This hat going to cut the mustard?

[Roosterman]

[Trap]

  If you want to do a specific time or region of the country, maybe not, but for a general NCOWS hat , YES.  jt

  PS enjoyed your website

[James Hunt]

Roosterman: I will never disagree with Trap and always stand behind him on these matters. I don't want to get in front of him because as the authenticity Judge he gets allot of crap thrown his way and I don't want to get any on me. Indeed I have seen more than a few in NCOWS wear a hat such as yours.

But if you were looking for a more specific answer which Trap alluded too: You got a very, very, very - as in the first kid on the block -  late 19th century hat and I am saying that to be kind cause all the pictures I have seen of that hat are pretty much early 20th century (Sherman brothers, etc.). There are enough 19th century images out there with hats bent in all directions such that you can allude to almost anything, that aside you would be hard to put together a hat with that brim width, height, particular crease, swept down in back and front, etc. However, if you are willing the problem can be solved.

I'd say given the height of the hat and brim width you have a late 19th century hat common to the frontier so get yourself some images from that period and your steam kettle and go to work. This is something that if you want it to look like it had done some time on the frontier it is impossible to screw up (providing it is not an all wool hat which it does not appear to be). I do not own a hat I have not fooled with, and none suffered permanent damage. After you bend it like you want just spray a little stiffiner on it. If it is a decent quality hat, it will suffer a bunch of such treatment.

It is a cool hat, I have a similar one in silver belly or gray, probably gray now that I have used it so much. But I wear it with my wranglers, tony lama's and carhart - not in NCOWS. But again, if you show up with it no one is going to say a thing.

[Black Powder]

Shoot, if you'd posted that pic in black & white, I'd've bought into it PC all the way!  But since I'm a newbie, wanting, like you, to get it right, thanks for posting this question.  I've just found two contacts here that will be hearing from me off-line for specific advice!  JH & T, you've been warned!  Excellent replies.  Thanks.

BP

[Dr. Bob]

There are pictures from the 19th Century that show all the features of your hat and a few with them all together.  It was not common prior to the late 1890's.  But it quite PC for NCOWS which goes to 1899.  You look at a lot of pictures and then decide if it is what you want.  If so, keep it!  If not, get the tea kettle [or clothing steamer if you have one] out and steam away.  Probably a thread over at the Historical Society on shaping hats.  I have done 5 or 6 and if I can do it, most anyone can.  Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so make yourself happy.

[Deadeye Don]

Heck with your beard and stash and those steely blues, nobody will be looking at your hat pard.  You look the part so enjoy.

[Lone Gunman]

All the pertinent information is in the caption.

[Fox Creek Kid]

Hats like that make me hungry for Arby's.  Just kiddin'!!

[Delmonico]

Ahhh, the dreaded is this hat correct idea again.   In a conversation several years ago with Ritch Rand of Rand hats, one of the most reconized hat historians in the country was interesting.  As he said and I suspected, till the late 1890's when the factory creased hats got common, the style was simple, steam it or wet it and shape it how you liked it, no rules, no right and wrong, some regions and time frames favored one over the other, but search enough and you will find almost anything.

May favorite is from Picture 13130 of the Butcher Collection.  This fella looks like him and his hat are ready to go to a Brroks and Dunn concert.   But the year is 1886 and the town is West Union Nebraska in Custer County.



The idea of being unique just like everyone else seems not to be common in the era.

[Delmonico]

BTW, a decent quality wool felt hat can be steamed and reshaped almost as well as a beaver hat, I do it all the time for folks here at work, have done some awful radical resahapes on them.  What a wool felt hat of a decent quality will not due is hold it's shape well if you wear it all day in the rain unless you treat it well with Camp Dry.

Example, did a 2X Bailey of that shape and did a Montana Peak on it about 5 years ago for my blacksmith.  Worn almost daily, the brown has turned a bit green, but the Camp Dry treatment  has kept it well, it was still alive that rainy day in Oct when we last got together.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Great hat and herringbone tweed. 

