Club Obi Wan

I am not advocating doing this unless you know your hat very well and it is of a thin felt.

Does anyone here roll their hats?
How do they turn out?

Hi Matt,

I did that with a Sterling Beaver. Rolled it, flexed it, squashed it in addition to wearing it all the time - rain or shine. You are right though. You need a thin felt and a felt with little to no stiffener for this not to damage the hat. Maybe during my next flight, I will leave it in my carry-on and see how it looks afterwards.

Yeah... I waited til the hat was very broken in before rolling.

I crushed the one in the pics above a few times at the queen mary and got several cringes from onlookers.

Since Indy was wearing his grey fedora when he boarded the clipper, maybe that's where his "field" hat was? Pretty cool. I never would have thought of that.

I crushed the one in the pics above a few times at the queen mary and got several cringes from onlookers.

Ah, the non-believers

Sometime you never really know what your hat can take until you wake up in a sleeping bag and realize you just used it as a pillow.

Better to roll the hat than to use it as a pillow... try not to leave creases in the hat.

Is there a specific pattern one should follow when rolling a hat? What is the 'correct' way to do it?

Turn the brim down all the way around.
Pop out the crown.
Push the side without the bow into the side with the bow.
Roll the hat from back to front.

Try not to crease the brim.

I know some vintage hats and the Optimo Nutria Beaver lightweights can take it well. If you are using another brand, be careful.

I suggest you do not roll modern Borsalinos, Bullet proof PB's or Akubras.
Stick with thin dense extra soft felts.

I'll take some pics of the rolling technique.

I'm actually very keen to try this. I have an optimo lightweight beaver/nutria blend at home and it would be great if I could pack it away every once in awhile. how long do you think the hats can stay rolled up without and ill effects? I'm not thinking on a scale of weeks here, but perhaps for a number of hours (like a plane ride)?

It would be great if you had one of those tube boxes like they used to make, and I think Lock hatters still has them.


Here is a picture of a vintage knox hat box for A rolled up woman's hat. A tube like this would be perfect.



If rolled and packed, try not to get you hat squeezed too much and again, don't crease the brim.

If the hat is broken in I don't see a problem with leaving it in a bag for a day. Longer than that I have not tried.

I have tried it with the Indy brown Optimo and it is fine... though it has recieved the torture treatment and is very broken in.
Tell me how yours turns out.
If you try it out tell me how it goes.

Is that an Optimo in your avatar IndianaGuybrush
?

How does the material differ for the hats you can roll?

That looks an awful lot like the tubes in which you might find a fine whisky contained.

rick5150 wrote:That looks an awful lot like the tubes in which you might find a fine whisky contained.

Well done, Rick, I was thinking the same thing! Only, I'm a Dalmore man myself.
Have you ever seen the scene in "Swingers" when Mickey orders a Scotch? -It goes something like this: "I'll have a GlenLivet or a Glenfiddich. Any Glen will do..."

The felt for some soft hats is just better material in my opinion. It has a memory and will not end up cracking easily at points where you are putting heavy stress.

With felt not meant to be rolled or for stiff hats, you quickly get what I call the grocery bag effect. The felt breaks down at the areas where creased. This is obviously more apparent with thick stiff hats Like Akubras or Cowboy hats, though if you have the wrong soft dress hat you can ruin it off the bat and have a hole in a few months.

You need to remember too that some hats just aren't meant to be squished or floppy. Some hats are work hats that need to be stiff to hold up against the elements, and that is why there are different types of hats. Indy's hat was a dress hat taken into the field.

I wonder if HJ has tubes? If not should we make one? The hat tube from Knox is more spacious than the whisky tube.

Well you can try with the whisky one and if it doesnt work at least you ll have a drink

...Fedora WAS looking for new hatboxes for shipping new AB's in...

By the by, I don't suggest rolling HJ's they can't take it.

Uhm, i have a doubt there, HJ cant be punched, sat on, rolled up,etc?

Luisiana Jones wrote:Uhm, i have a doubt there, HJ cant be punched, sat on, rolled up,etc?

You can, though I don't think you'll like the results. The felt is thick and does not take well to creases... it has that grocery bag effect I mentioned earlier.

Rick, that's a beautiful picture for the working man.

Mmmmmm....single malt.....

Al

I wonder if HJ has tubes? If not should we make one? The hat tube from Knox is more spacious than the whisky tube.

The tube? After enough whisky, I will have my hat in the bottle

I think the point of rolling the hat was to make it look beat up and ruined, was it not? I have rolled and squashed many Herbert Johnsons and can personally attest to the fact that they can take it and the felt is precisely 2mm thick, which is far from thick. They end up looking like the Cairo hat, which did in fact have visible creases and wrinkles in it. I thought the point of rolling the hat was to MAKE WRINKLES.

