I recently helped a fellow C.O.W re-bash his DP fur-felt. I personally, find the DP Fur-Felt Fedora as a very capable hat. I love it. Therefore, I shall help out a fellow DP owner.
Here's a link to pics of my Fedora.
viewtopic.php?t=29098
and here's the step by step process on how to re-bash your DP Fedora
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Hey I'll absolutely help you out !!! Just a question, is it a fur felt, right?
Cause if it's a wool, we've got a whole different ball game going on
As far as how I did it, You don't really nothing more than water and your hands.
1st, You need to make the hat into an "open crown" form.
but.... the Dorfmans already come with that ugly telescope shape and that horrible pinch in the front.
So, go to your facet and get your hand drenched in water ( don't be afraid to have a lot of water, the more, the better) Now, pop the telescope and the pinch out and start wetting the entire areas that have the grooves. Place your other hand (don't wet the inside of the hat) inside the hat and start pressing every out. Remove every groove. Apply water on the spots that you feel needs it.
In other words, make your hat look round "open crown". Now you'll probably notice by now that once you apply a little water on hat and press everything out, the hat is pretty easy to manipulate.
2nd, So now that you've achieve an "Open Crown" look let it dry for a couple minutes. 15 minutes will do. This way the Fur Felt can begin to memorize it's new shape and won't fall back to it's original bash. If your a little anxious, you can use a blow dryer, you'll get the same results but the felt could come out with a little discoloring ( then again, it'll give it an aged felt look)
3rd, the bash. Look up pictures of Indy's Fedora. The ones you need right now are any that show the top of indy's hat.
Your looking for something like this.
Now, your hat is still in "Open Crown", so apply water to the top of the hat. To achieve the dent on the top like the picture, start pressing down on the top of the hat. It's that simple but, you don't need to embed it all the way in. Keep it very light because the dorfmans are actually "crown-wise" smaller than an HJ or AB. so if you press way to deep, you'll have a
weird looking hat. Trust me. Apply water where ever you need.
4th, Let the hat dry by it's self for a about 10 minutes. Again, this will help the Fur Felt memorize it's new shape.
5th, Figure out what sort of bash you want to give your hat. Raiders, Temple, Crusade, or Skull. Raiders is the easiest. Look up some pictures of Indy's Fedora to figure out the shape of it's bash. After figuring out what bash you want to try out, go put the hat on and look in the mirror.
Try to visually remember where your going to start the pinch and take it off.
Apply water to the areas your going to Pinch the crown at the front and start manipulating it to your favor. Look at my pictures as a reference if you'd like. You'll notice how simple it is once you start bashing.
Now in any case where your not satisfied with the look, you can always
apply water and re-do it again. That the beauty of Fur-Felt Fedoras.
6th, After your done and completely satisfied with the results, place your hat on your hatstand or at the edge of a chair an let it dry. For best results, leave to dry all day. Do NOT blow dry it.
Okay, I Really really really hope this helped you. If anything gets you stuck, I check C.O.W everyday, just message me again and I'll gladly help.
Alrighty, Fortune And Glory
-IndyFalco
