Club Obi Wan

I was reading over at The Fedora Lounge, and saw an avatar of a fellow wearing this hat. It looked so good that I just had to ask what brand it was. I was gratified to find out it was the Federation made for us with Ron's help down under at Hatsdirect. I have to say, without a doubt, this is the best looking Federation Indy fedora that I have ever seen.





To me, this hat really fits his face well. He makes the hat look great!! regards, Fedora

Indeed, that is one excellent looking Fed!

Yup that's one good lookin' hat.

I'll bet it's a larger size, I've noticed that the size 60 has a much better block shape than mine which is a 58. I saw this in person when a friend of mine got one and brought it over for me to shape. It was much more square in the crown, just like this one. I even e-mailed Ron and asked him about it, he said that some sizes just come out better than others and that's just the way it is.

fedoralover

I'm wondering... is Ron using new blocks now for his federations?

My father-in-law's gray Federation is a 62. The block is much better than my 57. My guess is that FedoraLover is right, that hat is a larger size.

WOW! My Fedreration never looked that good! It'd be great if they could use a consistent block on all sizes...

That is a good looking hat and the gentleman wears it well. Those glasses compliment the hat nicely. He sort of has a young-Indiana Jones, Sr-look going. It's a very nice hat.

I'll bet it's a larger size, I've noticed that the size 60 has a much better block shape than mine which is a 58.

I think so as well. You jogged my memory and I now recall saying this myself at one time. I found out when I did some work on Michaelson's. Some of the Federation hat sizes have a good block shape, like the size 59 and 60. Fedora

When this came up a year or so ago, I thought Akubra had changed their block and thats when I e-mailed Ron and asked him about it. He said they hadn't changed anything and it's too expensive to change even if they wanted to. He said its just the nature of the beast that all of the blocks in different sizes are just not going to be exactly alike. So you guys with the bigger noggins are making out this time.

fedoralover

the federation in my Mexico pics is also a size 60,i would say that the 59 and 60 have a better block

There are a few topics that are persuasive enough to coax me out of lurking, and I'd say this qualifies as one of them.

It looks like the image in Fedora's post has vanished, so I'll keep my avatar unchanged here so readers can see what the heck he was talking about.

I've worn Akubras for 16 years but only discovered the Federation last November thanks to this forum. I'd been searching for a tall crown, wide brim Fedora, and this was exactly what I had in mind.

Yes, it is a size 60. I had first ordered the Carbon Gray Fed in size 60, found it a bit big, so I did the lamp trick to get a snug fit. Worked like a charm. I turned around and ordered the brown Federation in size 60 (the one in the Avatar) but this one was so big I could almost wear it sideways! The lamp trick again made it a perfect fit, and maybe contributes to the final shape since I would imagine the top of the crown is now larger than the bottom.

Concerning the bash, I had the Indy style in mind, but freely styled this one to match my face rather than Harrison Ford's.

After reading all your comments, I have greater appreciation for this hat. Thanks! I would have posted sooner but to my embarassment I discovered that although I visit and read this forum every day, I had neglected to register, and had to wait for my account to be activated!

BTW I'm not nearly as pixelated in person.

Russ

Welcome Russ!

That is an excellent looking hat. It suits you perfectly!

I certainly hope you'll hang around and post often.

Glad to see you are now an official member Russ!! Welcome aboard, officially. Fedora

Welcome aboard! Great hat... fantastic look, one I'll consider the federation as a gift idea for my father now, as it looks so great on you and you have a similar looking face... nice name as well ;c)

Welcome Russ :D:D:D

Thanks for popping out of the shadows, Russ. All that lurking about was starting to frighten the wee ones. That hat does look great on you. You've done very well with it. I wonder if the lampshade trick would work for other sized Federations? I'd give it a whirl if I still had mine, but it's been long since passed along to someone in need at the time.

bink

Actually, I don't have any lamp shades, but I used my desk lamp with a 100 watt bulb (despite warnings that they are too hot for this). I turned the hat upside down after wetting the leather sweat band, and covered the rest of the inside with a bandana to protect it from the heat.The lamp was right on top of the hat without actually touching it. I was sceptical that it would even work because I'd never tried it before learning about it here. But the results were miraculous! That loose hat became very snug.

