Club Obi Wan

I have an old Miller I bought about 12 years ago, and would have a lot of life left in it if it weren't for the darn hole wore through it from having the front pinch too sharp. It's big enough for me to put the end of my little finger through it. The rest of the hat is in great shape. Any ideas? I can't be the only one who's had this problem.

Weston

Treasure of the Sierra Madre......

let's have a look on your hat,eh?




CJ

I will post some pics as soon as the batteries are recharged. Stay tuned!

Weston

Piker's right. You've got yourself a nice Bogey hat now (though, not the one most people would think of). Maybe you could glue the insides of the felt together. There's not much you can do for a hole, so it's not like you'd be ruining the hat - just permanently creasing it.

I have the same problem with one of my hats. Here's an idea. Take some light sand paper and sand around the brim a little till you get a small pile of felt. Now you have some felt to make a patch, but I haven't figured out the best way to apply it. Maybe the simplest thing would be to get a piece of tape and stick it to the underside of the hole and sort of sprinkle the loose felt till it covers the hole. I dunno. Any other ideas??

Duct-Tape?

Or be Bogey.

Fellow Etlantan's, everywhere.

Here are a couple pics of the hat. As you can see, it's a pretty good skylight.



[/img]

You can see, the rest of the hat has held up extremely well over the years. But, it leaks a little.

Weston

In all honesty, I'd say this is the right time to give the hat to the kids and order a replacement. It does look like a fantastic hat, otherwise, though.

there must be something you could do about that. Like dakota said, you can make a patch or something. If you could get a teeny, tiny piece of felt that fits in the hole. use a bit glue on the edges and jam it in there. but be gentle.

or, put the little piece of felt that fits the hole. glue(or sew) the felt on a small piece of a rag or something(wich should be a little bigger than the felt piece), then you push the feltpiece through the hole from the inside of the hat so that it fits, then you glue the edges of the rag-piece to the inside of the hat.

where to get the felt-piece i dont know.

I think it'd be easier to make a hat, yourself, than patch the hole. I don't mean to be a naysayer. If you like the Sierra Madre look (or need a hat for yardwork) than this is definitely a keeper. I still think its Indy days are over.

Mark Brody wrote:I think it'd be easier to make a hat, yourself, than patch the hole.

true, but it would be fun to try and see if something actually works

I might try that patch idea. I've toyed with that thought before, and I do have another fedora that is even farther gone than this that could provide the patch.

Weston

I guess if we could find a way to patch it, that could save COW members hundreds of dollars in new hats...

If I were to try any of the suggestions, it'd be Dakota Ellison's.

That's why I never hold my hats by the pinch.

IndyFrench wrote:That's why I never hold my hats by the pinch.

same here

You know French, I've learned alot about taking good care of felt hats since I got this one. I shudder to think of how many good hats I've utterly ruined by my ignorance. This happened by continuously changing the shape as my tasted ran from the Raiders look, to ToD, to LC, and then back again. I think the felt eventually just broke down, like a piece of wire that you bend back and forth until it separates. The lesson I learned is; settle on a style and leave it alone, save the re-block and bashing for when it is in need of it, don't do it on a whim.

Weston

Well, I'll say one thing for you Weston - At least you had a hat survive long enough to have a hole worn in it!

Mine never got to that stage because they always shorted out LONG before that - taper, discoloration, shrinkage - All horrible hats...Until the Adventurebilt.

Well done hanging onto that hat for so very long.

You could just tell people it's a bullet hole...

Dean

Or that when you fell into the Well of Souls the sheet of glass was gone, taken by Indy to mess with whoever tried looking for the Ark after him, and that the hungry hungry cobra spit some venom and melted that part of your fedora. It sounds a little farfetched but I would believe it! Boy, that hat really withstood alot Wested!

Dave

ddibling wrote:You could just tell people it's a bullet hole...

Dean

Yeah, that could cover a LOT of explanations!

I have a hat which had a small hole in the felt, but nothing as drastic as yours. In my case, I reblocked it, but put hole at the back of the hat, no longer at the front. Since the hole was small, I took some fabric tape to the inside of the hole and that's kept it in place. The important thing was that it was no longer stressed at the front pinch.

