Club Obi Wan

Fedora:

First of all, very glad you made it through Katrina without serious harm.

I was wondering how the height of the crown for AB models varied by movie style. What is the range between Raiders, Temple and Crusade?

Thanks.

Tom

Good question. First, this is my opinion only, on crown heights, and also what I normally make them unless the customer specifies the crown height. But, the hat size must be considered also. You have to adjust upwards just a bit for large hat sizes. Let us take my size, a 7 1/4. For the Raiders hat I use a 5 1/2 open crown block, which creases to 5 on the sides. For most LC scenes, I use a 5 3/4 block. (yes, I think some of the LC hats were this height, going by the current HJ LC block used by HJ) The TOD, I make the same as the Raiders. I know this is not generally accepted, but I do not think the Raiders fedora was as tall as most think. I am going by the width of the ribbon extended upwards to the stopping point of the front crease. Lee Keppler thinks the same as I on the crown heights, but buckled under pressure to provide a taller Keppler as time passed. I am flexible enough that I can make them as you want. I am just giving my default specs. The Akubra that Ron made for us was the first tall hat that we could get back in the early days. All dress hats generally made in the USA, the factory ones like Stetson, came with a 5 inch open crown, and we all saw this was too short. When we moved up to the 5 3/4 Federation, we went a hair too tall, IMHO. But, it looked better at the time. Also, we had to have a "one crown height fits all" with the factory made Akubras, and in Indy fedoras, it is better to err on the taller side as to avoid the squatty look. Fedora

The Federation has such a "dome" to it that it needs the extra height, or it would look to short. IHMO.

Not as much variance as I thought. I was laboring under the assumption that the TOD and LC hats were a fair bit shorter.

Thank you for teaching.