What? Another possible mink hat???

[Fedora]

Marc texted me last night and told me he was gonna have he and I another body run, of the world's rarest felt! I thought that was only a one time deal, but I guess he must have talked Ricardo into it. So, it won't happen anytime soon, but looks like he is intent on keeping a promise. Yippee Ki Ya. And Ricardo now knows just how much mink a beaver body will take without "pushing" So, he won't have to experiment with mink content this time.

This time, I won't have all of the super antiscipation involved though. The wind was taken from my sails when I heard the bad news on the first one. But, it is nice to know Marc went out of his way to do this. It sure made me feel a whole lot better. And it has nothing to do with a piece of felt either. Thanks Marc! Fedora

[Hollowpond]

HOORAY!!
Good news!

Travis

[whipwarrior]

Sir Steven of Delk, master haberdasher, deserves only the best! It's going to be great this time, I just know it! Party on, Wayne!

[Mulceber]

Congrats, Steve, you deserve it! -M

[DR Ulloa]

What great news! I'm very happy for you, my friend. I cannot wait to see the finished hat.

Dave

[gwyddion]

Great news! Off course you won't have it for some time, but you and Marc definitely deserve to have yourselves one of these exclusive hats

Regards, Geert

[Restless Dreamer]

I have said my final word on this subject. And I will give you my word on that one. Fedora

Seems you were wrong, Fedora. And I'm happy about it. Happy for you

[jnicktem]

Congrats Steve! This is excellent news indeed! I can't wait to see some pics of it!

[crismans]

Great news and count me among those waiting for pics when it's done.

[beaverlid]

You have made it clear that your favorite hat of the films is the Raiders hat. Is that the style you will shape this new fedora in? I can't wait to see the finished hat.

Don't let Bernie see this rare felt or he may ask for 40 of these for Indy 5.

Beaverlid

[Fedora]

You have made it clear that your favorite hat of the films is the Raiders hat. Is that the style you will shape this new fedora in? I can't wait to see the finished hat.

Absolutely!!! The world's rarest felt, just HAS to be a Raiders fedora. And this coming from one of the guys who made the last Indy hat. BUT, the CS is my second fav Indy fedora.

Today, I am actually glad that Bernie did not want the Raiders fedora for the last film. Because face it, not having the Raiders felt would have made us put a hat in that would have been critiqued much more on the negetive side. Instead, we put a new hat in, which is its own hat, regardless of how one feels about that hat. So now, all 4 film hats are a little different from one another. That seems to be the film's tradition in so far as hats go, so it turned out to be a good thing. And allowed Bernie to put his own personal touch to the hat, which I think costume designers love to do. And we have to realize that 99 per cent of the folks that watch Indy films, could not tell the difference between the 4 hats! It's just us, the gear guys that know the differences. Heck some of the film fans, thought the hat was leather at one point in time.

My hat goes off to Marc, who must have went out on a limb even asking for another couple of mink beaver hats. I think Ricardo probably wanted one for himself and that was the reason he did these special bodies to begin with. And I knew this, which explains my "last word" on the matter. So, Marc may have literally begged on his hands and knees to get this done just for a couple of bodies. Now if he wanted 250 of them, it would not have been a problem, but who HAS that kind of money? I would bet, those two bodies will cost Marc at least 600 bucks per body, since no minimums are required, this second time. And I think that even if you bought 250, they would still cost a hatter several hundred bucks just for the felt body. They are not easy to run, from what I have been told. Sure Stetson had that "touch of mink" hat that sold pretty high a few years ago, but you can bet it was just a pinch, literally of mink fur. They never would have tried to max out the mink, as they would have run into what Ricardo ran into, with the pushing deal.(ripples in the felt that won't pounce out) Plus, I read as much in Deb Henderson's Hat Talk book, about the touch of mink hat. It was a marketing gimmick at the time. The bodies Ricardo made were not. It took him alot of trial and error to finally find what the max per centage of mink a hat body could take and not push.

Remember, any hatter who buys bodies from this feltmaker has to buy a minimum. And I think it was 250 bodies at the time talked with them way back, when trying to find a source for myself. That's alot of money for a stock body, for a beginner hatter. So it relegates these bodies from Portugal to established hatters. I was lucky enough, with great help from Sharptoyes, to locate a feltmaker who would just sell you one body, or a thousand. Without a feltmaker like that, I would have never been able to start hatmaking. But my feltmaker serves small custom hatters with low volume as part of their market strategy. And most of these are western hatters. Heck, they had just started offering dress bodies a short time prior to me contacting them! But of course, many years earlier this same feltmaker and same factory, had made millions of dress bodies during the early and mid 20th century. So, not like making a dress body was anything new for them.

