I love the hat this man is wearing. It looks like a Filson packer hat, but the brim seems much larger. Has anyone seen a hat like this or know where I could get one? The man is Elmer Kleb, a hermit that lived near Houston and died in 1999.

-Blast

I haven't seen anything that looks much like it. I think your right. It looks like a Filson type design with a heavy canvas. Then again it might be felt or a really well worn leather. Possible considering the guys probable age.

I doubt your going to find a make, model and maker. Filson might have s

I haven't seen anything that looks much like it. I think your right. It looks like a Filson type design with a heavy canvas. Then again it might be felt or a really well worn leather. Possible considering the guys probable age.

I doubt your going to find a make, model and maker. Filson might have something close. You might have to have one custom made. I would be tempted to talk to Filson and see if they could come up with something similar. They could call it the "Elmer Kleb". Sort of a living memorial.

Of course it it is felt it might be a possible DIY job.

I could see myself wearing something like that. A light color and wide brims are good for southern folks.

Looks kinda similar to this Akubra "Coober Pedy" hat. But of course not nearly as expensive.

http://www.davidmorgan.com/product_info....2cc8d0b9867c8ad

Whatever brand and model of hat this is, it's old. The crown looks like someone's been sitting on it for a while and the brim droops all the way around. And you're right, the brim looks wider that the Filsons which max out at about 3". Thought perhaps because the man appears to be slender - with a small hat size - the brim appears to be wider by contrast. I myself have a large head - hat size 8 - and I find that I need at least a 3.5 to 4" brim so that I don't look -hatwise anyway - like John Candy in Uncle Buck.

The Akurba site link provided above - or below - depending on where in the column this post lands, has hats that appear to be similar, minus the wear and tear. At $100 or more, they are expensive, but no so expensive for a fur felt. Good luck in your search.

Now that I look at it again I think I know what it is.

It is a common felt cowboy hat that has sagged and drooped with age, water exposure and wear. I'll bet you that if you took it to a shop that re-boxes cowboy hats they could return it back into an aproximation of its original turned up rim and western stylish self.

Personally I think it looks better how it is now. Sort of an sod-buster/mountain man look.

Assuming I'm right, I kinda hope I'm not because I only get to be right so many times a week, it should be easy to get one that looks like that.

1) Buy a high quality cowboy hat in an appropriate light shade. Buy quality because the cheap ones will fall apart instead of aging gracefully.

2) Wear and abuse it for fifty years taking care not to maintain it or its shape. When it gets so hats so nasty that it drops buzzards at 50' jump into a lake with it and wear it dry.

That would be the 'authentic' way to get one.

You might be able to get one faster by either buying the cowboy hat and selectively abusing it with water, steam and stomping it.

You might do even better to call a maker of high quality cowboy hats and have them send you one out that has just been felted to the general shape of a hat. But before it gets molded into the classic cowboy hat form. I once saw pictures of the hats before they are stretched, formed and finished and they kind of look like what Mr Kleb is wearing.

Remembering this is why it dawned on me that it is not a hat that was originally designed that way but rather a standard cowboy hat that has been regressed by wear and tear to an aproximation of its form before it passed the final stages of manufacturing a cowboy hat.

Kind of a Hoss Cartwright hat after lots of use and abuse...

This is not felt and will not have the "character" the hat you are showing does, but it is the same shape. I have one of these and I can recommend it as an excellent hiking/outdoor hat.

http://www.summithut.com/catalog/remap/product.asp/pfid/25011/

Summit Hut will have a lot of choices in hats.

banthony1,

Welcome to the fire, newguy! Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that place before.

-Blast

Art,

Judging from a few other pictures of Kleb I think the hat was some sort of tin cloth or oil cloth. Hmmm, maybe Shwert can hook me up with someone at Filson to make me a custom version of the hat.

The guy looks like Gandalf to me. He lived for almost ninety years without utilities and growing his own food on 133 acres. This land is now a nature preserve with his house and barn converted into a "living history" museum.

-Blast