Hat Sutlers?

[bsbaker]

I'm in the business of purchasing a new hat. I contacted the good folks at Dirty Billy's, and they told me the style/make of the hat I wanted could take up to six months to come in due to supply shortages. Does anybody know of some other "great" hat dealers?

Or possibly one of you have a High Beehive, Brown with Black trim in the 23 1/2 neighborhood?

[snk22nd]

I would try Tim Bender. Great hats turn around is also not that long. Also Clearwater hats.

[ILYankee5]

I would try Tim Bender. Great hats turn around is also not that long. Also Clearwater hats.

I would echo Bender on his turn around...I had my hat in 4-5 days of ordering. Clearwater is good as well but is sometimes hard to get ahold of.

www.clearwaterhats.com

www.benderhats.com

Good luck

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

All three of the above vendors make a quality product, but Bill is correct, there is a shortage right now of the correct blanks and materials for fur and felt hats at this time. Perhaps the other vendors will have one in stock or are lucky enough to have extra blanks laying around. The quantity of hats that Billy makes it difficult as he goes through alot more stock than most. The final result is always worth the wait.

[Marc Shaffer]

Ditto the above about Tim Bender. I had my Hardee hat in less than a week. He is IMHO the best out there.

[NCfighter]

Does anyone know if Clearwater Hat Company is still in business. They had some nice hats.

[GaWildcat]

I'll second that.. I have a DB Low Crown Bowler I picked up at Atlanta and I love it... worth the money, and looks just as sharp with a Federal Impression as it does CS and Civ.. I would wait if you have to... Life is too short to have a bad hat. I think mine is what is labeled as C10 on his webpage... but in black

[ILYankee5]

Does anyone know if Clearwater Hat Company is still in business. They had some nice hats.

See the website in my post above.

[tater]

For hats, I'd go with Tim Bender, Tim is a pleasure to deal with, has great turn around, and makes one mean hat.

[harley_davis]

Does anyone know if Clearwater Hat Company is still in business. They had some nice hats.

I purchased three hats from Clearwater last year, they are definetly still in business. Just sent the $$ off and 2-3 months later the hats showed up. It is rare to get someone on the phone, they are on the road a good deal. But I did get through a couple of times. The hats are worth the wait, the wonderment as to if your order was recieved is spooky. Tim & Billy are great hats as has been indicated.
Regards,

[bsbaker]

Thank you all, great leads!

[bkylehand]

I know many have already suggested Tim Bender, but I wanted to share a little story about his work. My girlfriend ordered me a hardee hat from Dirty Billies for graduation, she made sure she ordered it plenty time in advance and she checked frequently on the progress of the hat. 2 weeks before graduation she called Dirty Billies shop to ask about the hat and she was told it would be another 4-5 months before they got to it. This would have equaled an 8 month turn around time. That Saturday I called Tim Bender and asked him how long it would be before he could have one made, he told me he could have it made for me and in the mail by Wednesday. I had my hat on Friday and it is by far by favorite hat. Tim is a grade A guy to work with and I will recommend his work to anyone. I can not speak for Dirty Billies work, but I do not recommend buying anything from him unless you buy it at an event and you can walk out of his tent with the product in your hand.

[NCfighter]

Thanks for the info. Just placed an order for one of Clearwaters Hats. I'll post something when it comes.

[tater]

I know many have already suggested Tim Bender, but I wanted to share a little story about his work. My girlfriend ordered me a hardee hat from Dirty Billies for graduation, she made sure she ordered it plenty time in advance and she checked frequently on the progress of the hat. 2 weeks before graduation she called Dirty Billies shop to ask about the hat and she was told it would be another 4-5 months before they got to it. This would have equaled an 8 month turn around time. That Saturday I called Tim Bender and asked him how long it would be before he could have one made, he told me he could have it made for me and in the mail by Wednesday. I had my hat on Friday and it is by far by favorite hat. Tim is a grade A guy to work with and I will recommend his work to anyone. I can not speak for Dirty Billies work, but I do not recommend buying anything from him unless you buy it at an event and you can walk out of his tent with the product in your hand.

When I bought my first Hardee, I got it from Dirty Billy (waste of money). He was... shall we say.... not to friendly in the shop, and the hat I recieved was so low in quality, and paled in comparison to the materials, worksmanship, and the overall condition of the hat that Mr. Bender shipped to me.

[pvt_jb]

I have ordered two hats from Bender. Both great experiences and both great hats. The first was a hardee that I received in one week. The second was just recently. I ordered a flat top bowler and had it with in two weeks.

[Micah Trent]

I have hats from all three vendors and have no issues. To me, they are all well made, but my favorite hat is my Tim Allen's enlisted man's hardee. I wish Tim Allen was still making his hats. Just a great make.

[Pvt Schnapps]

I love my Tim Bender hats, but I also think highly of my Dirty Billy forage caps and would like to put in a good word for his service.

I would never have purchased a second Dirty Billy forage cap, as the first was wearing quite well after eight years, but I made the mistake of throwing that first one on the floor of my study after returning home from a ten mile march in June. One of my pugs took a liking to the sweat-drenched brim and swiftly converted my Type II into a Type three-eighths with none too neat a finish either. I had a living history coming up so I immediately put in an order for a replacement explaining what had happened. Dirty Billy sent me a new hat in about a week and a half. He also had nice things to say about my dog :)

[FloridaHoosier]

Moderator hat on (pardon the pun):
All of the above vendors are well noted in their field of providing quality hats, so this is a good discussion. I also throw out the disclaimer that as a vendor myself, I know of the limitations of guaranteeing a delivery time and that it can often take months longer to provide something due to a variety of factors such as in this case, quality blanks and other parts. In the case of one of these vendors (Bill Wickham of Dirty Billy's Hats), reenactors aren't the only facet of their industry, as there are film industry and museum contracts tugging at them constantly. Lets limit the conversation to who provides quality, what makes them a good purchase, and limit the talk on how long it took to get, etc. Methinks we are all getting spoiled today when you can get a quality item in a couple weeks, as the old timers on here can remember the days in the not-too-distant past where it could take a year or two to get something nice. I don't advocate going back to those days, but we do have to show some patience to get things worthwhile.

[harley_davis]

Moderator hat on (pardon the pun):
All of the above vendors are well noted in their field of providing quality hats, so this is a good discussion. I also throw out the disclaimer that as a vendor myself, I know of the limitations of guaranteeing a delivery time and that it can often take months longer to provide something due to a variety of factors such as in this case, quality blanks and other parts. In the case of one of these vendors (Bill Wickham of Dirty Billy's Hats), reenactors aren't the only facet of their industry, as there are film industry and museum contracts tugging at them constantly. Lets limit the conversation to who provides quality, what makes them a good purchase, and limit the talk on how long it took to get, etc. Methinks we are all getting spoiled today when you can get a quality item in a couple weeks, as the old timers on here can remember the days in the not-too-distant past where it could take a year or two to get something nice. I don't advocate going back to those days, but we do have to show some patience to get things worthwhile.

Well, Ross has pretty much nailed it on the "head" (I couldnt resist that one) I think. Reminds me of a saying an old pard was fond of giving out to young pups that expected the world to be handed to them, and I quote "Premeditated expectation leads to a guaranteed resentment". Perhaps that is something we all need to keep in mind in regards to not only these already mentioned quality makers, but all the other makers we depend on to provide the great products available to us today. You are so right Ross, we are probably more than a little spoiled these days.
Respectfully,