I received the following picture from one of my earliest customers of one of my earliest hat and I thought I'd share with you.
He had the hat for round about a year now and has truly given more abuse to it, than most people would ever give their hats within a lifetime. It's been soaked countless time, sat on, worn extremely much in direct sunlight, beaten, dusted and basicly not been cared about at all, except that it hasn't been grapped at the pinch.
Some weeks ago, I got the hat back for a complete refurb and I was truly amazed when I pulled it out of the box. First impression: boy, this hat smells as if... "use your imagination"
The second impression: this gotta be the softest AB-Dlx. EVER and finally: oh man, this hat just screams Indy.Since it hadn't gone throught the preaging process, I stripped it down completely, cleaned the felt, reblocked it and aged it. The surface is still smooth as a babies behind, so there was no need to re-pounce it. NO FUZZYNESS AT ALL!!! Afterwards, I sew in the original sweatband, ribbon and liner (after re-doing the double bow, because my bows have improved over time) and sent it back.
Of course the first thing the owner had to do was to soak it and beat the excrementum out of it again... and this is how it looks today:
Even though it would take QUITE a while with normal wear and tear, I think the felt has faded into a nice and accurate color (remember it's hit by direct sunlight in this picture).
Here's another picture inside:
Regards,
Marc
