Club Obi Wan

Thanks guys!

Michael:
I can't wait to read your review of your new AB Henry bashed by Oak.
Please DO feel free to follow the format I used here when you write your review if it's helpful to you... but please, PLEASE don't regret not being "as verbose" as I am. (As far as I'm concerned, people should AIM to be less gabby than me.)

Pitfall:
Just to be clear - and please, Mr. Garrison, correct me if I'm wrong about this - on June 7th (a few days before David shipped me my finished hat) he posted an update on his Garrison Raiders Thread that said "The Pre-Order offer has now expired. I will now take regular orders."
So, I'm of the understanding that Garrison Hatters is, in fact, OPEN for business and Taking Orders.

Again, thanks for the kind words, guys.

Back to Fedora's comment a bit earlier about taking pics of your hats.........a wise old hat shop guy at the western wear store I frequent advised that if you want to get a really good idea about how everyone else sees you in your hat, you need to take a look at yourself in a mirror from about 12 feet away.........gives you the proper take on the dimensions of your hat..........

Great review, Fox! Very well written. You touched upon every aspect of the hat, good and bad. Like you said, being that this is a prototype, I'm sure David will improve on the stitching and pouncing issues, but it sounds like you have a well made and durable hat on your head.

By the way, just a little correction. Ken and Lee are not hatmakers. They do not make hats, they sell them. They are hat vendors. I do believe they cut the brim and style the hat, but they do not make hats. Putting them in such an elite group of hat makers like John, Steve and Marc may be a bit misleading. Just wanted to clear that up.

Dave

Great review. I absolutely love my Garrison Raider more and more each day. I'm definitely glad I took the prototype pre-order plunge.

DR Ulloa wrote:By the way, just a little correction. Ken and Lee are not hatmakers. They do not make hats, they sell them. They are hat vendors. I do believe they cut the brim and style the hat, but they do not make hats. Dave

Excellent point, Dave.
I don't own any of Ken Spassione, Jimmy Pierce or Lee Keppler's hats personally... I only know that they look like really fine hats and have lots of loyal fans... so the fact that they're not technically hatmakers was my honest misunderstanding. So, I certainly appreciate you making that point.
As such, I've now added this to a short list of small edits I'm making to this piece. I think the resulting words read much better and gives a clearer "nod" to the three gentlemen who deserve the kind of distinction I was trying to make.
Again, thanks for pointing that out!
(And I'm glad you liked the review.)

Hey Mitch, GREAT hat you've got there!

About the height, I think it is the same in relation to your head as Ford's in that picture. The only difference I see is that you have a "wider" head than ford has, making the hat look broader and thus less tall. This is just an optical illusion though, caused by a different head-shape.
Regardless of that, the hat really suits you. Wear it in good health my friend

Regards, Geert

P.S. Michaelson, I want to say to you and the other Mods/Admins that I fully agree with Steve: you do a stellar, if somewhat under-appreciated job I want to just slip in a big thank you to you guys here, cause you really deseve that

FANTASTIC!!!!
I could only hope for something like this. Thank you, Mitch. Thank you for a complete review convering all the points that I, back in my lurking days, would look for folks to do on a hat. After the kind of weekend I had, this really perked me up and reminded me why I wanted to to this. I had a stubbord weekend dealing with a hat making issue that frustrated me madly. My family was helping me with a minute detail problem that I haven't overcome yet. You hat makers can relate to my problem. My eye for detail causes me to push the envelope on my hat making. My eye wasn't being satisfied on one of the details of the hat. Drove me nuts. At moments, I was like this .
So I hop on COW and read this. Like I always say "A surveyor needs a good benchmark to check with to know if he is doing it right." Mitch became my benchmark today. Thanks, Mitch. I love how detailed you got. I think you can't write enough (especially about my hat ) Again, thanks.
Regarding the load of pics previoulsy posted, you ought to see my hard drive. I have done the same thing when I was working on my block. I took every known angle and would compare the hat to the film. In this Mitch understands a minute point about the hat and staed it. The hat changes from different angles. The movie hat does the same and this is a detail I was after. There is more to my hat than just the block. I am after recreating the full essence of the film hat. The earlier pics clearly showed this aspect of the hat. I thank you for that Mitch, because it gave me a chance to see what someone else sees about the hat. It confirmed that to me with your multi-angle posts. Thank you Moderators for holding the rules as I was not aware of the limit to link posts. Now I know and that is O.K. We must obey rules.

and have helped me greatly and I appreciate their watchful eyes. They have welcomed me warmly to this site. I felt like I knew these two before I even joined, because I lurked for my years before joining. I respect both of the folks greatly and they deserve there positions as administrators.

