Club Obi Wan

Bonjour.
I need advice from experts. I bought my HJ Poet from Todd about 8 months ago, and I love the thing. My problem with it is that the way it's styled (by me), it's fairly inaccurate to the screen used hat. Well, it's similar, but it converges.



I'm thoroughly frustrated, shouldn't it look more like this? (photoshopped)




Other angles:
http://www.mish87.com/random/hjleft.jpg
http://www.mish87.com/random/hjback.jpg
http://www.mish87.com/random/hjright.jpg

What's your opinion? How screenaccurate is it?

I thought maybe I could have it reblocked and then reshaped by someone who knows what they're doing. I wonder if Magnoli would reblock/reshape it for me.

It's driving me nuts.

mufflowne, my friend, i have travelled down this road already.

todd's hj will get you a beautiful tod or lc hat but will never get you an accurate raiders hat....there's just not enough meat in the crown to pull it off. the best one i've seen is aries cannon's hj, and i have no idea how he managed to get a close raiders bash into it. it was very nice though, but compared to an ab, it does fall quite far from the mark.

the hj can be manipulated to get you a bang on brim shape but the crown just won't work in my experience. if it were a size larger than your head, steve could perhaps work his magic and put it on your correct-sized-hat block and use some of the excess "meat" to form the larger crown. i had this done with one of my hj's but it was too close to my actual hat size and came no where near the look that my ab's give me.

my opinion is to be happy for what it is. an hj. she's a good gentleman's hat and quite comfortable to wear. it can be played with to give you a close enough raiders looks....but if that close enough isn't good enough, buy an ab or an akubra to get you the crown you want. my .02, not everyone elses.......

I don't think your problem has anything to do with your skills. The HJ is a tapered hat, and takes quite a bit get it to look right... if at all. My advice is to go with your gut and get it reblocked. I don't think Magnoli does blocking, but there's Steve, aka Fedora aka AB; the ultimate Indy block, but also a very busy guy. Also, Jimmy Pierce has a pretty good Indy block that I'm quite fond of. Both would gladly bash the hat after the reblock, too. Both are great gents and know what they are doing. There are others, but these are the ones I'm familiar with personally.
Chewie

What he said, except the AB is the most screen accurate that you can get, period.



Whoopsi, Chewie slipped a post in there while I was typing. I was referring to Indiana G's post.

Thanks guys. I'm gonna try contact Steve and ask.

I only discovered COW after I bought the HJ. Now I regret it, cause I would've bought an AB and would've even saved some moneys.

Send it to Steve Delk for a reblock. You won't be sorry.

per my initial post, be wearry of the adventurebilt re-block. it won't get you the same hat as an AB in your size primarily due to the fact that there's not enough material to do so. it all depends on what you're going for.

i thought that if i reblocked one of my hj's, it would turn out like an AB but unfortunately it did not.

Not that I am trying to speak for Steve, but I seem to remember that he said something about not reblocking modern HJs due to their perforated brim break making the possibility of having the crown in one hand and the brim in the other altogether too great. I thought he would only reblock HJs if they were the ones he had made for Magnoli.

To clear up any confusion about the Magnoli HJ that I do. I now get the hat in parts, unassmebled, and reblock them and put them together. I had to send a sample in to get HJs approval, before they would send me unfinished hats. So, what I have now does not have the perforated line created by the factory sewing machine. This makes it alot easier to reblock.

I would send that HJ to Jimmy. I am rather snowed under currently, and the lead times would be too long to wait for a reblock. Plus, once an HJ shrinks, it is almost impossible for me to get a decent crown height with the perforated stitch line at the brim break. You just can't pull it hard enough to stretch it. Regards, Fedora

here's a comparison of what steve could do with a todd's hj.

firstly, the todd's hj bashed as a tod village fed. pull out the dents a tadd and curl the sides up a little more and you can get a nice lc out of her:



another todd's hj reblocked by steve. the sides are more straight now but there's just not enough felt there to hold a nice tight front pinch. also, you cannot get the nice deep center dent on the top that you see in rotla:



and finally, what a raiders hat is suppose to look like (sorry if it's too dark). nice tight front pinch, deep center dent and for added sa, a cinched ribbon to get you the nice channel on the right side:



hopefully you can see how much more robust the crown is on an ab. tone is right, the hj's are very soft and hard to keep in a stovepipe unless you get some stiffener-in-er

and btw, i asked steve to reblock my hj without the fear of ripping her. if he did, i wouldn't of held it against him and i was the one taking all the risk....after letting him know that i wouldn't hold it against him if he wrecked it, he still worried and sweat bullets doing it....you gotta love him for that

Aeris - Man you have some great looking lids! You can get a great raiders bash out of any hat from the looks of it.

I'm guessing the middle one is the HJ...unless the question was rhetorical then never mind.

I think the one on the upper far left is an HJ.

Nah, I'm just glad you're gonna be there.

Tone, would you please stop looking so freakin' cool in your pictures!!! Your hats are probably the best on this forum.

I wasn't going to throw it out anyway haha.
But thanks of many good opinions.
I'm fine with a lot of stiffener, as long as it looks somewhat near SA.
It bums me out that it doesn't hold the stovepipe by design as it should.
I seem to reacall that the original hat block for raiders was lost and the hats were manufactured in brazil. If so, then the original original poet could've held the shape, right?

Looks like I'll be buying me an AB this fall.

We're not at war, Indiana G. I've always enjoyed your spirit of the fed pursuit, sir.

