Club Obi Wan

Hey all,

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

Marc, did you take a picture of the hat BEFORE you refurbished it? I'd be interested to see what one of your hats looks like after such use before it goes through a reblocking, etc.

Sorry Bink, I forgot...

It had a little front to back taper - not much, but it was there. Considering the amount of abuse, I was very happy how it looked.

Regards,

Marc

Here is the hat shortly before sending it for the reblock.



Cheers,
G-MANN

Thanks, guys! It's just nice to see how hats hold up before their makeover. Still, your hat still looks pretty darn good without the reblock, G-MANN!

Happy to hear that these hats gets softer in time! Mine is still as stiff as a rock but I don't have the heart of sitting on it or do anything more than wear it... darn Marc and his beautiful super-quality hats!

G-MANN wrote:Here is the hat shortly before sending it for the reblock.



Cheers,
G-MANN

It doesn't look like it needs one even in that picture. Good stuff...

Mine is still as stiff as a rock

I have to admit that the first batch of rawbodies (long sold out) had a rather stiff brim, but rock hard...?

Just stop babying it Erri, that's all it takes. You don't have to sit or stomp on it, but just WEAR the "you know what" out of it. That'll do

Thanks for sharing the picture John!

Regards,

Marc

Marc wrote:Since it hadn't gone throught the preaging process...

Marc, can you explain what the 'preaging process' is?

Thanks, KC

He's told us it was proprietary. Fedora does the same thing on his AB's.

Regards! Michaelson

Marc wrote:

Mine is still as stiff as a rock

I have to admit that the first batch of rawbodies (long sold out) had a rather stiff brim, but rock hard...?

I think when you'll cut the extra width the brim will be much less stiff.
I've been waiting for this before wearing the ... you know what... out of it

Marc, can you explain what the 'preaging process' is?

It's a technique I developed after talking to several old time hatters and felters. I later on called back and explained my theories and was told that this seemed like a great idea to make the felt more resistent to taper and shrinkage. I shared this technique with Steve and we've been using it since September or October last year on our hats. The socalled "dog hat" from Steve pretty much set the advantages in stone: even after several months outside 24/7 the hat still hadn't developed any taper.

Regards,

Marc