Pitfall and others, Mitch is correct that I am taking orders for hats. Mitch did take advantage of the pre-order offer. These early orders gave me hats to refine my skills. I am still refining points on the hat. I am still training my eyes and fingers on the pouncing. I error on the side of caution when it comes to brim width. It is alot easier to take a little off than to put some back on. Super glue and duct tape hasn't worked too well. I working to recreate the Raiders hat as close as possible in every aspect. I want to produce the hat that I was always wanting. Part of that is when you pull the hat out of the box, put it on your head, you say "That's it". I was finishing up a Cairo style hat that someone ordered. I looked at the hat when I finished dusting it up and thought, "I hope the customer feels that he picked up the hat just after Indy took it off at the Marhala Bar drink scene. That will remain to be seen, but that is how much effort I put into these hats.

To sum up, thanks for the follow up compliments from the members here. Mitch has shaped the hat in the exterior temple scene style. I think it looks great. I did the side-by-side comparison pic to show how well he did. When I sent him the hat, I bashed it with the traditional turned style with a 4-1/2" front pinch, 3-1/2 rear drop. He very easily rebashed it to his style adn "pow" exterior temple hat. Very goo, Mitch.

O.K., back to cutting out line through some cudzu and see how well my traverse closes.

LLS

I'm happy you liked it, LLS!
It was my pleasure to write the words (but still not as much of a pleasure as it is to own - and wear - the hat!)

Mitch LaRue wrote:I'll agree with you that HF's fedora does look (considerably) taller in those comparison photos that LLS posted above, mulceber... Although I've always thought that HF's fedora never looks taller than in does in that shot... REALLY TALL actually...
But that might just be me.
I do have a tendency of wearing my fedora's a bit lower on my head than some, though... do you think it'd help if I simply pushed it up a bit higher?
(At this point, I'm tempted to write "Hey, I know... I'll posted another 20 links showing varying increments of height on my head of a millimeter at a time! Errr... but the time for that sort of joke may have passed...) Besides, that's just me makin' fun of me.
Seriously though, it's odd, because I DO agree with you that the hat seems a bit shorter than the original in the photo that you're talking about (so, I agree with you it could use a little lift, there)...but... the FIRST photo I posted was taken only a couple of minutes prior (and I don't recall adjusting it between the two shots) and yet I look at it in that first shot and think "I wouldn't change a thing about the hat I see in that photo."

Funny how hats sometimes seem to"morph" like that when photographed...

Thanks for you input.

Hey, sorry it took me so long to get back, I haven't checked this thread in a couple days. Hmm...I'm not sure if pushing it up higher on your head would help or not (btw, I tend to wear my hats low too ), since what strikes me most about the lack of height is that the distance between the crown and the top of the ribbon seems too short. I do agree with Dave though that it might not be that the hat is too short but just too wide. I'm not sure what could help this. Do you have the open crown height? (sorry if you've already provided this, I didn't see it in the thread). -M

Mitch wrote:

As for the crown, I'm on record as having no love for taper, it's just not to my tastes. I prefer a gentle reverse taper and David appears to have developed a nice block that provides all I could ask for. This is an aspect I look to have in each hat I own and he's given me the exact shape I look for each time I order a hat from any hatmaker.

Mulceber wrote:

Hey, sorry it took me so long to get back, I haven't checked this thread in a couple days. Hmm...I'm not sure if pushing it up higher on your head would help or not (btw, I tend to wear my hats low too ), since what strikes me most about the lack of height is that the distance between the crown and the top of the ribbon seems too short. I do agree with Dave though that it might not be that the hat is too short but just too wide. I'm not sure what could help this.

