Club Obi Wan

:DNice work Fedora. I have a little question....What the heck are those egyptian prints behind your work bench? They look really cool. Where do I get some?

Regards
TAZ

Fedora, now I think I understand what's going on. I have a little hands on experience with ultra thick sweats, and you probably don't. I mistook your unfamiliarity for something else, and became overly deffensive. My apologies to You, Dalexs, and Marc. -------Now, take that 360 stovepipe you just made, put a sweat on your head 5 times thicker than normal, pull the hat on over that, then see what kind of back tilt you could get in the front pinch. Problem is, the back of the hat would taper foreward. You'd get taper at both the front and back of the hat, and the sides. The circumfrence of the base of the crown would be greater than the top, because the felt is stretched at the base. --- Now, take a 360 stovepipe 1 1/2 sizes too big for you, and switch that same sweat into it. Let's say the sweat is still a little bigger than the base and the base gets stretched slightly, giving you a little more backtilt in the front pinch, and the extra room between your head and the crown makes room for deeper front bashes, which also gives you more tilt in the front cease. The slight stretching of the base of the crown is still putting a bit of taper in the back of the hat, but the crown is so huge, a tightend ribbon causes the crown to bulge over it in the back. What I have always refered to as "backtilt" in the back of the crown is to a large degree "back-BULGE", but the top crease is still puttling a bit of back tilt in the back also. .... I'll leave it to you to give "the treatment" to the Indy 4 hat. All you have to do is experiment with thick sweats and big hats. You may find that something with some taper and not a strict 360 stovepipe works best, I don't know.

Pitfall Harry wrote:Has it ever been proven that the "Cairo Hat" and the hat wore at the beginning of the film were the same exact hat? I'm sure they had numerous hats for the film and each of them might have had a slightly different bash to them and crown height. Plus, I'm sure Harrison and the stunt guys fiddled with all of them.

I keep redirecting folks to MK's hat comparisonpage. This is a great resource that has many shots of the Raider's hat only. The hat looks like a different hat in almost every picture. Not saying that is the case, but look at the third hat down on the right side, from the first few minutes of Raiders. That hat looks pretty big. It is tall and wide.

Go to the left then down one and you are in Cairo. Still tall, but narrower. Now go one picture to the right. Still in Cairo, but where did the height go?

Now go 2 pictures to the left and down one. "Duck!" Does that look like the same felt as the hat directly underneath it?

It is interesting to note that the hats seem to keep the same height relationship to the ribbon.

By the way, that shot where he is drinking with the monkey is the best example of that Flying V bow that I have seen.

I think we are dealing with a multitude of various hats and block shapes and we are expecting to be able to get all of these shapes with one hat. I doubt it is possible. Pick your favorite scene and go for it.

It is interesting to note that the hats seem to keep the same height relationship to the ribbon.

It is amazing. The hat seems to get shorter, or taller, but the ribbon stays in proportion. Gremlins are the culprits.

The hat looks like a different hat in almost every picture.

Yes, and this variation will put a hatter in an early grave!!!

I can look at some of those hats and say, yeah, that is the same hat. But some of those pics defy explanation. They just look like a totally different hat!! Similiar yes, but different as well. The Raiders fedora will always be an enigma. Fedora

You know, I never suspected Gremlins. I was thinking poltergeists, witchcraft, demonic possession and even UFO involvement. Once again, you have answered a hat question that has been nagging me.

It is perplexing to hear some say that the hat naturally shrunk during the filming to account for the way it progresses through the film. Even more perplexing to take into account that for all intents and purposes, Raiders was kind of filmed backwards. That is, the first scenes in the movie were filmed near the end. That would make the hat get newer throughout the movie.

It may be just the light, but in MK's pictures, I am seeing different felt qualities and thicknesses. Some of those hats look pretty rough, while others look well-pounced. I will take the Cairo hat or the promotional photo hat at the lower left, for what it is worth

You know what the real killer is, that hat or hats ( Raiders) don't look like that anymore.

Thanks Steve for speaking for me! I couldn't have said better than you did my friend.

My felt is different than the felt used on the Raiders Fedora, so of course to archive the same look AFTER the creasing, the block's gotta look different. That's one of the biggest pains in the behind, when reverse engineering a block design, that is NOT to look like the original in order to match a different felt.

I still believe that the original block had an ever so slight taper front and back, but due to the denser felt, I can't go that route. Also most customers prefer their hats NOT to be 1-2 sizes too big, so I have to deal with what I've got.

Anyway, congrats on the great results on the felt you have there. May I suggest to send one of my rawbodies (used on a prototype) to you for free (if we split on the shipping) and see what you could make out of it in your actual size?

High regards,

Marc

Yeah, Mark. If the theory is correct, for big heads, you guys will have to make block sizes larger than maybe any blocks ever made! Tonight I'm sanding thinner my Miller cowboy hat. I'll be removeing about 1mm of felt thickness everywhere. From 2.3 down to about 1.4mm. This hat is sand color, but I thought it would be the Miller Raider color. I really can't find a fedora for sale that can handle being turned into a 360 stovepipe with a 6 inch crown and still have a nearly 3 inch brim. I could really use that hat body you are offering!

What size do you have?

Regards,

Marc

If these 2 are Poets then what's up?

I'd say they are "new" and mostly undistressed. The Raven may have been distressed more (sat on). Obviously not like the Cairo though.