Slim

[Ol Gabe]

Silver Creek Slim said "Great hat and herringbone tweed."
Uh yup, jist like yours ain't it S.C.S.? HAH! When I first saw the pic I thought maybe he had traded the hat & coat from your for a case of Wisconsin something or other, then figured you would chime in soon enough.
Now, Pards, anybody that can make Fowlers like that can most certainly wear any type of hat he wants. I drooled for an hour over the pics, recalling my days (a million years ago it seems) when we used to 'Skin and hunt with our old Flinters and SxS Navy Arms 12's...great memories of shooting Woodcock on a creekbed up to my knees in muck, in my Capote, Buckskin pants and mocs, and trying to reload while laughing my ass off because my buddy had just fired both barrels at one and missed! He didn't find it very funny and said he missed "...because the wad had made a hole in the middle of the pattern!" Yup.
Best regards and have all the fun you can!
'Ol Gabe

[Marshal Deadwood]

Guys,,be easy on Rooster Man,,,hes an aspiring gunbuilder trying to make a shoot'able rifle ROFLOL !

Guys,,,Rooster Man, is one of the permier gun builder to ever grace a gunstock in America...and I assure you, Mike will not to anything half way...hes a pefectionest.

Mike,,,ya still got that Schofield ?

Gotta tell ya pard,,I LIKE that herringbone coat...thats NICEEEE !

The 'Gus' hat,,,I have mine,,wont part with it,,,not saying its historically 'typical'....but I DO like the looks of'em. And,,seems ol' Pawnee Bill had one in 1880 ? from the info on the pic

I'll give ya call later and let ya in on the best keep secret in any hobby about a  custom beaver hat at what most sell the woolies for....all ya need'a do then is decide ya    style....

Rooster,,,click on the link in my signature,,and drop by the Pale Horse Posse board...not many of us,, and we are the 'one flew over the kookoos nest of shooters..
free rangers and mis-fits' ya might say...but heck,,ya knows I aint normal for long time now...

MD (Mike C.)   long associate of Wild Rooster...

[Roosterman]

What I really want to do is shoot. I already did the hardcore period correct thing playing the 18th century game. It got to the point where the next step "up" was hand sewn clothes , a book written about my "persona" and talking only in first person during events.....after 19 years I bailed out at that point. It got to be more about clothes than the guns, no thanks.
I don't mind the dress up part at all, it's all a part of the game. I just don't want it to get in the way of the real fun which is shooting. So, this hat will have to do for the time, we'll see how it all goes before I get too period correct.
Thanks for all the input fellas, greatly appreciated. I've been engraving on a Uberti 1873 SAA for the past couple days. I'll post some pictures when it's done...looks like a couple more days of cutting at least.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Nice hat - and cool tweed!

[River City John]

Roosterman,
sounds, and looks, like you're going to be able to join in the fun just fine. Don't fret too much, you'll give yourself the drizzles.

Your participation is more important than how you crease your hat.

When and if you want to take it to the next level there'll be plenty of friendly help available. You'll find that NCOWS will be a good fit between authenticity and shooting, much as you've described.
RCJ 

[Black River Smith]

I will add to this one, late but:

If someone can post the picture on page 222 of the Time/Life Series "The Expressmen"

This is a clear photo of a crease but that has less of a slope.  No date on photo but it is definitely after 1887, two men have 1886's.  Is this a Calvary crease on a hat that is photographed on an angle or is this a steep angled crease in a hat?  Anyone have additional info the date of John Sontag's death.

Have fun in NCOWS.

[Black Powder]

Squint away...

BP

[Black Powder]

BRS - Is this the comparison you were thinkin'?

BP

[Black Powder]

Look at the white hat in the center.  Captioned as "Colorado range in the 1880s."  From T/L Cowboys.

BP