the smithbilt project

[Indiana G]

there is a hatter in town that has been making hats (mostly cowboy hats) since 1919. they are popular for making the "white stetson" for visiting celebrities/politicians/etc that come to calgary. snakewhip sable jogged my interest of seeing if these guys can make an indy hat. sable did comment on hats that he has seen from them before and their "bulletproof" nature and i could attest to that as i purchased a derby from them a couple of years back.

now their pricing was not as desireable as any other offerings that you can find but i wanted a hat that was made in my hometown so i commissioned them to build me one....paying a little more than the cost of an AB beaver for this calgary rabbit.

these folks were very welcoming, allowing me to tour their shop, pick the felt body and ribbon and deciding which block would be best suited for the task. as they were not very familiar with the raiders bash, i was allowed to come back and monitor their steam bash to my specs.

in the end, i was quite happy with the results. though there was a slight taper in the crown, i had them trim the brim a little so that it would not be mispaired with the non-stovepipe crown. also, they did not get the full tallness of the crown as they don't have fedora and marc's magic blocks. it feels more like a TOD hat on my head though its bashed as a raiders hat. is it screen accurate?....far from it. does it fit my face.....i think so

here's some blurry pictures:







and some on my hat stand:

[VP]

does it fit my face.....i think so

Might be easier to judge if we could see your face. Nice hat.

[Indiana Kev]

That's a really cool story...and a good looking hat!

[Fedoraman]

How about some shots of the sweat and liner?

[Indiana G]

gents,

the smithbilt raider is no more....only took my a little over 48 hours to get wrestless with it as i mentioned previously, it felt more like a TOD hat so while i was watching the movie last night, i decided to turn the steam kettle on and go to work. removed the tight pinch, turned back the hat and straightened the brim. the felt molded quite nicely with the steam treatment and i was quite happy with the results (considering i was looking to get a baron "cliffhanger" for a TOD hat.....saved some $$$ there for sure). i will post some pics tonite.....some good ones with my ugly mug and some shots of the liner and sweat.

i get the feeling that alot of people stay away from the TOD hat....it looks like the hat was bashed moreso for ensuring harry's face was seen than trying to give it more character. i like it more than the LC hat IMO, but my fave is definitely raiders style.


cheers.

[GCR]

i get the feeling that alot of people stay away from the TOD hat....it looks like the hat was bashed moreso for ensuring harry's face was seen than trying to give it more character. i like it more than the LC hat IMO, but my fave is definitely raiders style.


cheers.

I think people tend to stay away from the ToD hat because of the "Taperphobia" that can develop in some Indy Hat Wearers. This phobia is undoubtedly caused in no small part by continued exposure to the straight sided Raiders hat, due to the immense popularity the Raiders hat has on these forums. Taper is "public enemy number 1" when it comes to the Raiders hat and thus, many hats with that taper already set in from the get go are easily overlooked or even shunned. To many, the Raiders fedora IS THE Indiana Jones fedora, the hat by which all others are judged. Just look at the hat that most people cite as their favorite from ToD...the Bridge hat, which was the most straight sided out of all the ToD hats. It's taperphobia, I tell you!

Of course, it doesn't help ToD or LC much that the look and style of the hat could change DRAMATICALLY from scene to scene. No continuity at all, whereas the Raiders hat had great continuity. It is totally believable that the Raiders hat is the same hat throughout the film, as there are only minor (though much obsessed over) differences in the hat from scene to scene.

I, personally, would love to own a hat that encompassed the look of the Indy hat from EACH film. Raiders is my fovorite, and the trio of AB's should end my quest for a perfect Raiders fedora, but I'd still love to have a couple HJ's, one bashed ToD style and the other bashed LC.

Can't wait to see the pics of the new ToD style bash!

