I've been noticing quite a few un-enameled Tilley hoods turning up either on 246B's or as spares. As everyone is no doubt aware, Tilley were forever on a quest to cheepen their products and it did cross my mind that they may have decided to sell lanterns with bare steel hoods as a cost cutting exercise... perhaps like the example below. Does anyone know if this was the case or am I being too pessimistic?
I believe that they are actually plated rather than bare steel and were produced in the mid '70's as an emergency measure: either cost saving or due to high demand, but I can't exactly remember. I think there are posts in the LRG about it.
Here you go @ColinG Link although I do believe that some of these are not the plated ones. I know somewhere amongst my things I have a plain steel hood with a very light enamel coating on the inside.
These are plated instead of being the usual enamel, the boxes were marked plated hood, via a stencil. I believe it was something to do with power cuts in the 70s.
The plain/plated hoods show the limitations of the Tilley manufacturing process. The blanks were pressed rather than spun and you can see the tool marks running down the sides. Its not surprising Tilley opted for enamel because the pressed surface isn't really good enough to plate although during the oil crisis it must have been deemed good enough!
Hello Colin I’ve got a bare metal hood and it’s on a chrome Tilley dated 1973 I’ve been told they made them quickly for the miners strike in 73
I have a slip of typed paper with a chrome plated hood X246b saying it was due to the industrial situation.
Interesting, I haven’t come across these hoods in Australia. Have any of you Aussies seen these hood types? Cheers Pete
