Club Obi Wan

Yesterday I made a fresh (smaller) 360 stovepipe block and reblocked my PBBM. A total stovepipe makes a better Raiders hat in my opinion, as long as it's a tight fit. Finally, some decent back tilt! The felt is floppy after the reblock. This hat is drying on another 360 stovepipe block now, because i'm experementing. So this hat only existed for an hour and a half. (I made the block out of styrofoam, and dried the hat on the block with a space heater set on low temp.)

Block some stiff felt, and Tonak soft felt on the same block and see if you can notice a difference. I want to see how the really soft felt responds to this shape. Especially the back when you drop the crease down low. Regards, Fedora

Oops, I saw that this hat is soft felt. I guess my felt must have been softer when I used the perfectly straight block on front and back. I ended up with the back reversing out, too much. Fedora

Yes, the Borsalino felt was never stiff, but now it's pretty floppy. I also pounced it down from about 1.7 to 1.4 mm thick a while back. I think the tighter fit keeps the back from reversing too much.

3thoubucks, can you take another pic ( like the middle one) with you head tiltup just a little bit.

That hat is on a different block right now, with the space heater drying it. I want to note, I didn't touch the hat between those two shots.

hey no big thing, just would have been nice to see it from that point of view.

Of course, the perfect stovepipe block shape will lend the reverse taper, and as I said, sometimes with soft felt, my experience was it gave the hat too much. I can get too much even with this block shape, to my eye.




If I drop the back down, here is what she looks like. Quite a bit of reverse taper, with no stovepipe shape. If I blocked this hat on a perfect stovepipe, it would be even more reverse taper showing.





The lesson here is, you can get it with even a slightly tapered block too. Fedora

I think the problem is your AB was supposed to look like the Raiders hat out of the box without the turn. Factor in the turn, and that changes everything. Here's my 360 stovepipe unturned - ........ Now, with the turn. A turned 360 stovepipe has a shorter top than an unturned one- therefore less reverse taper front and back.

3M$, check out this English block shape that just sold on ebay.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

3K, I am really liking that middle pic........looks like the top of HFs hat in the special features dvd where Spielberg pours water on Harrison and he looks down at the spill.........SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!

hey Fedora, wouldn't the seach for the " Hj Raiders block " ( that Ford's fedora was made ). wouldn't you need that same felt ( or felt used at the time) with your theory?

Someone here bought or was thinking about buying this block a couple years back.

Thanks Oklahoma

looks like erri and indy trying my look.

hey Fedora, wouldn't the seach for the " Hj Raiders block " ( that Ford's fedora was made ). wouldn't you need that same felt ( or felt used at the time) with your theory?

Yep. I think if you took a stiff felt body, and blocked it on the original Raiders block, it would not look like the film hat. The felt does not react the same, and you get a different look. It would taper if you creased it as deep as the film hat. Fedora

Even if you wind up with a hat block that doesn't have the EXACT shape, they make great hat stands. Set them up on a shelf and let them gather some dust and they will look great.

Just my $0.02

Everything that is old, is new again!

I'm gonna PM you here 3KB. You have been at it a good while and I want to test your now Theory, which back here in 2005-2006 was simply an hypothesis.

So, 2 1/2 years ago the Winston 360 was in existance for an hour and a half. I actually used the same block. I thought I threw it away. I flattened the top and sanded it a a little smaller for the new hat. Here's 2 pics from this thread. Looks like I made it too tall. I think I dropped it because the crown wasn't bulging over the ribbon, and I went to a biggger block to get some bulge- then there was too much reverse taper. Then I moved to way oversized Federations with stuffed sweats, then to Akubra Bushmen.