Stve, you announce your FINAL Raiders block the day AFTER I get my Raiders AB from you? What gives?
I don't have long ovals with this final block yet. I have to use my original Raiders long ovals when folks want a long oval Raiders fedora like you did my friend.
On moving back to the symetrical block, I have a reason for this. If you take a hat made on a symetrical block, and crease it Indy style, after some wear in the elements, if you pop out the crown, to the open crown shape, you no longer have a symetrical block. If you creased the back lower than the front when you creased your hat, ala' Raiders, the back will morph into an asymetrical block when you compare the front to the back. The back will appear to be lower. I have noticed this for years. And one reason I never made my blocks asymetrical. Since the hat will end up like this, anyways, I figured in order not to use LLS's work, I could still pull it off, without using his methods. Now, with that said, since LLS is putting that in the hat for you, the hat just looks fantastic, doing what he does, and it has that look right out of the box. Whereas I think what I am using will look more like a brand new Raiders hat, and then it will move into his shape once you wear it for awhile. But, this is ONLY my opinion.
None of us know exactly what a brand new custom Raiders fedora looked like in 3D that came from Mr. Swales. So, the Indy hatters work to replicate what they see onscreen. Each of us have a vision of what that hat was. And that is all that it is, OUR VISION. But with that said, even these diverse visions look so much better than what you get from other folks. IMO.
I am impressed by the hats LLS makes. Always will be. But, I have an ego, and my ego just won't let me use his work. So, I moved back to more of a classic fedora shape, or a more common shape, using what I have learned over the years, and incorporated this into the final block. And I used two particular "stills" from the Raider film, in the final design. Don't ask which ones.
LLS replicated a genuine vintage HJ's blockshape. A hat that they sold many years ago that was not symetrical. But, I cannot say that this was indeed what the hat looked like new, or if it had morphed into that asymetical back like most rabbit hats tend to do. I just don't know for sure. So, I went symetrical. As I had always done in the past. But this doesn't matter, because of what I said above in regards to the morphing. The symetrical ends up asymetrical with time and wear. If you doubt this, take a rabbit hat that was symetrical and pop it out to open crown. Most times you will see the back has a different radius, as well as it being lower than the front. Even beaver will do this, but it takes longer for this to occur.
Over the years, I have realized that the Raiders fedora was not as square as many eyes percieve it. Yes, it is certainly more square than most fedoras you see today, but it was not completely straight up on the sides, and certainly not straight up on the back or front. So, I added what most fedora blocks have, regardless of what side of the Atlantic they originated from. I added some taper, that creases out. To me, that is very logical, because you see few vintage hat blocks that don't have some taper. This taper can vary from slight to quite a bit. The blocks that don't have taper are mostly western hats, or the straight sided derbies, and a few homburgs.
So, I created a block that has taper but not that much. And it creases out, giving the hat a more compact look, when compared to the CS fedora. And I am as pleased with it as I can be. So, no more tweaks, or changes. It is my own vision of the Raiders fedora. And that is all. It would be dishonest of me to say this was a perfect match, because I really don't know. All I know is that I like it and I can't improve on it, plus I am tired of chasing it.
The good thing is, I still have my old Raiders block, so that will always be an option too. But, I will use the new block on all existing Raider orders, once I get the complete set in.(unless the old block is requested) I only have a partial set as we speak, just the common sizes. And I did not want to buy two whole sets without seeing if the block could be replicated accurately. I also have a new blockmaker although I will still use Richard for the CS blocks.
But please don't expect new block to be superiour to LLS's or John's or Marc's. I just skinned the cat differently that produces results that are on par with these guys. Nonething magical about it. And I make no claims as to be better. It is just MY vision, and that is all that it is. And it gives variety as we won't all be using the same block for this fedora. As long as the final hat looks the part, that is all that matters to me. I want to have my own block, my own work, my own vision. I am just too egocentic to copy others. I hope St. Peter still lets me in heaven due to this fault.
I am sure part of this is because I was the first here to try to replicate the block and then offer it for sale. I want to remain "different" and this drove me to this last quest. I don't want my hats to look just like everyone's else's. It's a personal thing, that I know the artists and craftsmen here will relate to.
The CS block is a very old and very rare blockshape. It has "fedora" imprinted on the bottom, so it was at one time a company's fedora block. Bernie liked it more than our Raiders blocks for some reason. If I had to reverse engineer that CS block, it would be a chore, just going by the film as reference. Through experience, I know if I tried to do that, using the film, I would never get it perfect. I might get close, but it would be impossible to get it perfect. I feel the same way about the Raiders block. We can get close, but I doubt we will ever get it perfect. But thankfully, we can get it close enough to pull off that particular look. And that is all any of us are doing. Regards, Fedora
You are the man! 
I like that last picture a lot - excellent job. 
So the old HJ block that we're using on The Henry is indeed THE block!!!
-M
... A while back you posted a Whippet you'd turned into an Indy hat 