Markman Hat Bands
A little less than 10 years ago, Markman had an epiphany. Although he had owned leather shops, worked with leather, done hand-tooling for 40-some years, he was essentially a one-layer man. One thick leather hide hand-tooled for sandals, handbags, belts and so forth. But then he went to boot school and his whole focus changed.
Today Markman makes fine hand-tooled leather hatbands to the exclusion of nearly everything else. They are 2 and 3 layers thick, stitched on an old Singer 3115 sewing machine at probably 24-30 stitches to the inch. He stains, polishes and buffs the leather hides, hand stamps from vintage hardware and occasionally one he has commissioned from a stamp-maker. Some hatbands are inlaid with turquoise which are set and glued in the middle layer of leather, the upper layer forming a sort of bezel around the stone. The stampwork is painstaking and time consuming. The hatbands are finished with strong and supple kangaroo leather ties. His reward is the satisfaction of creating a unique, one-of-a-kind hatband of quality which can be found in a very small handful of fine shops. Our reward is knowing that O’Farrell Hat Company is one of those shops
Today Markman makes fine hand-tooled leather hatbands to the exclusion of nearly everything else. They are 2 and 3 layers thick, stitched on an old Singer 3115 sewing machine at probably 24-30 stitches to the inch. He stains, polishes and buffs the leather hides, hand stamps from vintage hardware and occasionally one he has commissioned from a stamp-maker. Some hatbands are inlaid with turquoise which are set and glued in the middle layer of leather, the upper layer forming a sort of bezel around the stone. The stampwork is painstaking and time consuming. The hatbands are finished with strong and supple kangaroo leather ties. His reward is the satisfaction of creating a unique, one-of-a-kind hatband of quality which can be found in a very small handful of fine shops. Our reward is knowing that O’Farrell Hat Company is one of those shops
