Club Obi Wan

Darrell4926

Use a little steam on the top of the crown and reshape the center crease. I have a small steamer that I purchased on Amazon and it works great for this kind of work,
a steam kittle or a small sauce pan works pretty good also.

Darrell4926

well, I am a little surprised to see that all of the photos of my hat work has been removed. [-X I guess this means that no one is really interested in this type of hat work? There are different styles of hats, not all are Fedoras. Sometimes it is good to venture outside of a certain style, when you...

Darrell4926

Well, I have purchased two more 100% rabbit fur felts and two black silk liners. One of the felts is a Camel color the other a Granite color. I am thinking about trying to create another mottled color hat with the Camel color, just haven't decided on the color of the dye to use. I was thinking about...

Darrell4926

The last thing to do was to work on the hat curl, so using steam and brass rod, I steamed and worked the curl into the Brim, after finishing the brim curl I steamed the brim front and rear and gave the brim a slight downward turn. I like the way the hat turned out. My first attempt at making a penci...

Darrell4926

The next problem that I had to tackle was to make a leather sweatband for the hat, I had a piece of soft leather, however, I had to find some reeding tape and a new reed, I checked out a few places on the web and order some reeding tape 1-1/4” wide, new reed, silk liner. I had to hand sew the reedin...

Darrell4926

While the hat felt was drying, I worked on another problem, I wanted to put a pencil curl in the brim of this hat, something that I had never done and didn’t have the tool that I would need to make the curl. I decided to use what I had on hand to either make a tool out of wood to use when I made the...

Darrell4926

I started out with a chocolate-colored rabbit fur felt hat that I had used to make a Indy style Fedora, I stripped it down to the bare rabbit fur felt hat body, my plan was to use hair dye to change the color of the hat, I wanted to change the color to a grey color, so I used a couple boxes of blond...

Darrell4926

I have some photos of my new hat that I am working on, I am moving a little slow with this hat project because I am learning some new hat work in this process. What I have in mind for this hat is a size 7 3/8 open crown, 3" wide brim that I am learning how to make a pencil curl by hand. I dyed ...

Darrell4926

I started working on another hat, I don't know how it will turn out or if it will work out. The rabbit fur felt hat is sitting on the crown block drying, this hat is going to be open crown, almost 6" and a 3" brim, and I am going to try to put a pencil curl in the brim, soft brown leather ...

Darrell4926

Thank you, Sir, I was thinking that maybe I need to do a little more bashing on my hat, however, I just changed my mind. I like making hats, but with one size block in good condition, you can only do so much. My son liked the hat, so he tried it on, I think that he must wear a size 7 5/8 or bigger, ...

Darrell4926

Thank you for the update, I checked out the two-web links that you posted and I was able to get a better look at the basket weave pattern and the shape of the hat without the shadows. I guess when you're doing research on the web, you need to triple check everything. My hat had an open crown just sl...

Darrell4926

The hat that Raylan wore in the series was a Stetson with a 4" brim turned down slightly front and back and turned up slightly on the sides, it was a 6X Beaver Felt and the hatband was 1/2" wide with a basket weave pattern, the embossing tools that I have are too big to create the basket w...

Darrell4926

Thank you all very much. Yes, a Raylan Givens style hat is what I was going for, my wife and I really liked that series. I was born in Harlan County, and I really like the hat that he wore in the series. I did a little research on the hat and color; I think the hat color was silver belly, but under ...

Darrell4926

It has been longer than I expected or wanted to take, but I have completed the work on my new hat band. I looked a long time to find the buckle set and the leather, but I managed to find everything and do all the embossing work on the leather. Here is the hat with the new hatband. It is more of a we...

Darrell4926

Check back later, I am going to make a new hat band for my hat, the one that I have on it right now, is too big so I will be making a new hat band. More work, more changes, I have to be the only person around that can turn a project into a career. Actually, a great teaching process, I have made hats...

Darrell4926

Thank you, it was a little bit of a learning as you work project, the fur felt is 180g for western hat styles and I discovered that the felt has a lot of stiffener applied and this felt acted like beaver because it seemed to repel water. The next hat I think that I will get the 160g western weight, ...

Darrell4926

This hat has a 3.25" wide brim, and the open crown was almost 6", the leather sweatband is soft and very comfortable, I sized the sweatband to my head size, I cut the sweatband to 23 3/8" long, then taped the ends together and checked the fit, I had to cut off an additional 1/8" ...