I want to address these points being made. I noticed the crown height appeared different in the side-by-side. Mitch has bashed the hat in a way that produces the "gentle reverse taper" he wants on his hats. The following demonstrate the subtle differences and the effects on the crown look that results.



This is the side-by-side.



Note these four common points. To take Mitch's hat to match the Indy pic more is to relocate the two low arrows up higher to the upper arrows positions. It would take out the "slight reverse taper" he likes, but would change the height appearance on the crown.



The next thing is to pinch the very top of the front a little higher. Instead of the small arc at the top, you would get more of a straight across affest at the top of the hat. The result is the hat will be taller (appear) without changing the crown height of the hat.



This side view demonstrates that by bashing the front of the hat just slightly higher in the crown roll area, will change the height appearance of the crown. Also, by adjusting how far back you put in the top of the front bash has a direct affect on the front height appearance of the hat as a whole.

I wanted to post this so that the members here will get a better understanding as to how I look at things on Indy's hat. I am very much in the frame of mind as 3THOU$. I look at the small things. Mitch has done a wonderful job at bashing his hat to match the look he is after. These little points I have made, hopefully, will help others who are anaylizing the crown comparison. Mitch's hat came off the same block that I made my personal hats with that I show in my Cairo Bazaar post. My block has taper and yet will pull off a straight sided look very easily, or have the needed taper when bashing the turned hat......just like Indy's.

LLS

Thanks for the indepth post, LLS. It was nice to hear some good analysis as to the reasons. So basically what you're saying is that the height disparity is due to the way Mitch bashed it, correct? -M

It is indeed. And a bit of camera angle.
Please do not mistake this as a critique (negative) on Mitch's hat. Far from it. The customer has the ability to bash this hat to his (or her ) liking. It is the little things about various hat styles that complete the total look of the hat. I am making field notes of how hats look on folks and am training my eyes to maximize someones hat.
Also, don't take me the wrong way on this. I do not intend for this to be an arrogant, nor boastful statement on my part. I believe my customers have noted this. When you wear this hat, you will see many traits of the Raiders hat from many angles. You will find yourself looking. Not just the front view, side view, or rear view, but top views, low views of the back, and the shadow silhouette of the side profile ("Belloq.") and the front ("Hello, Marion.").

LLS

WOW. This hat is amazing . I ordered one alittle over a month and i cant wat to get it . Beautiful hat LLS

Cabe

Hi everybody,
I know some of you have already seen this, but I thought I'd include it here as well for those of you who are interested in taking a look.
While on my recent visit out west, my Sister-In-Law (who teaches a Media Arts Course at her school) thought I'd have fun playing around with a scene from Raiders. I think the timing turned out pretty good (although I'm grinning a lot by the end - from having such a great time doing it!)
She put it all together in a little over an hour. (Thanks again, Karin!)

I'm including a LINK to it here in this thread for the simple purpose (and to answer the question that a few of you have e-mailed & PM'd me through Facebook to ask) that YES, the hat in the video IS my Garrison Raider (the trusty hat I had with me at all times while I was vacationing in Alberta.)

The LINK is to YouTube, but the original thread is in the "The Editing Room" (in case you'd like to read additional info about the circumstances under which it was made.)
Anyway, hope you like it. Please let me know (in the EDITING ROOM Section, of course!)
Sincerely,
Mitch


Re-Edit of Marhala Bar Scene/b]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJqzdDbxXjo

And please direct your video comments in the thread in the Editing Room section.

Guidance followed and Post Edited, Sir bink.

Mitch! You don't need a Raider you need a 'Downcrowner'!


...still not seeing any 'drug by a truck' photos on your reinactment frames? If you don't want to do those stunts, then get Harry to stand in for you.

...its in the contract if you read the fine print!

Y'see Tex, I never actually read that thing myself... my Agent read it, handed it back to me to sign and said "Have fun"...
Hmmm...
Guess I shoulda had a gander at that thing...

That'll learn me...