You can bet I will do a show and tell when we finally get these bodies made into hats. So far, we have not seen one here. Of course, pics would never do it justice, as you would have to hold in in hand to appreciate the qualities of this blend. But post em' I will.

This will actually turn out even better than the original bodies Marc had made. Because I am picking the shade of brown for this one. Gonna try to get it as close to what we percieve as the color of the Raiders fedora, i.e. a lighter brown, instead of the chocolate brown.

And of course, I will wear this hat like my others. What good is a hat sitting in a box, or case? Hats were made to be worn. And this one will be no different. But, I may find myself doting over it, and actually taking care of it. I don't do this with my other hats. I just wear them. And toss them about, trying to beat em' up to get that well worn look I am fond of. This will be my "Sunday go to meeting" hat. I will just have to find myself a vintage styled suit to go with the hat. I love those English brown tweeds, well, the dressy sporting jackets the British used to be so fond of. I have seen them in various Sierra West catalogs, and this would be a good excuse to pay those big bucks for one of them, and use it more as a blazer. Might go well with my wool Indy trousers that I bought many years ago when we were told that guy was retiring. I bought 3 Indy outfits from him at that time, from Noel Howard, I think was his name. Fedora

[Harry Steele]

Steve,

Very glad to hear you'll be getting your mink! I wonder how much (ballpark) mink can be used, but I imagine that's a trade secret.

Well, now this mink/ beaver blend...will it be called Bink?

Harry

[Michaelson]

What good is a hat sitting in a box, or case? Hats were made to be worn. And this one will be no different. But, I may find myself doting over it, and actually taking care of it. I don't do this with my other hats. I just wear them. And toss them about, trying to beat em' up to get that well worn look I am fond of. This will be my "Sunday go to meeting" hat..... Fedora

That's kind of the situation I find myself with regarding the camel AB, Steve.

Regard! Michaelson

[Fedora]

I wonder how much (ballpark) mink can be used, but I imagine that's a trade secret.

I am sure it probably is, and I know what it is. Let's just say it is pretty low. Above 5 per cent and lower than 20 per cent. Somewhere in that range. But, it is enough, according to Marc, that you can tell something very fine was added to an already fine beaver fur hat. So, it must not take much to really feel it in the hat. When he first got those first bodies in, he was salivating over the phone as he was trying to describe the feel of this body.

Now, does adding mink make for a better hat? I doubt it. It is just the rarity that intriques me, personally. And the fact that Ricardo made numerous runs in determining the max amount of mink that the body could take without pushing. So, it's not like this hat has super human qualities, as pure beaver would be better. It's just a rare felt, that's all.

That's kind of the situation I find myself with regarding the camel AB, Steve.

Ah, I understand that fully my friend. That hat definetly made me reserve a body from this same run for myself. It was one of the better runs that I see from them. The only other run that stands out is when the Pres. of the company worked his weekend off when I first started making hats, to personally make me 5 dozen brown bodies. Old Greg is a true expert and artist in feltmaking. I needed them, before Xmas, and they were off, the employees that is. Greg offered to do it for me, as I was just getting started, and he spoiled me in the process.

Perhaps they were short handed the day he ran those camel bodies, and made those himself. Felt making still involves an art form, not easily learned very quickly. Regular guys would not notice these differences, which is a good thing, but once you made a few thousand hats, you do notice the differences in felt runs. At least I bought several of these camel bodies at the time, but only because a guy had wanted to buy them, and then never heard from him again. He also had me order a navy blue body that I will NEVER sell. The one and only navy blue body I ever got in. So John or another hatter, if you guys ever need a navy blue body, I got one I will sell you at cost. Being over a year old, these camel bodies and blue one are already aged a bit. And age with felt is like age and wine. It just gets better with age.

And as with yours Michaelson, when I make my camel hat, it will probably take me 4 or 5 months to get it made, after it goes on the block. Since Iused your own personal block that I have on file for you(the gray Indy 4 block, but in your size) I could just let it sit for months on the block as I have a replica to use for any other 7 3/8 hat I would need to make using that style of block. So, my hat will be made on your own personal block. Plus its a vintage block too. Some may not know this, but Michaelson's block was used by him way before Indy 4 came to be. So, I used his own block for Ford's gray travel hat. Michaelson was wearing Indy's hat before Indy wore it for us in Indy 4. And this block makes a great hat too. One of my fav looks in fact. I never really noticed how much I liked it until I saw it on screen, on Indy's head. Just needed to be 5 1/2 instead of the 5 3/4 that the film hat was. That extra 1/4 inch in height is not needed with this blockshape.

