Club Obi Wan

............................http://www.raidershat.com/PIC_0157.AVI .................................... This Bushman is from the 90's, I'd guess. It's a size 58, or 7 1/4. The front pinch is 4 1/2 inches tall, so it's Raiders accurate in those respects. The ribbon is off a reg Fed. The bound edge is scissored off, the hat is turned, pork pied, pleated in the front pinch, the front of the crown transitioned into brim. I glued the front and back corners of the top dent in (the hat basicly can't lose it's shape now, which rules) , not with hot glue this time, but with Permatex Ultra Black silicone glue. It takes hours to dry. I clamped it very loosely with a small c-clamp supported on a vcr tape. Regular silicone doesn't stick well enough. Ultra Black Silicone works a lot better than hot glue, just don't get any on the outside of the hat. The liner and sweat are still in it, although both were partially removed to do the mods. It's a good fit stock, but I stuffed a little folded napkin in the sweat behind my ears to try and get my headshape more like Ford's. ...The brim on a Bushman is pretty flat with the curl at the edges. Once the brim is trimmed, there's not much curl left. It kind of seems to me the brim should have more curl, but, we see Ford curling the brim when he puts it on in the WACO biplane in the bonus DVD, and he curls the brim in the Raven in 'Great Movie Stunts amd Making of Raiders VHS. My 1972 unpounced HJ is too small for me, but the block seems to be similar to the Bushman's. I have 2 pre-Raiders HJ's and the felt quality is stupendous, and what I would expect to see in the Raiders hat. The Bushman's felt seems a little too crude, but maybe an older one would be a better quality. On the other hand, the Bushman has a narrow sweat, as the Vic Armstrong Raiders hat is reported to have, and, the Bushman has a thick first inch of felt at the base of the crown, which seems to show though on the Raiders hat. My HJ's have wide sweats, and no extra thickness at the base of the crown. Maybe I just need to find the right HJ. Or.. is this Bushman basicly IT?

I especially like the discussions of Maytag and cocktail hour in the background. Thou, it's a mighty fine hat you got there. It always impresses me the length you go to in order to achieve your hat's look.

Loved that video when Aeris used it in his almagam tutorial, once found through "google." Sadly, now lost to the world.

Sincerely,