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Some info on the care and maintenance of your Stetson. If you purchased it brand new, depending on where you bought it, they may shape it for you. If you bought it through the mail and it was not shaped, you will need to shape it. If it is a very old hat, it may also need to be cleaned. Shaping is mostly a matter of personal preference.

The easy way to shape up a hat is to have it cleaned and blocked. Hat cleaners can be hard to find. You may need to send it off, and you're looking at a minimum of $45.

You can also do this yourself. If the hat is dusty, brush it. Get a hat brush if you can. A good Western wear store will sell you one. Some will even sell you separate brim and crown brushes. Brush your hat counter-clockwise. Much of the dust and dirt will brush right off: If there is oil or grease, use Fuller's Earth or apply dish detergent and water with an old toothbrush. Then rinse the brush and apply clear water to the spot. Let it dry.

Water won't hurt good fur felt, that's why we wear hats to protect us from the rain. Water can shrink a cheap wool felt, so be sure you're working with good felt before you use much water. One way to clean and reshape a hat is to wash the whole thing. Washing gives the best results when you dry your hat on a block the proper size and shape. If the hat is in such bad shape that anything is an improvement, you can wash it with a detergent like Woolite, Ivory Liquid, or Conklin's Spring Dew, rinse it well, shape it, and let it dry at room temperature. I DO NOT recommend this method for a brand new hat. And never machine-wash.

Shape your felt hat with steam. A tea kettle will do. So will a clothes steamer. One way is to boil water in a spaghetti-sized pot and place the hat upside down over the pot so steam rises and covers the brim and the front of the hat. (The danger to this method is that if you wander away and forget it, the water boils away, your hat burns up, you choke on the smoke, and the odor is awful). When the felt is pliable, shape it the way you want and let it dry. It will hold the shape that you form. The shape is up to you, but if you are in a Cavalry unit, just look around and you will see hats that you like, and hats that you do not like. Most folks steam them and bend the front and rear of the brim down, and some also curl the sides up slightly. The very top of the hat is the crown. You will see a lot of Stetsons with the crown left alone in the back, but shaped to form a soft point in the front. If you use a little steam to soften it and shape it, make your adjustments very gradual. If it needs more adjusting, this is always easier than trying to "undo" a bad shaping.