Please help with a Hard Hat.....

[rbertalotto]

This weekend I attended a shoot three hours away from home. Like an idiot, I forgot my hat. So I stoped into Tractor Supply and bought a $50 Stetson made of hard wool.

It had the traditional "Cowboy" look so I flattened out the rim and made it "semi-period correct.

But it is hard as wood. How can I soften it up a bit and get it looking more traditional (floppy)?

[St. George]

Steam...

Shape it and wear it after you've steamed it and Mother Nature will handle the rest.

Period hats weren't floppy when new - the whole floppy hat 'authenticity' thing is a Hollywood invention.

Delmonico can offer up much, much more.

Scouts Out!

[rbertalotto]

I guess when I said "floppy" I really meant "well worn"..."comfortable"..........

[St. George]

Then shape it to your liking and wear it.

Don't leave it in a hot vehicle and don't get it soaked in torrential rain - there's not a whole lot of 'quality' in A TSC hat - but wear it and in so doing, you'll give it it's 'character'.

Scouts Out!

[GunClick Rick]

Take a mister and spray it some,find a tree and beat snot out of it,go to a thrift store and find an old belt (the womens belts have tacks on them) cut it to length tie together with a thong and there ya go~

[Delmonico]

The better the quality of the felt hat the less stiffener (natural shellac) is needed to make it hold it's shape.   The ones that feel like cardboard often even have some polyester fiber in with the wool.  Those take a lot of stiffener. 

Quality hats cost good money, I don't think there is a felt hat today that retails under $125-$150 that I myself would take home even as a gift.  Your Stetson which most likely will say Stetson Stallion on the liner is one of the coarses wool hats I've ever dealt with,  I would put a bandanna on my head to protect it from the sun rather than pay $50 for one, a decent palm leaf hat can be bought for about $30 and are a lot more hat.  I went to a palm leaf lasy year for very hot sunny days:

[GunClick Rick]

Just what i'd exspect to find under a dead leaf! baaa haaa haaa haa

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Just what i'd exspect to find under a dead leaf! baaa haaa haaa haa

A Cabbage leaf