Club Obi Wan

I just finished this one up. A Raiders HJ. I have not seen many pics of Magnoli's hats posted here, so I thought I would throw this one out there. Now, granted, this felt is so soft, that I doubt it looks like this when the customer gets it. Hopefully he will have the skills to put the creases back in. I dirtied this one up a bit, with Fuller's Earth.

I had to hold this one up to get a pic since sitting it on the brim would not work for a side shot, due to the felt being so soft.













Notice how you can see the felt sag in the last pic. On the left side as viewed. With a bit of wear, this one should look really good. Fedora

beautiful work as usual steve!!! that HJ felt has a beautiful floppiness to her, but it sacrifices its stability.

for my next hat, i'm going to try to do a really floppy one which means i'm going to use the 'water blocking' technique you informed me of. i realized that with that technique, it should also do a heck of a job of boiling away alot of the stiffener.

i want to make one that's almost 'foldable'

Wauw - that's so nice - love it!

that HJ felt has a beautiful floppiness to her, but it sacrifices its stability.

Yes. And a pain to work with, I might add. The Optimos that several here bought years ago were almost this soft, and a leaf would put a dent in them. But for capturing the Raiders look, this soft felt is really needed.

I have an HJ from Todd that I reblocked, and put my sweat in. It is soft too, and very, very comfortable to wear. I had to finally reblock it awhile back, and it lost some crown height. Now, my head hits the top of the crease, if I tug it down in a wind. But, still, a very nice looking Indy fedora.

HJ needs to change their sweatband material. That cowhide just doesn't make a good sweatband. Too thick. I had to install one of my own sweats in an HJ I made last week. I included the HJ sweatband in with the hat though. The reeding tape would tear when I tried to sew it back in!!! So, the stitch would just pull through the plastic! This one here, was ok though. I could use the HJ sweat.

So, if anyone gets one with my sweat in it, it was not my fault!!! I do try and include the bad sweatband with these so they owner has it. Fedora

Wow, beautiful as ever, Steve. I always like seeing pics of your work because it's just pure art. And just so you know, if I ever order a Magnoli HJ, I have no problem with you using one of your own sweatbands - in fact, I might even prefer it. -M

I'm sure that I could crease the hat just by breathing on it. That is one beautiful looking fedora, Fedora. I have always loved the way that rabbit looks...you can't get that floppiness out of a beaver hat, at least that I've seen. But I'd rather sacrifice some floppiness for a more durable beaver felt.

Dave

That's a BEAUTY !!!

you can't get that floppiness out of a beaver hat,

Not to this degree. The beaver felt, even with no stiffener, is too dense to be this floppy. But, beaver will soften up real nice over time. That's the trade off with the Raiders fedora. TLC and TOD fedoras were stiffer rabbit felts. I got a lightweight body in pure beaver a couple years ago, and it was pretty darn floppy, but almost paper thin. That would be the closest pure beaver could ever come, to the felt used in the Raiders fedora.

Our goal was to use durable felt, and sometimes durable isn't accurate, so that's the trade off. A hat should be tough, or that is our opinion. For those that like the lesser quality felts, there are plenty out there to purchase. And alot more than we used to have. It's a buyers market these days. Fedora

Thats precisely why I followed that statement saying I will always sacrifice some floppiness for durability. I'd rather have a hat that I can give to my grandchildren than have a hat that will crumple on itself if you look at it. I'm with you, Steve.

Dave

Having read - and agreeing with - what you just wrote, can I STILL just say:
As a guy who ordered a Magnoli HJ back on July 2nd can I just tell you that even the SLIGHT possibility that my "STEVE DELKED" HJ might look even a little like that gorgeous lid at the top of the page make me...
ENORMOUSLY happy...

Beautiful looking hat, Steve!

Oh my god -
if mine turns out anything like that I'll be elated!!!
Actually - could that one be mine??

Great looking hat Steve!

Steve, hate to bring this in here but I sent you an e-mail regarding my AB order and was wondering if you got it. Name on it is "Darren"