Club Obi Wan

Casually browsing The Fedora section of the forum I couldn't find any side by side comparison of the Akubra Federation and the AB Henry.

Since for Christmas I received a point and shoot digital camera, and my Henry arrived shortly after Christmas I decided to snap a few comparison shots of both my newly arrived Henry and my standard federation!



Beyond the obvious difference in the felts, the next most obvious difference are the bows:
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... ed_bow.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... ry_bow.jpg

Unbashed the crown heights seem very close, as I have them bashed the Federation appears slightly taller.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... yvfed4.jpg

On my noggin.
Federation - http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... edhead.jpg
Henry - http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... ryhead.jpg

The felt and color difference.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... ryvfed.jpg

Just for good measure.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... yvfed3.jpg

My layman's review of The Henry: Its a very nice hat, I've never owned a handmade hat, nor seen in person an AB/AB deluxe. The Henry really reminds me of my favorite vintage fedora I own, a near mint Brooks Brothers hat from the early 60's, the quality of the stitching and the ribbon are equal. It is considerably nicer then either of the standard Federations I own. That being said it has certainly made me appreciate my Federations more so, as they are very good hats for the price. My only caveat to that would be if you are on a budget, and you are saying to yourself, "I'm only going to purchase ONE Indy fedora" I would recommend saving a little longer and go for The Henry.

My only complaint with The Henry is when I received it the round piece of cardboard forming a tube the crown is protected in had left an impression on the brim, close to the brim break and seemed as if it was starting to form its own new brim break. However out of the box with some wear and brushing it has really not impacted the hat negatively in my opinion. Also I have done a CS bash on The Henry, retrospectively I think it will make a better Raiders hat if you are super concerned with how screen accurate your bash is. This isn't a complaint though, just an observation.

Alright, the end of my attempt to be helpful to prospective Henry buyers!

Looks wonderful - the felt of the Henry in particular looks amazing. And I agree with you - the Henry in general looks nicer - much richer color and you can tell it has a softer texture. -M

M_D Thank you very much for posting this my friend! It's a wonderful reference!
Regards!
-Alfonso

The Henry gets my vote. The color is simply beautiful and the pounce job is superior, though some of the finish is due to the beaver content. The bow work is definately better and it should by seeing how Marc really got on the factory about that. If in pictures the Henry looks that much better than a Federation, it looks much better in person.

Dave

p.s. I really like the crease you've put in the Federation. Very nice

I don't have a lot of hat knowledge, but I know that I like the hat on the left. I love that nice rich color.

If you brush the hat it will remove that mark left by the packaging.

How about other angels of it on your head? I'd like to see the Henry from front view while wearing it.

and how did you bash your fed like that? I've never seen such a nice bash.

Thanks for the comparison, this is good info. I think, however, a better comparison would be the Henry vs. the Fed IV Deluxe. The deluxe finish would be a little more comparable to the Henry's finish.

RaiderZee

Mighty_Draw, thanks for the comments. I think all of us who are still meditating on what hat to get, or perhaps those of us just getting the wind up to buy one, really appreciate the time you and others like you take to show us how you are experiencing your hats.

I was pretty sure I'd go for a Henry and was considering a Fed 4. I think I'm going to stick with the idea of getting a Henry. The extra effort in saving will be worth it.

Here are some more 'on my noggin' shots of the Henry, sorry no front shot these were just from what was on my camera.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... nhead3.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... nhead2.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... onhead.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/ ... nhead4.jpg

WhipDude, thanks for the compliments on the bash. That is the hats 3rd iteration. That being the case it had softened up considerably but my experience with the fed. is that you cant rebash it without the help of some water. I sprayed it with distilled water and just went at it and had open on my computer the references from Raiders I was trying to imitate and just went at it until it dried.

The Henry looks awesome

Mighty_Draw wrote:My only complaint with The Henry is when I received it the round piece of cardboard forming a tube the crown is protected in had left an impression on the brim, close to the brim break and seemed as if it was starting to form its own new brim break.
!

you got the point! yeah, it was the same for me. I think they should put some soft packing material, e.g. polystyrene, to avoid that

I like the Henry, really nice color and quality of felt. The photos make these features apparent. In all fairness, is this not somewhat of an apples to oranges comparison? The Henry is a beaver/rabbit blend. The Fed IV a rabbit/hare blend. The Fed IV Deluxe is still a good staple in the line of fedora offerings to fans.

Texan, I agree that the henry and fed IV standard are in in two different categories so far as felt and materials are concerned. My only comparison is from a monetary standpoint if you are on a budget and going to purchase just one Indy fedora (though honestly how many of us have just one!?) save your money and get The Henry.

Mighty_Draw wrote:Texan, I agree that the henry and fed IV standard are in in two different categories so far as felt and materials are concerned. My only comparison is from a monetary standpoint if you are on a budget and going to purchase just one Indy fedora (though honestly how many of us have just one!?) save your money and get The Henry.

I agree with this line of thought. If you are going to own just one hat. Make the best you can get. Be patient a little and get a good one.

The big thing that makes a Indy hat for me beside being made well and has a good Raiders like block. Is the ribbon and thats hard to beat. The " Henry will win that one hands down.

...ok! I see what you mean with the one hat principle! This is quite a different frame of reference as opposed to the one step distressing method (for the jacket). ;-)

The Federation is a very nice economy priced hat, and you get every cent that you pay for it. It is my fav rabbit factory hat to date, because the felt is good rabbit felt. You can reblock these hats many times, which is proof of their quaility.

The Henry is our vision of a super high quality factory hat. And you pay for it! Marc was really detail oriented(being an Indy fan and hatter) when getting this hat made. I think he is still working with them to insure it.

Both hats are great factory hats, and IMO superiour to what Stetson makes.

Lee has the ball rolling on his factory hat as well, and from what I have seen, he has done a great job with BB. All of these hats are worth the price of admission. The Federation is still the best bargain, and always has been. Really, most of the offerings you see here are worth the bucks, even the low priced Hornet Christy. You are just getting what you pay for in each hat. As the owners, who wear them will eventually find out. There really is a reason for the price differences, although the Federation is worth more than Ron charges. Fedora

Mighty_Draw:

I can't thank you enough for creating this thread. I've owned an orginal Fed Deluxe for several years and I love it. But the past few months, I've been debating getting either an HJ from Magnoli or a Henry from Marc. For me, trying to compare the colors of these hats to my Fed has been key. Due to a lasting case of what I call "refridgerator blindness" (which is where you can't see what's right in front of you), I had not not noticed this thread before.

Last night, I closed my eyes, held my breath, and pulled the trigger on a Henry. Today, having seen the pictures you posted, I must say that I am so very glad that I did.

Thanks again.

No problem Cowboy! I felt it would be good on my part to share some possibly useful info with the forum, seeing as how I lurked here and read the fedora section for quite some time before joining. I realized later how nice it was people took the time share info that was useful or interesting, and wanted to provide something useful myself.