I will confess that one factor in that hat photo turning out so nice was the fact that the camera was about 20 feet away (this was actually a family shot). So there was no fish-eye type of distortion that comes when the camera is up close.

As for scaring kids, I couldn't if I tried (and I do try my hardest). Once a bunch of kids stopped me and with very serious faces asked me if I was Santa Claus. It was summer and I was wearing an Aloha shirt and straw hat, of all things.

You should've told those kids you were Santa! And then tell them all they've been so bad that they won't be getting any presents for years! ...Okay, maybe that happened to me as a kid...

bink

Ah, the old lampshade trick. I discovered this years ago when I placed my Akubra on top of the lampshade next to my recliner. Someone turned on the lamp, with my hat still on top, and much to my surprise, by the time that I noticed and panicked, the sweatband had shrunk to fit me perfectly. Since that time, I discovered that any hat with a soft sweat will do this. The harder sweats do not respond as well. Oh, I had perspired in the hat prior to placing it on the lamp and figured one would need to dampen the inside of the sweat for optimal results. We do not hear about this trick anymore and it was great to hear from someone who used it. Russ, you must have been lurking for quite awhile!! Fedora

Your hat does look great. You did an excellent job of bashing it and achieving the "right" look for you. It also goes well with the coat or jacket you are wearing. Welcome to COW!

Russ, you are an inspiration!

I recently reblocked my trusty Akubra Fed for the third time. I got the crown height and bash just right (Raiders style). But over the week as I wore it to and from work, something was bugging me about it . Then I saw your pic. THE BRIM! It was THE brim for me! So, a dash of cold water around the brim, 20 minutes of tweaking and BINGO! My Federation now looks PERFECT!

I have a Federation Deluxe on the way (any day now...) and I now know EXACTLY how I'm going to bash and style it

Thank you, sir!

Regards,
Eaton

I'm still on the fence regarding whether I want to spring for the Adventurebilt beaver or settle for the Akubra Fed. I've certainly owned plenty of Akubras (Trapper, Snowy River, Cattleman, more;) and Borsalinos, but I'd like to have an ultimate 'Indy' style Fedora.
Yours looks prefect, I'm a size 61, so you got me going...

The coat is a Filson Double Mackinaw Cruiser. I'll take a wool coat with buttons and a hundred year old design over a zipper and nylon modern thing any day. And it goes well with a fedora.

As for the brim I gotta tell you that my inspiration was the avatar of rick5150 here on COW. That's one cool brim!

Russ wrote:The coat is a Filson Double Mackinaw Cruiser. I'll take a wool coat with buttons and a hundred year old design over a zipper and nylon modern thing any day. And it goes well with a fedora.

Right on Russ! My Filson Packer Coat has replaced my Wested as my field jacket. Its just about as practical as you can get. And it looks great with a fedora!

Russ wrote:As for the brim I gotta tell you that my inspiration was the avatar of rick5150 here on COW. That's one cool brim!

Wow, thanks Russ! I never inspired anyone to do anything before, except to eat a worm. But this is not the place to discuss that.

Now there's a cool avatar with a cool hat shape! Now I can thank you directly for inspiring my own bash. Thank you Rick!

If I recall correctly that hat is also a Federation, right?

Welcome Russ. Glad to see another guy with a beard. They say to never trust a clean shaven man. That is what Dr. Pickle told me in college. Thus, my beard. Going into the third week of regrowth after screwing up a trim.

Speaking of the Federation, has anyone here done the Keppler method of softening the hat as he shows in his little video? If so, what kind of results did you obtain?


Best,

Prof. Ed

FYI, I read that Filson has been sold to another concern. I bet their legendary quality takes a hit... Get your Filson gear while you can Boys:!:

Russ wrote:Now there's a cool avatar with a cool hat shape! Now I can thank you directly for inspiring my own bash. Thank you Rick!