Darrell4926

Hello Everyone, It has been a while since I have been on the forum, but after a lot of trial, error and reworking, I am finished, I think? In the process I made a couple of tools, I ordered some items and made a crown blocking spring. I also made a Tollicker to make the crown brim break. I made a le...

Darrell4926

This afternoon I started work on a leather hat band 1 1/4" wide, I cut down the ends for a belt buckle and made an embossing design, applied antiquing to the band. Tomorrow I will do some more work, sanding it down some, burnishing the edges, then dying it a buckskin dye, then apply a edge coat...

Darrell4926

I am waiting on a new sweatband to be delivered, looks like it will be here on the 27th. I also order some materials to make a blocking spring for hat work, and that could be delivered before Christmas, we will see. Looks like my hat project is on hold for a little while, and that is ok, gives me ti...

Darrell4926

Yesterday I had to rework my crown block, my block was close to 7" tall and I was having trouble getting the brim break fixed properly, so I cut 3/4" off the bottom and sanded down any high spots on the side of the block. After reworking the block it is now 6" tall and 23 3/8" in...

Darrell4926

My hat is just about dry, and I checked the measurements of the crown and brim. The open crown is 5 7/8" and I will have to cut the brim to 3.25". I guess my hat is going to be a wide brim Fedora, smoke grey, this hat has been a challenge, 180g Western weight, pre pounced and stiffened. I ...

Darrell4926

Hello Everyone, Well, I am still working on my hat, I have had to steam it and soak it a couple of times to get it fully seated on my crown block and I have made a few things to help with the battel, I made a puller downer and a pusher downer. I have had to resort to using thumb tacks on the outer e...

Darrell4926

Here are some photos of my homemade hat brim rounding jack.
It's not pretty but it gets the job done and it was the best that I
could do with a limited selection of tools, wood and items just
laying around.

Darrell4926

Well my new hat blank was delivered on time, it is 180g weight and Smoke Grey, rabbit fur felt. I have managed to get a little work done on it since the 24th. This hat is going to be tuff to work with, it took me an hour just getting it down onto my home-made hat block. I do have a very old hat flan...

Darrell4926

I just checked on my order and FedEx changed the delivery date to the 25th. my order is having trouble getting out of NJ? Great so it is going to be delivered on Thanksgiving Day, according to their website tracking which means maybe Friday. If the FedEx driver is working on the 25th, they will be m...

Darrell4926

I bought my hat blank from a Millinery hat supply, their hat blanks look good, I will know more when I get my order, they ship FedEx 2nd. from NY. They do have some beaver hat blanks but all in black right now, they have some slim pickings right now. Winchester sounds like it could be a cold place t...

Darrell4926

Well, no it isn't a Winchester felt. I didn't know that you could buy a felt hat blank from the Winchester hat company? I thought they made hats from starting with making the felts and their finished product was a hat? They ship and sell hats in just about every country. I would be surprised if they...

Darrell4926

Hello All, I ordered a new rabbit fur felt 180G weight hat body blank today in grey today, the hat body Blank looked good I hope it looks just as good as it did when I ordered it. I also ordered a new sweatband, calf leather in black and a white silk liner. There must be a number of people making ha...

Darrell4926

Well the steel grey in rabbit would be the best choice from what I have read about the Indy Clipper hat, I could be wrong but I think it the hat was made with rabbit fur felt and the color steel grey. The ribbon looked to be black in color. I was looking at pictures of characters in the Raiders of t...

Darrell4926

The video in question has been discussed ad nauseam. Personally, I don't find it very convincing evidence of anything. I use a stitch awl to install my sweatbands. Well I am sorry for bringing it up again, but like I stated in my first post I haven't been to the Forum for a while, I believe since 2...

Darrell4926

I was just talking about working on hats and learning a lot through emails with Steve. He was very helpful with hat making, he loved making hats and helping others that wanted to make hats. Hat making was his hobby and it turned into a business. I was reading about the hat block and watched the vide...

Darrell4926

Hello to All, It has been a while since I have been on this Forum and I have spent a little time reading some of the old conversations and watching some of the You Tube videos posted. The YouTube video that grabbed my attention was the one where the guy took the Fedora apart and stuck it on a hat bl...

