Club Obi Wan

Well, I got my Jimmy Pierce Indy hat the other day. I have to tell you, I had the most horrible difficulty bashing the hat. I just could NOT get anything to work. No way I was getting a center crease bash. I tried and tried. Just too tapered, not enough "fullness", etc. Finally, I decided that there was just no way I could get an Indy bash out of it, and I put in a teardrop crown, which it popped into very easily.

Well, a couple of days later, I thought "I'll give it one last shot". I popped out the teardrop and set in at it again. First thing I (finally) figured out was that I was bashing too deep...not leaving the overall crown height high enough. I reworked the front pinch, which brought the height up and started over. Well that helped. After a lot more work with my fingers, I decided I needed something a bit larger than my thumb to push up and out on the "humps", so I went out and made myself a hat pusher out of wood a bit larger than my thumb with a larger radius at the top and rounded the edges. Shazaam, it worked pretty durn good, though I found that holding the hat while mashing up with this little gizmo was tricky...

Anyway, by golly, I was finally making progress. The taper was disappearing (and more important, not reappearing somewhere else!). I FINALLY got something that I am satisfied with. I have very little taper showing when you look at the hat front dead on. When you turn the hat slightly left or right, the side turning toward you actually straightens out a bit more. The visible taper is caused by the front pinches. I think I can maybe work that out later.

I don't have photos right now, but will probably tomorrow. At the moment, the hat is drying and "setting". To bash the hat, I soaked the @#$% out of it. I have also steamed it a bit here and there, and will steam some spots and the brim tomorrow after it dries out to tweak it a bit more.

The felt is soft, which I am not used to, but I can live with it all right. I'll tell ya, it has to be pretty tough, because after several soakings with water, steam, and mashing and pushing the @#$% out of it, it shows no signs whatsoever of shrinking (would that I could have said the same for my Miller hat...). I think it's going to make a great everyday work hat (and yes, I do wear a hat most everyday working outside in a lumberyard...it's a straw hat right now, though!).

So, after initial disappointment, I can finally say I am really happy with the hat! If I had bashed it properly to begin with, that would have avoided a lot of aggravation!

On every hat I've done so far, it's been pretty hard to do a center crease bash and keep the sides from tapering in horribly and looking like a traffic cone. I would say that it is not impossible, but for those not confident in their abilities, I would recommend getting the hatter to shape it for you. You should probably eventually do one yourself, as it is a "useful skill", but it can be a daunting task sometimes. Just prepare yourself, think ahead, and do it logically, and you can do it.

Sorry to hear the hat was so stubborn for you. I'm glad its finally starting to shape up though. Thats really strange you had to use so much wetness, as mine bashed right into place completely dry. What size hat did you get out of curiosity? Did you go with the standard 5 1/2'' crown? I did notice that my center dent seemed most comfortable being not very deep at all. I find I commonly get an undesirable shape if I make the side dents too straight up and down boxy. The diagonal is a very important aspect of the side dents that often gets overlooked going for the boxy shape. Anyway, the JPD continues to grow on me positively. I just love this hat!

Brian

It's still going to take me quite a bit more work, but I think I can come up with something presentable.

The hat as it came, was fairly well untapered on the sides, but there was plenty of taper front and back...particularly on the front, which doesn't help. My front pinch leans back more than I would like, but there's nothing I can do about that. I watch old movies and see all these magnificently untapered hats...I mean perfectly cylindrical all the way around, not just from certain angles. I want that!!! Anything less than utterly straight, and I feel like I'm doing an old Saturday Night Live sketch....

I found the felt very unresponsive. I've never been able to "dry bash" anything.

Yeah, I had a bit of front/back taper too open crowned, but I think thats part of the nature of the beast. It straightens up some when you put in the center dent in.

open:


bashed:


I think it introduces some taper too if the front pinch is pinched too far down towards the ribbon. Anyway, I hope you can get it looking how you want. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see some pictures!

Brian

I believe I pretty well have it down now. I have as much taper out of it as I can possibly get. The trick is to push the sides out where needed, drawing the material out of the center crease without collapsing it into a "cross dent". I wish I had more hands...

I have it almost matching my beloved gray hat. Almost, but not quite....I believe my gray hat might have a SLIGHTLY taller crown, which helps...at least for me with my tall head. My dimensions match one to the other in height....front, back, sides... but the gray one has a more shallow center dent that don't set on my head as this one does. This one has the 5 1/2" crown. I may be able to stand 5 3/4"... The brim is 2 3/4" all the way around. I have decided this is the perfect brim width for me.