In your case, since the hole is so big, you can try experiementing with this. Worst case scenario you still have a hole, best case, you end up with a fix. I'd see if I could find a patch of felt at a craft store or anywhere that matches or comes close to the color of your hat. I'd use that to make a patch to go behind the hole, using a cloth tape or the like to keep it all in place. You might be able to use some fabric glue to "blend" the hole and the patch together. I've heard the idea of shaving areas of your hat to try to cover a hole, but I only see that working for extremely tiny holes in felt.

Now since it's a sizeable hole, I don't think you'll be able to hide it completely, but it could help keep it from getting any bigger. And I think it still looks good, even though it's got a hole in it. Keep it as a yard hat or a good beater. Even so, 12 years is a good life for a modern hat that's been well worn.

I think that hat looks great. To me it says "I have seen a few miles of rough country road, and I'm still here". Much like Indy.

I had an akubra that wore through in the same spot. Since I was in grad school and couldn't afford a new hat, I opened the crown and used a heat adhesive (iron on) patch. I then reblocked the hat on a home made block giving it a good turn. This moved the hole form fron and center to hidden on the side of the pinch. The results lasted another 3 years of constant field use.

Alright guys, I went with the patch option today. I think I could still tweak it a bit to make it even better, but you gotta know when to walk away from it and let it be what it's going to be. The hole is patched, slightly turned, and though the scar can be seen, I don't think it would jump out at you if you didn't know where to look for it. Have a look.

[img][img]http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8590/1006637zs7.jpg[/img]

Here's what it looks like on my scruffy looking carcass.

[img][img]http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9842/1006633uo2.jpg[/img]

It looks like its been well traveled and roughed up a few times (the fedora, not my head necessarily, though I will leave that to you to decide!) and it nails the ToD look in most of the scenes I want to emulate. The taper does not bother me at all, I think it is necessary in a ToD hat. What do you think?

Weston[/img]

hey, that's really good. cant hardly see where the hole was. How did you do it? photoshop?

yeah. the hat looks TOD'ish.

Congrats on job well done!:)


high regards


CJ

Nice work! I wouldn't have thought that possible.

Good job, had to look for the patch in the hat to find it.

Thanks! this turned out better than I had any right t expect. The ideas came from you guys in this thread. First, I soaked the crown. Then, I took an old wool felt hat that had a huge brim and cut off enough for a small square patch. I thinned it down with a razor blade and glued it to the inside of the hat with a strong, flexible leather glue. Then, I took a piece of sandpaper and ran it around the inside of the crown until it had a small pile of felt an use that to fill the hole while the glue was still wet. Then I just blended the edges of the hole together with the felt filler with the handle of my knife until it was smooth. Done!

No photoshop here, that won't keep the rain out. But I'm glad you think it looks that good!

I really appreciate the suggestions you guys came up with. They were all sound, and saved this hat. Now it just looks worn, not worn out.

Thanks again!

Weston

Weston wrote:Thanks! this turned out better than I had any right t expect. The ideas came from you guys in this thread. First, I soaked the crown. Then, I took an old wool felt hat that had a huge brim and cut off enough for a small square patch. I thinned it down with a razor blade and glued it to the inside of the hat with a strong, flexible leather glue. Then, I took a piece of sandpaper and ran it around the inside of the crown until it had a small pile of felt an use that to fill the hole while the glue was still wet. Then I just blended the edges of the hole together with the felt filler with the handle of my knife until it was smooth. Done!

No photoshop here, that won't keep the rain out. But I'm glad you think it looks that good!

I really appreciate the suggestions you guys came up with. They were all sound, and saved this hat. Now it just looks worn, not worn out.

Thanks again!

Weston

So, when are you going to offer your hat repair skills for a price to the rest of us? :idea:

Piker wrote: So, when are you going to offer your hat repair skills for a price to the rest of us? :idea:

I don't know about that Piker. This turned out pretty good, but if I had someone elses hat, the best I could promise is not to make it worse, and I could hardly charge anyone for that. This was a collaborative effort, and everyone who posted a suggestion on this thread deserves some credit for the outcome.

Weston

And in 4 years we might all be singing your praises as a cleaner, reblocker, refurber of our lids...... Stranger things have happened.

That hat is a big keeper! Looks really nice and the patch job is A+. I would not give up an old broken in hat like that, unless of course it's a 7 1/4 and you want to sell it to me!

Nice patch job! I was going to suggest getting it re-blocked & turned 90 degrees. Then have vents added where the hole is, now on the side, but you did a great job so never mind.

Cheers!

Dan

wow that is a darn good looking patch job on that hat

That looks great !! Im glad that worked out for ya !!