Darrell4926

I decided to do a little reading on the Raiders Fedora and after running a search I found this web page link describing the Herbert Johnson Fedora giving the measurements and how the hat rung, sat on a lot, given bleach and dirt treatment. The original hat was made of rabbit with a 6" crown and...

Darrell4926

Thank you Mulceber and Rick5150, good to hear that I am making some progress. After my last post I made a few more adjustments on the bashing of my hat to the front of my hat and the brim area. I think that I have re-blocked this hat about four times getting it to the currant shape and condition, al...

Darrell4926

Well I have done some more work on my hat, I re-blocked it to get the stove pipe shape, I also used Rit Dye, brown and a few drops of black to make the ribbon a bit darker. I did a lot of work on the sweatband, getting the stitching right I used a sewing machine needle to attach the sweat to the hat...

Darrell4926

I worked on my hat block some more then reshaped my hat. The front is 4 5/8" side is 5 3/8" back is 4 3/8", I know that the sides are still a little to tall but this hat is my tester hat. I reshape the crown block and then the hat, each time I get a little closer to the right hat crow...

Darrell4926

Well I finished working on my crown block, I increased the diameter around the top and along the sides using auto body filler or Bondo. I found a piece of wood to use as a spacer, I marked the 6" level at several places around the sides close to the bottom. This crown block is about 7" tal...

Darrell4926

Thanks KB, I tried doing a little reshaping on this hat and decided to just wear it the way it is. I am going to make some changes to this hat, I ordered some binding material that should be here tomorrow that I want to use on the leather sweatband, I made the sweatband slightly larger trying to get...

Darrell4926

Here are a few photos of how my Fedora fits my head,
kind of hard getting good photos when your taking
selfies.
Going to start working on my crown block, might be ready
for use in a couple of days?

Darrell4926

Hello KB and Mulceber, Ok, Well if I am going to make a hat with a 6" open crown, I will have to find a piece of wood 3/8" thick to place under my crown block or remove that much material from the bottom of the block. I will add some width to the top of my crown block using auto body fille...

Darrell4926

Hello Mulceber, Thank you for the web link, looks like a good source of information. Well I decided to check the crown height on my Fedora and it measures 5 1/2" on the side, 5" at the front pinch and 4 7/8" at the back. I was looking at the Indiana Jones pictures on the link you post...

Darrell4926

Hello Kentucky Blues, Thank you for your response and kind words, much appreciated. Well I can make the crown taller or shorter. I guess the open crown for a Raiders Fedora would be about 6" ? I haven't checked yet but I think the crown on this hat is about 6" after bashing or shaping it? ...

Darrell4926

Hello Everyone, I decided to rework my hat with the leather hat band, I took it apart and blocked the crown so it would have a taller crown, the open crown is 6.25", the brim front and back is 2.75" the sides are 2 5/8". The hat band is chocolate Grosgrain ribbon, I had to make change...

Darrell4926

Charybdis wrote: Hey, this begs the question, what hat size are you?

My hat size is 7 3/8". I am guessing you wanted to know hat sizes of anyone replying?

Darrell

Darrell4926

I live in Kentucky, never been to N.H. I had a friend that lived in your
state, a retired Navy Lieutenant Commander of a submarine.

Darrell

Darrell4926

Well yes I could start wearing it, how ever wear and tear would depreciate the value, kind of like a new car, once you drive your new car off the lot it will depreciate between $3,000.00 to $5,000.00. I think Steve made about 45 hats for the movie plus sample hats he sent in to the studio for review...

Darrell4926

Hello Mulceber, Thank you for the quick response and the Forum link. I book marked the Forum page so I could read it again, lots of information there. I am in the process of blocking my recent hat creation, I stripped it down to the fur felt, I measured the brim again and found out the brim was 3.5&...

Darrell4926

Hello Everyone, Could someone tell me if the crown height of the Raiders Fedora is 5 1/2" bashed or open crown? I have always thought that the 5 1/2" crown height was before the hat was bashed or was it bashed in a way that the crown height was 5 1/2" in the front and tapered a little...

Darrell4926

Well I have been away for a long time, there is a lot to catch up on. I was just reading about the Federation IV, that is a high crown. I was a bit surprised when I read about the hats being sold with open crowns, but that is a good ideal, the customer gets to bash It the way he wants to. I am going...

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