If I recall correctly that hat is also a Federation, right?

I am thrilled that you like the shape, but I cannot take any credit for it. I am sure you will not be surprised to find that it was shaped by Fedora. In fact, Steve shaped most of my hats. This man once took a Snowy River and turned it into the most awesome Indy hat.

Also, the hat is a hat from GH, not an Akubra. I do have several Federations, that Steve shaped, but this is not one of them.

I guess I really have not inspired anything, now that I look at it.

I did climb Mt. Chocorua and I did take the picture with an auto-timer if that counts for anything. I currently have a Hat Shaper to help maintain the shape of my hats. I do not have the skills, patience, guts, time, energy or inclination to do a real re-block myself either. The hat goes on the Hat Shaper with the ribbon and sweatband...

With all that said, your hat looks fantastic. I can easily see the influence by comparing the two avatars. You, my friend did a terrific job on your hat. My hat is off to you.

It looks like your camera was a good distance from you; that hat image is perfect with no distortion.

Okay, to continue fending off compliments - that avatar was cropped from here by Renderking Fisk. He deserves the credit.

Here are two others from that hike that show that hat:

One
Two

It was pretty sunny, so don't mind the squinting. When I make my own avatars, they come out fuzzy and almost unrecognizable. In my case, that is good.

I did take the original pictures ...actually, the camera was on auto-timer so I guess I cannot even claim that since the camera took the picture by itself. Hmmm.

The angle in number 2 is almost exactly the same as my avatar. The similarity between the two brims is very clear there!

Even though you didn't personally shape the hat or take the photo or crop the Avatar, you are still the shadowy force who was manipulating all the threads behind the scenes.

Russ wrote:Even though you didn't personally shape the hat or take the photo or crop the Avatar, you are still the shadowy force who was manipulating all the threads behind the scenes.

Hahaha. Thanks! I'll take that

rick5150 wrote:

Russ wrote:Now there's a cool avatar with a cool hat shape! Now I can thank you directly for inspiring my own bash. Thank you Rick!

If I recall correctly that hat is also a Federation, right?

I am thrilled that you like the shape, but I cannot take any credit for it. I am sure you will not be surprised to find that it was shaped by Fedora. In fact, Steve shaped most of my hats. This man once took a Snowy River and turned it into the most awesome Indy hat.

Ill post some pictures of it tomorrow in this thread

By the way, about filson, it was sold to RLauren last year,
and is under managment by diffrent people. A few months ago
my father ordered a pair of shoes from them, and sadly it took them
a month to arrive(after they were shipped) (with 20$ shipping!) and the company offred no help when they were believed to be lost.

Adam

PS

heres one from back when rick had it.

I love that hat Adam!

Ah, that explains why they have started offering more "fashion" stuff.I just hope Filson doesn't go the way of Willis & Geiger.

My first three hats were Snowy Rivers, Fawn, Gray and Black. Got them 16 years ago. With that relatively low crown I didn't think they would be converted to an Indy fedora.

I sold them a long time ago to finance new hat purchases, so it doesn't matter now, but I'd love to see a shot of that Snowy River.

Just to give me a reason to kick myself.

Hey Russ, Check the small photo two posts up by Mola Ram. That was my Rattlesnake Rick hat complete with rattlesnake band (with rattle). The problem - and the only problem - I had with the hat was the color was not particularly flattering on me. I have more pictures if you would like to kick yourself, but I can only send them by e-mail right now. People either loved that snakeskin band or hated it, but it was definitely a conversation starter... I still have the band and I am waiting for just the right hat on which to install it.

That's a Snowy River? It's nothing short of a miracle. I lightened up that photo so I could see it, and was stunned when it came out into the light:



Now I AM eating my hat.

I had the same feeling when I got the hat back from Steve. Maybe he can fill you in to why it looks so good.

