Thursday, August 2, 2007

Hat, rope skills demonstrated by Meridenites for National Cowbay Day recently in Topeka

by Carolyn Kaberline

Shaping cowboy hats is Dewayne Burgess' skill

Dewayne Burgess of Meriden dips the hat into a tub of water and holds it under for several seconds. After raising it from the tub, he begins to style the crown and brim, finally ending up with a shaped western hat.

Burgess, who learned the technique of hat shaping when he was a student at Kansas State University, spent Saturday demonstrating the skill to visitors at Old Prairie Town at Historic Ward Meade Park in Topeka as part of the activities to celebrate the National Day of the American Cowboy.

“I lived in the Farmhouse Fraternity while in college,” Burgess said. “We shaped felt hats over tea kettles in the evening, but it was nothing like having a nice steamer like I have now.”

Burgess said he learned many of his hat shaping techniques from Roy Frey Western store manager Mike McGee after Burgess and his wife, Jo Turner, bought the Topeka store.

Burgess explained that hat shaping used to be a tradition. “Every western store did it. Now it’s kind of a dying art.”

While Burgess gives McGee a lot of credit for teaching him how to style hats, he says he also learned a lot from “The Hat Doctor” in Warrensburg, Mo. The Hat Doctor cleans, shapes, reblocks, and even rebuilds hats.

“He has a loyal base of customers at his store and also travels to big events like the World Paint Show, the Palomino World Show, and the Quarter Horse Congress,” he said.

“I kind of pioneered the palm leaf hat at Roy Frey,” Burgess said. “It’s much more fun to play with. Sit out on a patio with a bucket of water and a palm leaf hat in the evening and you can have all kinds of fun.”

Burgess said that while most people think of either felt hats or straw hats when they think of cowboys, palm leaf hats are almost indestructible and are used by working ranch hands. Burgess went on to explain that there were six grades of palm leaf hats, ranging from the coarse Guatemalan palm leaf to the very fine Mexican palm leaf hats. The coarser grades are cheaper and much easier to shape, while the finer weaves are more expensive and much harder to shape.

Since the western hat was originally a functional piece of cowboy attire used to protect the wearer from the elements, Burgess explained that people tend to style the hats in different ways.

“A lot of wearers like to leave them flatter to keep more sun off them,” he said. “Others like to put a little roll on the sides and at the back, so if it rains, the water won’t run down their necks.”

Burgess said that while the palm leaf hats are much easier to style and last longer, straw hats are more popular. “We sell two straw hats for every one palm leaf hat,” he said. “A lot of people who buy straw hats aren’t ranch workers and want the straw for golf and such. The straw hats are a little dressier.”

According to Burgess another factor in the popularity of straw hats is that they are cooler than the palm leave hats. While ventilation holes can be punched in palm leaf hats, the type of material and the weave makes them hotter to wear.

However, Burgess said it’s much easier to clean the palm leaf hats. “Even if your palm leaf hat blows into some manure, you can just dunk it in the stock tank and wash it with a brush.” This would no doubt be appealing to real life cowboys.

David Murdie teaches how to make rope

“Now don’t use this rope to tie up your brothers or sisters and be careful of using it on your dog,” Dave Murdie of Meriden always tells youngsters who get one of his ropes.

Murdie, who has been making ropes for about 25 years, was one of the popular attractions at Saturday’s celebration of the National Day of the American Cowboy at Historic Ward Meade Park in Topeka.

Murdie’s rope making began when he saw a rope machine half buried in a junk pile at a farm sale about 25 years ago. “Of course, I had to buy the whole pile to get the machine,” he chuckled.

While Murdie then began to make a few ropes for himself, its real potential was revealed when he used it in his classroom at Atchison County Community High School.

“As every teacher knows, two of the worst days of school are the day before Christmas vacation and the last day of school,” he explained, saying that students don’t want to do anything on those days because they are anticipating vacation too much. And that’s where the rope machine came in handy.

“I’d bring the rope machine to school on those days, and we made rope.” Murdie said. A lot of kids were so fascinated by the machine that they would come in after school and ask to make some more.

Later, after Murdie retired from teaching, he became a docent for the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka. “They had a toy thing to make rope,” he said, “but I had the real thing, so I started taking it out there and making rope twice a year for them.” The rope machine proved just as popular there as it did in his classroom.

And this past Saturday was no different: Murdie always seemed to have a new youngster wanting him to make some rope.

To do so Murdie or his son Steve Murdie would string 24 strands—eight strands per hook—of plastic twine from the machine to a stand that Murdie made a few years ago to speed up the process. Once the strands were in place, Steve would crank the machine so that the strands would begin to twist while Dave would place a forked piece of wood between the three sets of strands to keep the twine from tangling.

After this process was under way for a few moments, Dave would ask the youngster who requested the rope to begin cranking the handle at his end to place a reverse twist on the rope. Once the process was complete, the ends of the rope were taped and then melted so that the ends wouldn’t unravel.

Murdie said that each strand used to make a rope was about 25 feet in length; this 25 feet resulted in about 20 feet of actual rope after the process was completed, making “a good utility rope.” He also said different numbers of strands could be used; the actual number determined the thickness of the final product.

While most of the ropes Murdie made Saturday were nylon, he did make a few sisal ropes.

“Sisal is made from yucca plant strands,” Murdie said, pointing out the fibers that stuck out from the twine. He explained that several short strands were actually twisted together to make rolls of it.

“We have to space kids every three or feet when we’re making rope from it to keep it from tangling.” Murdie said sisal was becoming increasing hard to find, another reason he preferred to use the nylon.

From the happy looks of the youngsters who got one of his ropes on Saturday, it’s safe to say that Murdie will need to keep rope making materials on hand because he’ll be making even more in the future.