I prefer the medium weight myself and that is what the original appears to be, probably between 120 and 140 grams. I am not a fan of the lightweight dress felts as they just do not have enough body in the crown to hold the crease job. That is, you leave the house with a good looking Raiders crease but it does not last. The felt just moves too much!! But, for dress purposes I can see the reason that folks like them. But to take one on an adventure, is another thing altogether. There is a place and purpose for each type of felt. Fedora
I've had my lightweight for almost 3 years and have had no problem whatsoever with that. In fact, I think it only gets better with age.
Weird. Other folks have had a different experiece, including myself. I bought 3 of those hats, and all had this problem. Weird indeed! The lightweight body that I will be using from the same supplier as Optimo, is just like my Optimos in softness. Only thing is my bodies will be better, due to using pure beaver. Look here at the result of me dropping a quarter from 2 to 3 feet above the open crown. http://public.fotki.com/Fedora/hats/qua ... ed_on.html
Now that is what I am talking about!! A style job would be changed immediatetly, if someone dropped a quarter on ya!! regards, Fedora
Could it have something to do with the amount of stiffener used?
Absolutely!!! You could get the lightweight body from the factory with the cowboy amount of stiffener and it would be as hard as a hardhat, although it was very thin felt. But, the lightweight felt commonly used for dress hats has very little stiffener, or none in the crown. I think Optimo gets their blended dress bodies with just a smidgen to keep the crowns from collapsing on themselves. The pure beaver from the same company, you can get without stiffener as the natural denseness of the pure beaver keeps the body from falling inward. Fedora