Dress Code

[Ed Thomas]

OKay, Okay... I know this subject has been beat to death in forum after forum but I never paid attention to it because I normally don't mess with period demos. HOWEVER, last night I agreed to demo for a mid-1800's heritage days sort of event in the closest city to me (about 40 miles). Now I'm NOT going to try to find a costume, but I do need to know what to do about a hat. I have to wear a hat when I'm forging, so I might as well try not to be TOO obnoxiously out of era with my typical ball cap that says "Centaur Forge" or "Stihl" or "Massey Furgeson" or whatever. Sooooo... what goes on my head on June 11th???? :?: :?: :?:

[Quenchcrack]

Straw, farmer type. Or maybe felt. Look at the Dixie Gun Works Catalog on line, they sell period hats and things. 8)

[HWooldridge]

Ed,

Try this link. These guys carry a good line of hats in all sizes and the prices are right. Some styles are accurate to the 1800's (and they are cool to wear).

http://www.bigbendsaddlery.com/hatsp.html

Beyond that, folks like to see blacksmiths in suspenders so find yourself a nice pair to wear with jeans and a chambray shirt. Finish off with work boots and no one will be the wiser.

[Ed Thomas]

Thanks all. I just got back from the BGOP Spring Fling and will go shopping per your advice. Then I will come back with more stylish questions. :mrgreen:

[Ten Hammers]

Ed, I bought some plain old black pants at the store (black jean material). I then removed the back pockets with a razor blade, and the belt loops. The local Mennonite store sells suspenders that button to the pants (you'll have to buy the buttons and sew them on). My period shirt was made by a lady that does that sort of stuff (she builds tents and such too). My headwear is just a plain old black cap sold at the welding supplier (Kromer). These are good caps. Grab a couple and keep one clean, one in the wash. They look period for a smith and I've had no complaints. My nickels worth.

[Ten Hammers]

http://www.kromercap.com/StyleA.htm

BTW, the cap I speak of is model A 250

[Ed Thomas]

Ten Hammers: That sounds like a good direction to try. I hadn't thought about the old order Mennonite community clothing being fairly close. We meet at the Buggy Shop every month so I'll ask them about it when we meet next.

As far as the hat, don't you think A 336 would go over better for a Virginia Civil War era demo hat? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[irnsrgn]

Ed, I ended up with one of those really weird patterned caps once, because it was the only one that was large enough to fit me. I kept getting questions all the time because I usually dress very conservatively. The question was ,"why do you wear a cap like that?"

My answer was, "So I don't have to look at it!" :mrgreen: :wink: :lol:

[Glenn]

Ed, in reference to your choice of hats for a mid-1800's - right amount of stripes but I would want to count and compare the number of stars for mid-1800's :wink:

[Ed Thomas]

Glenn, I think it has the wrong everything for Virginia at that time. :lol:

[Strine]

Ed,

I'd reckon you'ld look a bit of a dill with a brand new hat! Do you have Opportunity shops over there? They're best described as fund raising shops for charities. They might have one for a few bob that you wouldn't mind authentificating with a bit of grime and coal dust etc. Unfortunately a good hat needs a lot of preparation say about 5 years of constant wear. Give me a minute and I'll post an example in my gallery. :wink: If I new how I could attach it here...any clues?

[Ed Thomas]

Strine: I can hardly wait.

The way to post pictures in the body of the message is to stash them somewhere accessible on the internet and point to them here. If it is a picture of your own, you have to upload it to some location that accepts pictures in a public gallery. I usually use:

http://www.metalworking.com

Click on the "Dropbox Files" button to see a list of all the files (including mine) that are there.

Click on "Using the Dropbox" to see how to get a picture there.

Basically you send them an email with your picture as an attachment, and a text file as an attachment that has a description of the file. You should name them the same thing. I once got a picture deleted because the text file was too far away in name from picture I uploaded, I think.

There are plenty of other places, including a free photo site, but I like this one for all the metal-related pictures.

Once you have a picture openly on the internet, you provide its address in your message, highlight that whole addresss, and click on the "Img" button above the little window you typed your message into. That will put "" at the end, which tells the forum that directions to a picture are located there... go find it.

If you want another example, just right click on the hat picture in my message above. You can do anything in that pop-up menu, including copy image location. Click on "Properties" and you can see the address of the picture and details of the picture itself. This is especially handy if you want to go look at where somebody got a link. For instance, you could use the link on that hat to see all the other outrageous hats that welders think are so cool. :)

[Ed Thomas]

Strine: Don't get me wrong... the Gallery is an awfully nice feature. I was just showing you how to imbed pictures that exist offsite.

But the same technique works by using the Gallery itself. If I go to your awesomely fine picture "My Hat" in the gallery I can right click on the picture and select "copy image location".

Then I come back here and paste it right here...

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10028/My%20hat.jpg

Then I highlight that and go and click on the "Img" button:



Which put the image markers on either end of the internet address of your gallery picture.

Voila! Instant hat in message! I really do love this forum design.

The beauty of it is that as you can see, you can either just leave the address as a link so people can choose to look or not, or you can force your very lovely sculpture on them first thing in the morning with their post breakfast coffee. Personally, I think such creation as yours should be thrust on the public without choice.

[Glenn]

If you use the IForgeIron gallery as a place to put your photos, it is part of the IForgeIron system and we can hold the photo. IF you use an internet service to store photos, when the photos are deleted, the link to them is deleted also.

http://www.yourimg.com

Yourimg.com does not have a storage quota, so many photos can be stored there. They also have a long term of storage before anything is deleted.

[Strine]

Here's hoping this works.

[Strine]

Looks like that worked. Thanks Ed. Another facit of modern science mastered now I'd better drop back a thousand years and belt the daylights out some hot metal.

[Ralph]

In addition to many of the hats already mentiond. I often wear a 'Greek Fishermans' hat. Or an old felt dress hat that had been left out in teh rain. ( looks like Jed Clampetts hat.
Or a plain colored welders cap. I have also been know to wear a bandana.

[Ed Thomas]

Strine: Can you send me your hat? I can't seem to find ANYTHING that fine. :mrgreen:

The lady in charge of the "Court Square Days" called me yesterday to make sure Lanny and I were actually going to be there. I assured her I was looking forward to it (June 11). Better get busy on my 1850 - 1860 looking attire.

[Strine]

Ed I'd love to send the hat but I'd miss all my pets too much. :cry: If you had seven rabbits you could make your own. For an 1850's/60's lid you could easily get away with a Civil war thing couldn't you. There must be heaps of them around. There's certainly plenty over here, goodness knows why :?:

What are you doing for a shirt. We all get rigged up at a demo and mostly the fellas go for the collarless 1920's shirt with a waistcoat. I would like the flannel? undershirts? in the picky to match the high back canvas trousers I already have. Any clues on a pattern. BTW I must have been off watering the horses or something when the photo was taken....I wish!!

[Ten Hammers]

I have some pics posted on the Gallery. One shows me in what I will call period clothes. Kromer stiff billed welding hat and also a shirt that I bought at Wal-Mart (black long sleeved with 3 buttons at the neck - somilar in nature to the shirts in your post Strine). I hate to shop for clothes but sometimes you hit a good deal.

[Wishwon]

make a helmet outta metal to ware :P