Hey Rick, as long as you don't start drinking the malt from the hat...

Al

The reason I am talking about rolling a hat in this thread is for travel purposes. I personally like my hats to stay in good condition, though I put them through the ringer. A Herbert Johnson after a few months will look tired and worn if rolled and crushed. The Optimo Beaver Nutria blend shown above has been with me for almost a year and so far it has been rolled several times and packed and has taken it while still looking fresh, or at least fresher than other modern hats.

For the sake of difference,
This thread is intended for packing purposes and not for distressing.

A Herbert Johnson after a few months will look tired and worn if rolled and crushed.

Heck, my HJ looked knackered after a few DAYS of travel, much less months!

But I know what you are saying, bud.

Al

I thought the point of rolling the hat was to MAKE WRINKLES.

I cannot speak for everybody, but I began crunching and rolling my hats to help break down the stiffener and soften them up. I have never made wrinkles in a hat by doing this.

Hey Rick, as long as you don't start drinking the malt from the hat...

Ha. Nope. I drink water from the hat after I have saturated it with whisky. Beats carrying a glass bottle. It also explains why I get lost all the time. Word of warning. Keep hat away from open flames.

rick5150 wrote: I cannot speak for everybody, but I began crunching and rolling my hats to help break down the stiffener and soften them up. I have never made wrinkles in a hat by doing this.

To be fair, have you ever rolled and/or crunched your hat and then left it rolled/crunched for more than an hour? Because that's what we're really talking about here.

I agree with Matt on this one, I wouldn't do this with heavier felts, which includes my HJ. I think it would be just too hard to get the creases out of it afterward.

Matt, the hat in my avatar is my HJ. Frankly I just thought my Optimo was too nice to be a mountain climbing hat, and since I had to choose 1 and only 1 hat I was going to bring to Peru, it was the HJ, which I figured was more durable. It also fit me tighter, which came in handy, as the wind gets pretty rowdy up in the Peruvian Andes

The hat in your avatar just looks sweet.

So does anybody else pack their hats for travel?

Mattdeckard wrote:I wonder if HJ has tubes? If not should we make one? The hat tube from Knox is more spacious than the whisky tube.

Of course, this coming from me, would say that a German WWII GAS MASK CASE would work nicely to go with your Mk VII.



Regards,
Swindiana

Mattdeckard wrote:The hat in your avatar just looks sweet.

So does anybody else pack their hats for travel?

When i travel anywhere I like to keep my hat on my head at all times. Keep in mind we drive everywhere this includes Canada and florida.
Adam

To be fair, have you ever rolled and/or crunched your hat and then left it rolled/crunched for more than an hour? Because that's what we're really talking about here.

Absolutely. I mentioned that I began crunching and rolling my hats to help break down the stiffener and soften them up. That shows you what the hats are capable of. I have not left a hat crunched up for more than 7 hours though. I have found that on some hikes, the wind is too much to be wearing a wide brimmed hat. Sometimes, I hold them if I expect the wind will not last and the footing is good. Other times the hat goes into the backpack.

I am not sure it makes much difference after the first hour though. From my collection, the thicker hats or the hats with stiffener are more likely to get wrinkles and creases. I cannot say the hat looked perfect after unrolling it, but it did not take long for it to resume its shape.

Indy Gater wrote:...Fedora WAS looking for new hatboxes for shipping new AB's in...

I can see this now as Steve is sitting around the house drinking whisky to obtain the "hat" tins for shipping. "C'mon guys, your hats will get to you soon, I am drinking as fast as I can..."

I see now why the original Raiders hat was turned by accident...

Regards,
Swindiana

Swindiana wrote:I see now why the original Raiders hat was turned by accident...

Regards,
Swindiana

Actually with a hat as soft as the one pictured at the top, it's easy to put it on with it aiming any which way. you really can't tell the difference with a soft felt and a soft leather, you just wear the hat the way you put it on your head which I think is what happend to make the Indy hat so unique... I don't think any of the details outside of the dimentional brim were on purpose, I just think it depended on how Ford's head was shaped and which way he put it on his head.

Swindiana wrote:Of course, this coming from me, would say that a German WWII GAS MASK CASE would work nicely to go with your Mk VII.

I have this one with Swedish instructions.

A Belgian one for export to Sweden?

Regards,
Swindiana

Probably. It says "Stockholm 1940 Import".

Here's a couple of pics:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... oroska.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... /kansi.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... ohje_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... ohje_2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... ohje_3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... ohje_4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... aamari.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/I ... ltteri.jpg

Isn't that canister on the top pic the can they put the Blob in?