-GCR

[Indiana G]

taperphobia

when i first say your post, i thought you said arachnaphobia and got creeped out a bit....thats one of my fears that i'm working on.

you're absolutely right. no gearhead wants to watch their precious raiders hat collapse on itself (i picture a gearhead on his knees in front of his once stovepipe, now witches hat with an old sri lankan guy behind me chanting..."bring back....bring back"!).

i patterned my hat after the airplane crash and village scene. i think that hat looked good on him with the distressing on it....not so much if it were new like mine. at least i can continue distressing this one and not worry about tapering it....its already tapered!!!!

it never occured to me that the bridge hat was different than the hat in the early scenes. i should of talked to you yesterday as i was modelling the hat from the village scene while the movie was on....thought i had it bashed pretty good, then came back to the tube when the bridge scene was on...and thought, now that doesn't look right....back to the kettle, back to the mirror...and so on and so on.......

[Snakewhip_Sable]

They are popular for making the "white stetson" for visiting celebrities/politicians/etc that come to calgary.

White Smithbilt. Apparantly they mostly made fedoras until the 50's too, not cowoby hats. I forget where I heard that. I've talked with them before as the place I work for did their t-shirts when they switched ownership.

Not a bad lid, Gil. Though I'm a bit disheartened about them being able to reblock my AB. Did they think you were crazy when you asked for 'The Turn"? Or was it before you asked?

[Indiana G]

hey snake, i called it a 'stetson' because everyone else around here calls it a stetson when someone gets 'hatted' on the local news. maybe its just like using 'xerox'...the name is so common that it loses its proprietary connotation.

anyways, keep your AB far away from that place as the only one who knows how to keep the hat looking its best is steve....and he quoted me a reblock price not much more than what smithbilt quoted you (including shipping!).

the folks down there are really nice though as i did explain the raiders turn to them. it looks like they are quite accustomed to customer reequests and are very diligent in carrying them out.....its just that they don't have the right block....and that is everything for a good raiders hat.

a wierd thing did happen when i turned the hat when it was open crowned which perplexed me. typicall when you turn the hat, the left side brim pops up and the ride side stays flat. this hat's reaction was opposite....thought i was in bizzaro world for a sec...

[GCR]

Hey G,

What're the specs on that Smithbilt, anyway? Crown height, brim width, ribbon width? What's the felt thickness like? How well does it shape?

The ribbon looks like 1 3/4 inch, I could be wrong, but I've gotten pretty good at being able to spot that 1 3/4 inch ribbon.

That's weird about the turn! Does the brim have a dimensional cut?

-GCR

[Indiana G]

here's the specs,

- they couldn't get the open crowned height to 5 1/2" but the crown is 4 1/2" post bash (could be 5" open crowned height).

- i did spec dimensional cut brim, 3" front back and 2 3/4" sides. they didn't know how to do this with what they had so i settled for 2 3/4" all the way around like the akubra (another reason why it couldn't be a raiders hat)

- the ribbon is just a hair below 1 3/4" (though i speced 1.5")

the felt measures 3mm at the brim. very stiff stuff but shapes readily under steam. it says 'canadian beaver' on the sweatband but it is not, though the thickness/durability is somewhat like my AB. from what i was told, its a rabbit fur felt body from kentucky.

cheers!

[GCR]

- i did spec dimensional cut brim, 3" front back and 2 3/4" sides. they didn't know how to do this with what they had so i settled for 2 3/4" all the way around like the akubra (another reason why it couldn't be a raiders hat)

Akubra? I thought the Federations had a dimensional cut brim? My Fed Deluxe does (though I've sanded the brim down a bit to make it fit my face better, so I can't give an accurate measurement on that). The hatsdirect website lists the Federation (and deluxe) brim at 70mm x 73mm

That would be about 2.76 inches by 2.87 inches

Is your Akubra the same brim width all around???

I don't mean to sound nitpicky or anything, I'm just a bit confused, as I've never seen one of the regular Feds.

Anyways, sounds like you got yourself on fine ToD hat!

-GCR

[Indiana G]

i may be mistaken then about the fed's brim width....those are some pretty small variances.

here are some pics of my TOD bash:





and the liner:

[GCR]

WOW. I gotta say, that hat actaully looks MUCH nicer as a ToD style fedora! Nice work! Makes me wish I still had my old Stetson Temple...

-GCR

[Strider]

I like it more as a Temple fed, as well. I'd say just get the pinch a little tighter (not Raiders tight), and aligned toward the middle, and it would be a perfect Temple lid.