My first Fedora : Akubra Fed. Std.

Altern · Post by **Altern** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:29 am

Hey everyone !

I would have posted sooner but the registrations were closed lately, due to maintenance and i had to wait until yesterday to get registered.

I'd like to share with you my little (and brand new !) experience in the wonderful world of indiana jones' gear.
But first and foremost, please forgive my english. French is my primary language.

I've always been a huge indy fan, but i was involved in so many other stuff that it left little time for this passion.
Now that i've done my share of things in my other hobbies, i decided to dedicate to "the man with the hat" the time he deserves.

Eventhough i'm a big fan of StarWars and really involved in all kind of things related to WWII, i've never really been interested in costuming and props.

Not until i was indiana jones' gear at least...

First, i knew i wanted a Fedora. I always did. Like a child's dream, but i'm sure most of you know the feeling...
I never bought a licenced hat since i felt they were doing no justice to the real one...

Then, i started to hear about the HJ original fedora, but it was way to much expensive.
When i discovered indygear.com (and its french equivalent jones-jr.com), i realised it would be funny to have a full indy suit at home, maybe get HF's head and have it real size.

One thing following another, i started to collect stuff, and today it's becoming real, little by little. (honestly, i'm really annoyed about getting a real size HF head, that's all :p)

But i apologize, i'm making this way longer than i expected, and i'm here to talk about my Fedora.

I chose to have 3 Fedora :

- 1 Akubra Std. Fed. to wear whenever i feel like (and that i can bring along on my "own" adventures)
- 1 HJ Raven Bar shaped to go with the full suit (unless it becomes unavailable since Replix doesn't offer it anymore and Todd seems to go the same way)
- 1 "European" AB beaver fur (as soon as Marc get it ready for sale :p) because that's THE closest to the real one i've seen so far !

The 2 last ones will be bought when i'll have the money, but i knew i could afford the Akubra right now, so i ordered it right away on HatsDirect and i received it "open-crowned" something like 10 days later.

But then i realised i had to shape it. I knew it but i really started to freak when i was holding the hat in front of me. What if i could mess everyting up ? What if the hat just turn out to look awful ?

I followed this tutorial and i can't thank his author enough :

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

Thanks very much Johnny !

The only thing i didn't do about my hat is cuting the brim. I would have freaked the #### out if i had to do it, so i kept the brim as it originally was.

Here are some photos of my hat and my first bash attempt. I didn't try to get a precise scene, rather than trying to get an "indy feel" with my hat.

http://alternativ.free.fr/photos/category.php?cat=6

Tell me what you think, please, i'm always open to ideas to improve my bash !

Few details about it :

- Akubra Standard Federation
- size : 58
- shaped with "Steam" (and a lot of sweats :p)

binkmeisterRick · Post by **binkmeisterRick** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:44 am

Welcome, Altern! Congrats on the Akubra! It's a great hat which is easy to bash. I like the front pinch on yours. Good job!

bink

prairiejones · Post by **prairiejones** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:00 pm

Take a look at this tutorial. It will help you shape those front bashes.

http://eaglesnest.goblinjournals.com/pagey.html

The real Henry · Post by **The real Henry** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:02 pm

Hmmm... Nice! But I wouldn't make the center dent so deep, because you don't have the front taper then! Anyway if I shall tell you how to make a block for it yourself just pm me!

Altern · Post by **Altern** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:23 pm

Thanks for the link, prairiejones. That indeed might help !

I'll pm you asap, the real henry, although i'm not sure of what you mean by "making a block".

My 2 big problems with my bash are :

- i don't have good pictures of the back. Should the brim goes down or should it go up nicely, roughly ?
My brim just goes up, mainly because the natural shape of the Fed tends the brim to do so, but i'm wondering if that's not TOO much.

Unfortunately, i didn't find many "back" pics around, and the few i got seem to contradict each others.

- I can't manage to get the "indy look" on the front side. I got a nice "flexing bow" but i wanted to have that little something indy got above his right eye. I think it forms naturally everytime you pinch your brim, maybe to say hello or just to move your hat a bit when it's hot.

This is a good picture of that "indy look" i wanted so much :

The real Henry · Post by **The real Henry** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:39 pm

1. a Hat block is the thing a hat body is put on to give it it's shape( the way your Akubra looked when it came out of the box). Usually these blocks are #### expensive, but I made one myself for my Akubra and it worked fine!

2. I like the way the brim of the Indy-Borsalino at PeterBros. best!

http://www.petersbros.com/INDY_BORSALINO/index.html

Last Crusader · Post by **Last Crusader** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:25 pm

Hey Altern! Indy wears is hat in Raiders turned. This causes this little deformation of the brim. So if you turn your hat a bit (the bow tie more to the front) you will have the same shape of the brim. But you would have to re-shape the crown to the new center.

binkmeisterRick · Post by **binkmeisterRick** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:49 pm

True, the Cairo hat and after was turned, but it wasn't at the beginning of the movie, so technically, both are correct.

bink

Altern · Post by **Altern** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:00 pm

Ok, this explains that.

Thx for lighting things up, guys.

I'm gonna wait for Marc to open his AB european store now :p

Thanx again for all your nice inputs.