So once I can get mine made, we will be the Bobsy Twins!! And, when you tire of that pure rayon ribbon, in that color, we can go with a more subtle color. Then, it will look like you got a new hat!! I copied a vintage hat, colorwise with the ribbon I used on yours, but when comparing it to what I made for Fedoralover, I think you might prefer the color I put on his camel hat. So, there is always that option for you. I actually was a bit hesitant about using that vintage rayon color, as I know you are a subdued guy like myself, but I figured, well, this is definetely a vintage color scheme, and Michaelson is a very vintage guy...... Fedora

[Michaelson]

Some may not know this, but Michaelson's block was used by him way before Indy 4 came to be. So, I used his own block for Ford's gray travel hat. Michaelson was wearing Indy's hat before Indy wore it for us in Indy 4.....

Fedora

That information has always been neat to know, old friend!

I wore it to town today, and got no less than 5 positive comments on the camel AB, so I don't think we'll be changing that ribbon any time soon.

HIGH regard! Michaelson

[fedoralover]

Some may not know this, but Michaelson's block was used by him way before Indy 4 came to be. So, I used his own block for Ford's gray travel hat. Michaelson was wearing Indy's hat before Indy wore it for us in Indy 4.....

Fedora

That information has always been neat to know, old friend!

I wore it to town today, and got no less than 5 positive comments on the camel AB, so I don't think we'll be changing that ribbon any time soon.

HIGH regard! Michaelson

Did I miss the post where you showed off that hat with your head under it?? I'm sure you will get more than 5 comments on it from here.

fedoralover

[G-MANN]

AB LEGEND

[Michaelson]

Some may not know this, but Michaelson's block was used by him way before Indy 4 came to be. So, I used his own block for Ford's gray travel hat. Michaelson was wearing Indy's hat before Indy wore it for us in Indy 4.....

Fedora

That information has always been neat to know, old friend!

I wore it to town today, and got no less than 5 positive comments on the camel AB, so I don't think we'll be changing that ribbon any time soon.

HIGH regard! Michaelson

Did I miss the post where you showed off that hat with your head under it?? I'm sure you will get more than 5 comments on it from here.

fedoralover

Actually, the daughter with the camera just got back in town last night. Hopefully this weekend some photos will be shot, as it's supposed to be nice weather. It's raining here today....but I'll try and 'bundle' some promised stuff together, including this one.

Regards! Michaelson

[jnicktem]

AB LEGEND

Beautiful!!! Absolutely stunning! Got any more pics?

[The Librarian]

He also had me order a navy blue body that I will NEVER sell. The one and only navy blue body I ever got in. So John or another hatter, if you guys ever need a navy blue body, I got one I will sell you at cost. Being over a year old, these camel bodies and blue one are already aged a bit. And age with felt is like age and wine. It just gets better with age.

Ah... I wonder if John could make a Spirit of Barney hat from that Navy Blue felt??

Marty

[BendingOak]

He also had me order a navy blue body that I will NEVER sell. The one and only navy blue body I ever got in. So John or another hatter, if you guys ever need a navy blue body, I got one I will sell you at cost. Being over a year old, these camel bodies and blue one are already aged a bit. And age with felt is like age and wine. It just gets better with age.

Ah... I wonder if John could make a Spirit of Barney hat from that Navy Blue felt??

Marty

Why couldn't I?

[jnicktem]

John,... you don't have the guts!

[DR Ulloa]

Don't taunt him. No one puts Baby in a corner.

Dave

[jnicktem]

[Hollowpond]

Don't taunt him. No one puts Baby in a corner.

Dave

That is almost too funny to laugh at!


Travis

[beaverlid]

Fedora, I hope I am not tugging on a bad thread here, but have you heard anymore on this fedora. Is it still in the works? Hope it works out for you and that we members here can one day see a few pictures of this rare felt.

Regards,
Beaverlid

[Fedora]

Fedora, I hope I am not tugging on a bad thread here, but have you heard anymore on this fedora. Is it still in the works? Hope it works out for you and that we members here can one day see a few pictures of this rare felt.

Regards,
Beaverlid

Marc told me last year, or was it the year prior, that he had me another mink/beaver body. I figure I will get the hat one day, when Marc gets caught up. So, I still look forward to this very rare felt. But rest assured I will post plenty of pics when that day arrives. Thanks for asking, as I had completely forgotten about it!!!!!!!!! So....MARC, YOU STILL OWE ME A HAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[beaverlid]

Sorry to remind you and cause anticipation. Like I said "hope I wasn't tugging on a bad thread. Thanks for the reply.