Adam Mythbusters Savage leaves the ribbon on

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:04 pm

This season, he's gone from a pre bashed Drover to an open crown Bushman, and he's leaving the ribbon on. At least in the Pirates Myth's episode I saw last night. Today I lost an ebay auction for a vintage Bushman that went to someone else for $170. So, I just ordered one from David Morgan. http://www.davidmorgan.com/product_info ... ucts_id=81 (Click the more images button too) The crown taper looks similar to a Fed's, but they only have 5 1/2 inch crowns, a 1/4 inch shorter than my 57 Fed. But, I think my Fed is slightly too tall anyway. I'll sand it thinner, PLEAT the base of the crown, turn it 2 inches, do a little crown into brim transition in front (not as much) and see what happens. I want to see if it has the Fed stretch marks and the same stiff first inch and a 1/4 of crown. See if it's greenish, compare the color to a Fed Deluxe. Compare the Bushman taper to the Fed's (I have a fresh unbashed Fed I can compare it to. .. Interesting both David Morgan and Richard Swales comments about a hat that is the "oldest" model ..

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:50 am

They weren't turning those Akubras in Indygear's early days, but they thought they were close. I found this last night- a link between Squatter and Bushman, with an Indy mention. http://aussiebushhats.com.au/catalog/pr ... e6bd491211 Here's another Squatter with an Indy mention. http://www.everythingaustralian.com.au/ ... 0&cat_id=2 It says "This hat is generally accepted as the original Australian Akubra" which is what David Morgan says about the Bushman. I bought a Squatter from that site, but it had (obviously) too much taper. But it had "Superfine" felt, which I'd say is Raiders thickness, and the ONLY Akubra hat at that site that HAS it! The rest have the thicker 'Imperial Quality Felt" My bet is, in 1980, the Squatter has less taper, probably the Bushman block, And it's a pork pie. Could explain the pork pie lines on the Raiders hat. So, I don't think todays Squatter is the 1980 Squatter. Bushman hats used to come in "Featherweight" which was probably close to "Superfine". David Morgan opined long ago, he thought the Raiders hat was based on an Akubra Squatter. He sells open crown Squatters, but the Bushman is closer to the Raiders block. ... Also interesting that David Morgan shows a Bushman shaped pork pie style. But that's not the Raiders pork pie. It's done too high.

Russ · Post by **Russ** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:13 pm

The Bushman is next on my wish list. It looks like the perfect hat for several different styles. David Morgan's American version has a thin ribbon and that ugly chin strap hook that shows through on the outside, and the Australian version has a nice wider ribbon but vent eyelets in the crown. Ron at Hats Direct told me they could request a Bushman with no vent eyelets, and that's what I plan on ordering. Too bad they have limited the colors. There used to be a nice Nigerian Brown Bushman. Now it's down to just that natural color plus steel grey.

Ark Hunter · Post by **Ark Hunter** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:38 pm

Yeah, I caught a little bit of the Pirate special and noticed Adam had a new hat.

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:20 am

Abner1925 · Post by **Abner1925** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:07 am

I hate to be the one beating a dead horse here but, you don't need to buy a porkpie hat to get the wrinkles on it. All you have to do is squash or sit on the hat, period. Deborah said they sat on it and it really works everytime. The Bushman would make a fine Indy fedora with a few alterations, but buying a porkpie version of any design is not the way to go.

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:24 am

I have it. Probably the same color as Adam's. I'm pretty sure David Morgan shows an accurate hat blockwise, but his example is too brown. This color is kind of the Cairo color, without having to throw dirt on the hat.

(That's a Fed Deluxe in back, Regular Fed on the right.) ---- The hat is the same as a Federation taperwise, with less dome on the top. The Bushman's crown is exactly 5 1/2 inches. Both crowns start to transition to dome at 3 3/4 front and back, 4 1/4 on the sides, but the Fed's dome is a quarter inch taller. The Bushman has the same crown stretch marks as the Fed and the same 1 1/4 of thick felt at the base. The felt overall is slightly stiffer, maybe slightly thicker? on the Bushman. It's a tighter fit than the Fed, although the outside dimensions measure the same with calipers. It has a thicker leather in the sweat. That could be the only reason it feels tighter. Give me a week or two to sand and modify it. I think I'll be pleased.

Indiana G · Post by **Indiana G** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:52 am

go hard 3thou! keep us updated with the results. good luck.

cheers

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:03 am

Will do G! The David Morgan Bushman has the same deformed sides as all 6 of my Federations. So it's nothing Hatsdirect does to 'em. I think they are either made on an expanding block, or they get stacked jammed inside of each other- or both. What I care about is I see something similar on the Raiders hat.

The sweat and liner are affected too.

Now that I've got these pics, its time to take the ribbon off and sweat out and start sanding. ---- O.K., the ribbon, sweat, liner, metal eyelets took 10 minutes to remove. The brim edge ribbon needed each stitch cut to remove, so after one inch, I just used it as a guide and scisored the brim narrower.

