a episode of "The Salvage Hunters" is running on TV currently. The junk dealer Drew Pritchard was there with a John Sr. DeBryne (or "De Bryne"?), whos family used to have a store for riding equipment and clothing for generations.
During the conversation, Mr. DeBryne said that he used his current bar counter in his workshop bevore, making on it the Fedora for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now the table is standing in his B&B in Cambridge. At the request of the junk dealer, he admitted to having his own hat on the occasion - and still to own it.
Given the dates, I think we have to assume that (if anything) he meant that the counter he uses now, was one where he had seen fedoras (Like the one used in Raiders) made once he'd bought Herbert Johnson? Since that purchase was in 1996, there's no way to know exactly if the counter/workbench was the one used in the original making, but....It's highly unlikely that he used it at all in either case...Maybe he saw hats being made on benches like it though? And meant that......
I interpretated the story this way: Somebody had made the hats on this table. Then Mr. De Bryne bought the firm and took the table and one of the Poets. Maybe the Poet was from the same batch like the hats for the film and maybe not. But the table was looking very representative. So it is hard to believe it was used as a workbench before. Hmmm...
