cairo bash on an akubra

[Indiana G]

good morning everyone,

i've been tinkering with the notion of ordering an akubra fed to just literally beat the living @#$% out of to get that beautiful cairo look that alot of us aspire to. i know $3M, prarie jones, indy tone and a bunch of others have successfully done this.

i saw on an older thread that indy tone's hat went through a alot to get that perfect look (bleaching and even getting crushed in a car for a couple of months)....i hope that was indy tone, sorry i can't find the thread to refer to anymore.

my question is this....is it possible to get a good cairo bash on this particular hat after say a week's worth of playing with it or does it need the advent of time to get it there. if it is the latter, i might as well just save the $$$ and let my AB get there.

i'd like to hear what the akubra guys have to say....

[IndyParise]

Actually, my Akubra turned into a nice cairo bash recently just after going to my school's Halloween dance and Homecoming. To make a long story short, some friends kept trying to steal it and it got crushed multiple times and vuiola(sp?) SOC bash.

[agent5]

From what you've written it soulds like you already have an AB. If this is correct, then why in the world do you need a Fed to do what the AB can already do? Of course, if you really like the Fed's then that's a different story.

If you don't have one, I'd say save up and get yourself an AB. The Feds are a nice starter hat, but oh so stiff. The AB will take whatever bash you want and keep it without steam.

[Indiana G]

i do have an AB but which i play around with everyday. i want to get the look of indy's when he's having a drink after the german truck blows up.

i saw that indy tone got it almost dead on but he did ALOT to that hat (correct me if it wasn't you tone...but on the thread it looked like you and prarie jones were playing "dueling fedoras" all the time ).

as i do not want to get too rough with the AB, i thought i'd try experimenting on an akubra. i can get one quick and at a decent price. i was just wondering if the fed can give me results quickly and timely (sorry, thats my manager side speaking).....

[Fatdutchman]

Wow, the Akubra is considered "stiff"?!?!? I like felt to be almost bulletproof.

[VP]

The Indy felt is supposed to have little or no stiffener at all.

[agent5]

You shouldn't have to get as rough with the AB because it should be able to get the shape of the Cairo scene simply by shaping the hat. The Fed's I've seen were very stiff but if you use the steam it loosens right up so you can bash it however you'd like. The AB's I've seen were pliable enough to shape without the use of steam and you could put whatever bash in you wanted and change it as much as you'd like. I can't see your AB being too different.

Don't be scared of your AB. It won't disintegrate in your hands. I'm not saying to do with it what you planned for the Fed, but don't be scared to bend up the felt a bit and move it around. Just don't crease it. By doing this you should relax the felt a bit and make it more willing to take and hold the bashes you want.

I'm sure Steve or Marc can give you more pointers as well.

[Indiana G]

thanks for the advice agent5. the AB that i received was bashed as SOC but after UPS trampled all over it i couldn't tell exactly where steve's artistic touches were. like i've said, i've been molding her everyday but can't seem to get the lightbulb/mushroom thingy happening on it.

i got in on steve's rabbit AB deal and requested some further SOC specs that he may or may not be able to do....primarily because the look of indy's hat came along from endless hours of playing around with it as well as wearing it under the hot tunisian sun (and i can't really afford to buy steve a ticket to tunisia just yet )

steve can be the first to attest of my legendary patience (or lack thereof) so i'm getting finicky in waiting for the next AB....and i need something that'll yield results quite quickly with little risk......but agent5, you may have just helped me see what i've known all along and what michealson has always said....let time do the work and appreciate the path it takes to get there.

i guess i get as bad as a crack addict at times with all the gear i need....er...want

[Fedora]

Here's a tip on getting the AB a bit more SOC looking. Steam the top lightly and beat on the top with a ruler. Repeat. You need to crush the felt downward, the way the SOC hat was crushed. The ruler slap squares off the top, while bulging out the sides. The Cairo hat has had some heavy distressing done on it, probably artificially. The sides of the hat literally sag, and bow out in places. A new pristine hat cannot have that particular look, by definition.









As you can see, at least in these pics, the felt sags and bows, and even tapers on the bow side of the hat. If you want this look, beat the stew out of the hat, and throw on some Fuller's Earth. This hat looks like it needs a reblock to me. Fedora

[Indiana G]

thanks for the tip steve. if you say to use steam on it, i'll give her a go. wouldn't the ruler slapping down on the felt hinder the prominent lines of the center dent and the camel humps or can this be recovered?

i also believe my crown is a little smaller to achieve this on the AB i have now (which is why asked for an extra 1/4" on the bunny special hat).

[3thoubucks]

Try this. The Cairo hat was filthy anyway.. I got the impression this dirt softened the felt, by lubricating or fraying it or something. I got the dusty dirt from a bike trail.

[Indiana G]

i didn't really want to go that far with my AB. how'd that hat turn out $3M?

[Indiana G]

i just noticed something....look at where his brow is compared to where the ribbon starts. doesn't that look like he's wearing the hat close to where his hairline starts? could that be one of the reasons why he can mush the crown down so well to get the mushrooming ---- because there isn't much of his head filling the crown? just a thought. what do you guys think?

[GCR]

Try this. The Cairo hat was filthy anyway.. I got the impression this dirt softened the felt, by lubricating or fraying it or something. I got the dusty dirt from a bike trail.

3thoubucks, how many Indy fedoras do you own...and how many of those are still wearable?!?! That hat looks less like the "Streets of Cairo" and more like "Buried in the sand for a thousand years". Even the fedora Terry Leonard wore while filming the truck chase wasn't that dirty, and he was dragged behind the truck!

Still, your commitment to replicating every nuance of the Raiders hat impresses and astounds me. It was your site three years ago that convinced me to turn my Fed Deluxe, and later to work a pleat-like crease into my hat in the right bash (no actual pleat, though, just a fold in the felt to look like one).

I eagerly await the end result of this experiment...I might just have to try this one myself!

-GCR

[3thoubucks]

That's the hat in my avatar. ... Yes, Harrison's hat is always very high on his forehead, but it's at the top of his ears, so it's not so much worn high as just rotated back? His brim flips down so much in front, you don't really notice how high it is on his forehead. ... I've only owned 6 "Indy" hats, the first two I used for reblocking experiments and they are just shells with wavy brims now. The other 4 are Akubras, two of those I've only had for 2 weeks, one has never been bashed.