Russ · Post by **Russ** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:43 pm

3thoubucks, this is exactly the kind of thing I have been hoping to find. Those detailed dimension specs really help me to know what the bushman hat is like compared to my Feds. I'm happy to see it compares so favorably.

I've gone ahead and ordered a bushman from HatsDirect. Theirs don't have the ugly chinstrap hook like the David Morgan version, and have a nice wider ribbon. But but they do have vent eyelets, so I special ordered one with NO eyelets, which will take longer. I hear if we wait until spring, they might even be able to make it in a custom color, provided that color exists on their other hats made on the same block. I'm getting Steel Grey which is a standard Bushman color.

Mola Ram · Post by **Mola Ram** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:08 am

Is the bushman on the Hats direct site? i cant seem to find it anywhere.

Russ · Post by **Russ** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 2:18 am

Mola Ram wrote:Is the bushman on the Hats direct site? i cant seem to find it anywhere.

Nope, it's not on their web site, and you have to ask for it by name. That's the amazing thing about HatsDirect, they can get you any Akubra you want direct from the factory, and with little modifications if you need them. They seem to encourage dialogue with the buyer.

I think they would get a higher volume of orders if they just listed all the Akubra hats.

Side note: Ron told me during our recent correspondence that Akubra shuts down the factory for 4 weeks during the Christmas season because it gets too hot! Seemed odd until I remembered they are south of the equator. Then in January they are swamped trying to catch up.

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:06 am

This hat might not work out as good as a Federation, or I might think it's better. There's probably a bit more taper in this crown than a Regular Fed, on the order of what I noticed in the Regular Fed vs Deluxe Fed. The brim is flatter, which might be good or not. I'll have the results for you soon. If it looks good, I'll post a video.

Fedora · Post by **Fedora** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:30 am

or they get stacked jammed inside of each

That is the reason for what you see on the sides. When you buy hats from a supplier, they normally do not send each hat in a separate box, too expensive for shipping if sent individually. They stack em, so you get many hats in one shipping box. Fedora

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:11 pm

A fresh unbashed Federation is a helmet. It's hard like a Bowler hat. But the felt in the marks is very soft. Like it's thinner, or lacks the rest of the hats stiffener. .. It's hard for me to believe stacking the hats and distorting the felt on the sides is 100% responsible for this. The only way I could see that happening is if the hats get stacked while the stiffener is still curing, the half cured bonds get broken and can't form again. .. But I've never used stiffener, I don' know if it has a curing time..... If this Bushman turns out better than the Fed, chances are, I'll cut the crown off one of the two unbashed Regular Feds I have, at about top of the ribbon level, just to see if there's a visible difference in thickness. ....I have about 12 hours of sanding with 3M #36 aluminum oxide into this hat. My back hurts. My fingers are shreaded, the inside of my nose is brown. It's getting thinner, softer slowly. I can't believe bending the felt a little, once, when a hat is stacked on another could have the same effect.

...I could be wrong.

Russ · Post by **Russ** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:50 am

3thoubucks wrote:I'll cut the crown off one of the two unbashed Regular Feds I have, at about top of the ribbon level, just to see if there's a visible difference in thickness.

I think my heart stopped...

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:21 am

I could be wrong, and I believe these cheap Akubras are stacked tightly, but this device seems more likely to me to be the cause of the soft , (thin?) felt. And the HJ guy, with Richard Swales' input, said something similar IS the Raiders block.

GCR · Post by **GCR** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:52 am

3thoubucks wrote:I could be wrong, and I believe these cheap Akubras are stacked tightly, but this device seems more likely to me to be the cause of the soft , (thin?) felt. And the HJ guy, with Richard Swales' input, said something similar IS the Raiders block.

I just don't buy this at all. I'm not trying to poke holes in your theories here, 3thou, as I generally think most of your work is invaluable. But considering how much we know about the block shape and specs from similar HJ hats from the Raiders era, I just can't picture something like this as the Raiders block, regardless of what ol' Swalesy has to say.

-GCR

3thoubucks · Post by **3thoubucks** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:27 am

Here's the thread. I'm just working with what I've got. viewtopic.php?t=13267&start=100 Scroll down about 20 posts to "The Avaitor" and see the quote.

GCR · Post by **GCR** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:53 am

3thoubucks wrote:Here's the thread. I'm just working with what I've got. viewtopic.php?t=13267&start=100 Scroll down about 20 posts to "The Avaitor" and see the quote.

Thanks! That old thread was started during my hiatus, so I never saw the original post. Do we know anything about "The Aviator" or his contact at HJ? Seems strange that he was able to make a "breakthrough" like this, in which HJ stated they were going to be using the "original" block and patterns, but since then HJ has continued to block hats with the LC style block and make them EXACTLY the way they have been making them for the last few years. And according to the quote from Aviator in his post, Swales didn't even say anything about the heated expanding block.

But anyway, I'm probably on the verge of derailing the thread, here, so I'll move on.

-GCR