....me going to war with you would be like me going up against _, peter, and todd on the leather jacket.....no thanks! i've always enjoyed seeing the bashes that both you and gcr come up with.

god almighty, i never knew an hj can do that straight from todd's. thats not fair using magic AC...you ain't playing by the rules!

you've inspired me to go tinker with my old HJ.....i'll see if i can use some tarot cards and a ouija board to help me as well.

cheers my friend.

Sorry Aeris, it's not that I don't see it not holding a raiders shape as much as not holding a raiders shape for more than a day.

I really doubt they reblocked the shape on the set everytime they were shooting a new scene.

Another speculation I heard was from Todd, which is that smaller sized HJs hold the shape up better than larger, but my size isn't much larger than HF's.

Now, HF was 7 1/4 size, but was that US or UK?
My hat is UK 7 1/4 ; US 7 3/8.

A stupid question: Who's Jimmy?

It has to be possible, judging at least by the pics on Todd's website.
http://www.toddscostumes.com/indy/HJ%20 ... fedora.htm

Chewbacca Jones wrote:...Also, Jimmy Pierce has a pretty good Indy block that I'm quite fond of...

Direct quote from earlier in the thread

Sorry, it's been a long day and it's late.

Is there any other way to contact him other than through COW? I can't seem to find any info anywhere.

thank you.[/quote]

Now, HF was 7 1/4 size, but was that US or UK?
My hat is UK 7 1/4 ; US 7 3/8.

Put it this way. A 22 7/8 is tight on Ford's head.

And Tone amazes me with his creasing skills. He and Pagey are the best I have seen. Fedora

That is wierd. I have had Todd's HJ for about a year and a half or more and it looks exactly the same as the day I got it. He DID bash it himself, but it holds the Raiders look quite well.

Aeris_Canon wrote: DJD, can you check under your ribbon and show us a shot of those stitch marks when you get a chance?

Will do

prairiejones wrote:Tone, would you please stop looking so freakin' cool in your pictures!!! Your hats are probably the best on this forum.

Tone, Tone, Tone. Canon, Canon, Canon. It is always about Aeris and his hats.

Seriously Aeris, as you know I hold your hat shaping skills in the highest regard. Now that this thread is truly off track, do you have any suggestions (shaping wise, of course), other than your bashing tutorial, and occasionally sitting on the derby?

Sincerely,

djd wrote:

Aeris_Canon wrote: DJD, can you check under your ribbon and show us a shot of those stitch marks when you get a chance?

Will do

Mmmm. Not easy to photograph... By lifting the hat band inside I can see that it's hand stitched onto the hat. There's no line of machine made holes just as Steve says.

Hey mufflowne heres a pic of my HJ, I bought of a member 3 yrs ago. It's not from Todd, actully not sure where the member bought it. Still nice and straight, but then I make sure it doesn't go out in the rain.
Fedora reblocked it to the Streets of Ciro for me, so if you send it to him he might be able to help you, But first contact him, he's busy as all get out and you might have a long wait. But he does nice work.

http://public.fotki.com/IndianaCroft/my ... tle_2.html

Croft

That's nice Croft! Good shape.

Fedora wrote:

Now, HF was 7 1/4 size, but was that US or UK?
My hat is UK 7 1/4 ; US 7 3/8.

Put it this way. A 22 7/8 is tight on Ford's head.

And Tone amazes me with his creasing skills. He and Pagey are the best I have seen. Fedora

HEY!!!!!

HEY!!!!!

I always forget at least one guy. I forgot 3M$ too. And probably another or so. Fedora

Aeris_Canon wrote:As a matter of fact the Tutorial's coming down (it's Whiskeyman's, btw.)

Has anyone seen Whiskyman's Tutorial? Or, know if it is still available/up? If not, can it be found?

(Or, is this an instance of a change in name?)


Sincerely,

It's at the end of the FAQ sticky at the top of the Fedora section. However, the picture links are no longer valid, which means that Pagey/Whiskyman broke the links by removing them from where they were originally being linked from.

binkmeisterRick wrote:It's at the end of the FAQ sticky at the top of the Fedora section. However, the picture links are no longer valid, which means that Pagey/Whiskyman broke the links by removing them from where they were originally being linked from.

Bink:

Thanks. I know about Pagey's "disowning" the Tutorial. I was looking for the extra side shaping video clip which Canon linked to the basic work.

From my read of the threads, Pagey deserved his retirement/anonymity.

Sincerely,

Here is a link to my, somewhat, tongue-in-cheek version of the Pagey bash. The pics aren't as detailed, but you can get the idea.

viewtopic.php?t=13911&highlight=pagey+bash

prairiejones wrote:Here is a link to my, somewhat, tongue-in-cheek version of the Pagey bash. The pics aren't as detailed, but you can get the idea. viewtopic.php?t=13911&highlight=pagey+bash

Prairie:

Of course, great bashing job. Appreciate the link. I am curious as to how you are forming and defining the "side dents."

Sincerely,

If you look at the forth picture in that link, my thumb is on the outside, and my my other hand is on the inside. I am pushing in with the thumb and squeezing around it from the inside. This is where , as Pagey states, you can be quite rough. Push in hard and form that back corner of the bash.
Hope that helps.

prairiejones wrote:If you look at the forth picture in that link, my thumb is on the outside, and my my other hand is on the inside. * * * Hope that helps.

It does, and it has. Thanks.

Sincerely,

mufflowne,
I noticed the hat on eBay. You should post a link to it in the Cairo Bazaar as well. Just a suggestion.

Ron