It's too dark outside now for photos. I don't have a great camera and it is very difficult to take photos inside. I'll try to get some up tomorrow.

;0

You have it going on now Fatdutchman.... You finally got a great fitting jacket pegged, and now a nice JPD to add to the collection.

Let's see that bash....

All right, here we go. First off, I'm at the mercy of my little camera. Holding it at arm's length gives you a kind of fish eye effect, being as it is so close, which makes everything taper away from the center, so in these photos, the hat is not as tapered as it may at first appear.

In the fading light, and nothing good to prop the camera up on, and using the timer, this is probably the best head-on shot of the hat.


Here's the side...(obviously..)





-

Who's scruffy lookin'?


I like the hat. It looks good. I will wear it with pride. I do wonder though, if it might look a tad small for my head (though it fits me perfectly), given my large face and apparently relatively narrow noggin (by the way, I just looked through my 1989 High School annual and my face is not nearly as large as it was then!!). Of course, I am in need of a haircut, and without all that hair sticking out the back of my head beneath the hat, my head will look smaller and the hat bigger. I wonder if a good course of action would be for me to get a hat one size too large, and foam that sucker up to fit. I have a hat here that is just a bit too big, but it looks real good on me...more in proportion. My hat size is only 7 1/4 so it's not like I have a huge head or anything.

IMHO, the hat is not wide enough for your facial shape. But it is only an opinion. If I were you, the next hat I bought, I would go with a 7 3/8 body and have the hatter drum the 7 1/4 sweat into the oversized hat. Or have him use a round oval instead of a regular oval, and use a 7 1/4 body. Fitting hats to heads is sometimes a trial and error deal when you do it remotely without haveing the hatter close by. But once you find what looks good on you, you will then know the specs needed for future hats. But the hat looks good to me otherwise. Fedora

I second that...looks a little small. It has a nice contour to it though.

Well, it may look small because he's not wearing it down very far around the back of his head. FDM, is that because that's how you like to wear it, or that's as far as it'll go?

Fedora wrote:If I were you, the next hat I bought, I would go with a 7 3/8 body and have the hatter drum the 7 1/4 sweat into the oversized hat.

Fedora:

Will "drumming" the sweat into a larger crown create a more pronounced "reverse taper," or "mushroom" appearance?

Sincerely

Yeah, Fedora, do that on my pending AB!



That's where I wear a hat, and yes, that is also as far down as it will go. It's less than an inch from the top of my ears...how much farther down "should" it go?

Will "drumming" the sweat into a larger crown create a more pronounced "reverse taper," or "mushroom" appearance?

Yeah it should help out. You can then cinch the ribbon really tight to compress the oversized hat to the correctly sized sweatband. This cinching will aid in the bulge on the back that many are fond of, ala SOC. Fedora

Well, it's sittin' cocked way back on my head in that picture...that don't count.

See the pictures above that one. The hat is about an inch at most away from the tops of my ears, and very close to my eyebrows. If the hat were any lower on my head, it would, out of necessity, have to be a teardrop crown! Do you all really wear your hats touching your ears???? I wouldn't be able to see!

It just looks like it's sitting high in the profile shot because the snap brim is still pulling up. I think it looks sharp.


JKL
Ron

Fedora wrote:IMHO, the hat is not wide enough for your facial shape. But it is only an opinion. But the hat looks good to me otherwise. Fedora

Agree, IMHO. The brim width looks good.

Sincerely

Another nice JPD. We will soon need a thread "Post your JPD's Here"

Well. What do ya' know? Read a little further, and.... There is a thread.

Of course, not to forget the "IMHO Thread."

Sincerely

and

a Dedicated Off Topic Hijacked Thread

Dedicated Questions that Have Been Asked 1,000,000 times thread.

Sorry

And a thread dedicated to those who point out such things.

All right, after a much needed haircut, a little more hat tweaking, and with a better camera perspective (though still not great photo quality)....



MUCH better looking, don't you think?

And come on, you know you love the shirt!

now i see the magnum pi - indy connection

the hat looks great fdm!!!

now i see the magnum pi - indy connection

Apparenly not the only one. Didn't Tom Selleck audition for the role of Indiana Jones???

tom sellek WAS indiana jones probably until a couple weeks before shooting....then higgins came in his ferari and sped him off to hawaii

And I used to wear a mustache....

Here's a question - have you thought about starting over with a new hat body?

Right now, I'm waitin' on THREE hats to come in....actually five, I have two relatively inexpensive straws coming too.