

 

[carouselvic]

On my ca. 60s Resistol OR clone there was some powder. At first I thought it was just dusty, so I kept brushing it and stuff kept flying off. Then I noticed the area I had been brushing was very slightly lighter.

Or maybe it's still dirty, haha. Either way, I quit brushing.

That sounds like that hat may have been cleaned with Scout felt hat cleaner for light colored hats. It leaves a powder.

 

[mayserwegener]

Some late 40s into early 60s Adam hats of mine have powder. I have never encountered any running but also never worn them in extreme wet conditions.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Forgive a dumb question, but just how does this powder color process work?

 

[danofarlington]

Stetson's practice goes back to powdered wigs in the 1700s, as the royal hatter to the King.

 

[Blackthorn]

Forgive a dumb question, but just how does this powder color process work?

Griz, as I understand it, the felt that Stetson uses, or the coloring rather, comes out with light spots, so they use a powder, sprinkled around to even out the color. But it's just powder and will run when wet.

 

[jlee562]

That sounds like that hat may have been cleaned with Scout felt hat cleaner for light colored hats. It leaves a powder.

Hmm...now there's a possibility I had not thought of.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Griz, as I understand it, the felt that Stetson uses, or the coloring rather, comes out with light spots, so they use a powder, sprinkled around to even out the color. But it's just powder and will run when wet.

Thanks, Blackthorn. Seems like a poor solution to a quality control issue.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Stetson's practice goes back to powdered wigs in the 1700s, as the royal hatter to the King.

 

[job]

I've never noticed any powder in Akubra or Winchester felt.

 

[barrowjh]

I wonder sometimes if the powders we encounter are from hats that have been cleaned by previous owners over the years. Use of powders in refurbishment was common, described in Ermatinger's 'Scientific Hat Finishing and Renovating' on pages 54-56. Manufacturers could have used powders also, but it seems inefficient to rely on powders added at the 'back end' of manufacturing; it would be more efficient to get the dye process right.

Are we smart enough to know the difference, if instead of powders 'running' on our clothes in the rain, what we see are dyes that run in the rain, and along with that drip comes some dyed felt 'dust' from the original sanding?

 

[Blackthorn]

Very true, Griz. Akubra gets by just fine without it. But they also only offer shades of brown and gray (tan, black, etc). I wonder if those facts are related.

 

[barrowjh]

Continuing from my earlier post above -

I have encountered powder in Stetson felt before, but in both situations it was a hat that had been hit with the ugly stick something fierce, and the more I cleaned the powder out of it, the uglier they looked; stains that were hiding under the powder. The powder gave the felt a sort of creepy metallic feel, similar to the feel from the silica in Scout's Hat Cleaner for Light Colored felts which someone else mentioned. Both of those Stetsons were vintage, 1950s or earlier, and it is somewhat likely they were cleaned at least once before I found them on ebay.

I have never had to deal with any hat color running onto my clothes. I have presumed the color-running issue was a result of manufacturers experimenting with cheaper dye processes during the late 1980s through early 2000s time frame when the hat industry just about died out altogether. I think that was a pretty rough stretch for the manufacturers, and our worst complaints about finishing details, overuse of stiffener, etc, all seem loosely tied to this time frame.