Adam, I seem to remember the dimensions of the brim as being on the large side - maybe 2 3/4 X 2 7/8 or even 3". That is what made me start wearing my brims a little wider as my first hats were 2 1/2 X 2 3/4 and they never looked quite right. I feel that the brim cannot swoop properly if the brim is too narrow. The felt is a bit thicker and less dense than what I am now used to and I think there is still stiffener in the felt which holds the brim in shape. It is all personal taste.

Of course, my recommendation is to either go with a crown height you can deal with and match the brim, or go with the brim width you can live with and adjust the height accordingly, so it still has dimensions of an Indy hat. Compromise too much on either and it never looks right.

A taller hat needs a wider brim. If the brim is cut too narrow for the wearers face, it looks less like an Indy hat.

Russ wrote:Yes, it is a size 60. I had first ordered the Carbon Gray Fed in size 60, found it a bit big, so I did the lamp trick to get a snug fit. Worked like a charm. I turned around and ordered the brown Federation[/b]

Okay, I'll bite. What exactly is the "lamp trick"?...KC

The lamp shade trick was invented by Fedora (the man, not the hat) as I have learned in this thread. I called it the lamp trick since I don't own a lamp shade. It involves heating your head with a lamp until it changes in size to fit your hat.

Wait a minute, I think I got that backwards.

Oh yeah, the lamp shade trick is for shrinking leather sweat band inside the hat if the hat is too loose. The original method is thoroughly wet the sweat band (but not the hat itself) and simply put the hat on top of a lamp shade (lamp turned on, of course) with a light bulb no hotter than 60 watts, and check every five or ten minutes to see if the hat fits better. It is possible to shrink the hat too much.

Then you WILL have to put your head on top of the lamp shade.

(I've just turned into a smiley. At least one can't say I ALWAYS have a big head.)

I wonder how much you could skrink the hat? I plan on getting another hat this spring sometime and I've been debating between Akubra's Fed Deluxe and the Overlander. I've been leaning toward the Overlander. However, I wonder what would happen if I bought a Fed a size too big then shrunk it to fit. :idea:

Russ wrote:Now there's a cool avatar with a cool hat shape! Now I can thank you directly for inspiring my own bash. Thank you Rick!

If I recall correctly that hat is also a Federation, right?

I acctually did notice a resemblance before I read that. They have a nice swoop to the brim.

J_Weaver wrote:I wonder how much you could skrink the hat? I plan on getting another hat this spring sometime and I've been debating between Akubra's Fed Deluxe and the Overlander. I've been leaning toward the Overlander. However, I wonder what would happen if I bought a Fed a size too big then shrunk it to fit. :idea:

I have no idea how far it will shrink a hat, but I do know that it has taken all the fear out of ordering a hat from Australia (or America, since I live in Japan). If the hat is too big, there is no need to return it. Just get out the lamp. That hat in my avatar was actually one size too big for me, but the lamp trick brought it down a size and made it perfectly snug.

Still, I wouldn't purposely order a size too big just to do the lamp trick.

I'll definitely have to try that! My Fed is a size too big also.

I'll tell you Russ, its tempting to give it a try. I wear a size 58 and the Fed I've seen first hand in that size has a bit of taper. Enough that it kinda ruins the Raiders look of the hat. However, a 59 shrunk to fit might work out nicely.

Bink,

I like the look of your federation. Hope all is well after your recent move.

I would like to give my federation a swoop a'la russ or rick5150. Someone mentioned a little cold water and shaping. Anyone have tips on how to give a swoop to my fed?

I guess I'm one of the folks who ought to reply to this!

For my brim I basically used this tutorial:

http://www.whyaxis.net/indy/hatshaping/hatshaping.html

keeping a photo of rick5150's brim as a reference. I did not trim the brim, and I don't think I used steam, but I might have used a little bit. Even now I tweak the brim if I have to sit with the hat on my lap for a long time. I curl up the sides while holding the front of the brim down by pressing it against my chest. Then I turn the hat around and do something similar to the back of the brim.