On the other hand Fedora, how could one machine with only one contour be used to to nicely restore every hat size, every block shape brought into a shop?
I think those devices were used to stretch out a hat that had shrunk up. A fast food version of a quick refurb. From what I have read, if your hat was getting too tight, you could drop by your local hatter(they were as numerous as shoe repair shops USED to be) or even your dry cleaners who offered hat cleaning services and they would stretch the out to your size, steam it up to freshen the felt and brush it. When you got it back, it fit once again, and it looked better from the freshening. Remember also that back in the days when these things were seen in every hat shop, the average size of a man's head was not like today. Their heads were smaller. That is why is hard to find vintage hats on ebay in sizes larger than 7 1/4. Above this size, the pickings get slim. But you find many in sizes 7 1/8 downwards, with most being around 6 7/8. This stretcher would have worked great for those common sizes during that era. Most of those stretchers are 6 1/2 inches at the base.(side to side) A 7 1/4 is 8 inches long at the base, for a regular oval. This stretcher would work great for that size, and the sizes below. Above a 7 1/4, the width increases with the length, so you maintain the 1 3/8 differential. For sizes larger than 7 1/4, you would get a long oval with the 7 3/8 hat size. For a 7 1/2, problably a long, long oval, and for a 7 5/8 a triple long oval. Needless to say, those early hatters saw few hats sized above 7 3/8.
Those small hat shops and dry cleaners also had wood hat blocks. They were used for a renovation. If the hat was shrunk, they would put it on the stretcher to stretch it out so it would fit over the block that was the hat's original size.
I guess my point is, a hat stretcher is just that, a hat stretcher. It was used to stretch out shrunken hats.
I'm not sure what this means. Did Ron try to buy a "new expanding block from Akubra and they didn't have one to
He thought Akubra might have one, but found out they are not used in hatmaking. It was a retail, small hat shop, or dry cleaners item. He wanted one I am assuming so he could stretch out hats brought in by the customers who were getting a headache from the leather shrinkage of the sweats.
Really, if you think about it, why would a hat factory even need a hat stretcher? As far as I can tell, there would be no use for it. I have never seen it mentioned in all of the accounts I have read, and the pictorials available on the net.
This reminds me of something. Ron is sending me a dvd of the Akubra factory, and it shows them making hats. I am excited as I have never seen a video of the process. He says they did leave a few parts out, but you get the basic idea of the methods and steps they take.
3M$, your idea is certainly plausible, if they made hat stretchers for each size hat. But, the ruler on the bottom of the base of all of these stretchers starts at 6 5/8 and move up to each ascending hat size. This should tell you what it is used for. They are handy to have if someone sends me a hat that is a shrunk up 7 1/4, and they want it stretched to 7 3/8. It won't fit over the 7 3/8 block, heck, it won't even fit on the 7 1/4 block!! It is shrunk up after all. So if it is a stiff cowboy hat, I just heat up the heated stretcher, and crank it down to say a size 7 and pull the hat over the stretcher, once it is hot. I let it sit until I can touch the top of the crown and it is too hot to leave my hand there. I then slowly crank out the stretcher to a size 7 1/4 and leave it there a few minutes. I pull it off, let it cool, and then do it again, this time stretching it out to the full, new 7 3/8 sizing. The needle and ruler at the bottom is the indicator. While the hat is still hot, I pull it off of the stretcher, and pull it over the new 7 3/8 block. It fits.
If it were a soft felt hat, I would mist the body with water before I stretched it out, as soft felt is worked differently than stiff felt. I want steam involved with soft felt. But otherwise the process would be the same. And that is what these are used for.
The Raiders fedora is certainly unlike what followed from HJ. It makes me want to think that Swales reblocked these hats with some wood blocks that he had in the shop. The source from Hj mentioned the size 62 and above wooden blocks. Straight sided I think he said. Now, it is possible that the smaller blocks got lost in the shuffle, or perhaps Swales took them home and used them for firewood because they were old, with cracks and were worthless. That he had the 62, (7 3/4) and perhaps a 63 would be understandable, as if you can find a 62 block on ebay, they are always in pristine condition, even when they are 70 years old. Why? Because they never got much use!!
I have 4 of them to prove it. They are brown of course, but they looked like they were only lightly used, and not a single one has a crack!!
I just have a suspicion that he reblocked those hats for the first film, using the Raiders block, in the small shop, and he did not do that for the other films. At one time, HJ offered such a wide variety of hats, including top hats and bowlers. That they had culled down the offerings by 1981 is very plausible, as most hat companies had done so by that time. But, he may have still had a set of blocks from one of those early offerings, like the hat shown at 8 o'clock in this photo.
I find it interesting that in the above pic we do not see the stock Poet with the 2 inch ribbon. Also all of the hats above could share the same block shape, with the exception of the hat at 8 o'clock. I hope everyone can clearly see this hat is totally different in blockshape. I always felt this was the Raiders block.
This would make more sense to me than Swales using a tool not designed to reblock hats on. Being a hat shop, he certainly would have had a stretcher, and a hat steamer, and apparently even an assortment of ribbon.
The Raiders hat is an anomaly, but it may be that this anomaly was because Swales reblocked those hats using wood blocks that he surely had on hand, since he refurbed hats as part of the hat business- a hold over from the times when hats were popular. That makes sense too. And Occam would be satisfied.
Fedora
OK, he probably wants to imply there were no expanding blocks, new or old in the whole factery. I JUST PULLED A NEW CARDBOAD WRAPPED ACE HARDWARE SINGLE EDGE RAZOR BLADE OUT OF THE BOX! I'm going to slice the top off a brand new never bahsed Federation. Tomorrow.
The marks from stacking or stretching, whatever caused them, aren't too important to the Raiders look, (except maybe to index the rear of the bow side front dent.) What's REALLY interesting to me is that the position of the marks could indicate a 2 inch turn...........
All he was saying was Akubra never used that retail instrument as it is not a piece of hatmaking equipment, in Australia, or anywhere else. But, even me, a neophyte hatter knew this!! And that was why you met resistance when you hinted that it was. Ron would be glad to answer any questions you have about Akubra felt and what he observed when he visited the factory. I think Ron started out as just a retail outlet, selling hats, and probably has learned some of the craft over the years from his communication with Akubra. That was the opinon that I got. And, I could be wrong on this. 
Something very interesting that came up in this thread were darthjones' Raiders hat recolections. He's got me believing he saw the ACTUAL main Raiders hat, turned and pleated. 