Club Obi Wan

Went to Google images to find a picture of a wooden expanding block, typed in "hat block". Bam! First image on first results page is my block! (Try it!) I tried to remember if I took a pic of my block with a black background, then I started thinking it was a COW members block. The Winston 360 block is sold by someone! Even made of styrofoam like mine! Looks like it's molded and only the corner is (poorly) hand done. Here's the website. http://www.raffique.co.uk/extras.html Might even be tall enough, since I block 'em only 5 inches, which is plenty tall enough, believe it or not. I don't have a pic of my naked block, but here's one with a Fed on it. I'd recomend it, but the sizes are very limited, plus, I like to make a custom block according to head length and width. I don't really want to make hats, (more specificly, not try to tailor hats over the internet instead of in person) and have been keeping a low profile as far as the Winston 360 Hat Co. is concerned, although I am about to order supplies, kind of.. I was hoping Indiana G, Fedora , Marc, Jimmy, Bending Oak, any vendor, would make 'em. Or make your own block with styrofoam, it's easy. ...Well, it's not really my block, I tried to copy the Winston Chuchill block.

wow, that's a square top.....
does it bash into shape ok??

darthbish wrote:wow, that's a square top.....
does it bash into shape ok??

I think so- Same hat as the one on the block, pics taken today. . I just realized I made mark seven's hat differently than mine. My block is a 1/4 in. bigger than my head measurement, his the same diameter. Have any new pics of that hat mark seven? Mark sevens block was rounder than mine, and his camel humps look different than mine because of that. they're wider and rounder.

NIIIIICE!!!!!

ha ha! that looks like my very first hand made block! she'll produce a decent hat, but very tricky to bash to get a raiders look (around the humps). $3K has got some serious bashing skills which is why he can pull off a great hat from that block. i went the other route and changed the block so as to make bashing easier

btw $3K....i'm not a vendor......but i feel honored that you mentioned me in the presence of the 'top guns'

my friend, if you have the means to make hats, i'm sure you would do well based on what was made for mark seven.

G

3thou,ask and ye shall receive!
Just grabbed some quick new pics of my Winston 360.
I was waiting for it to break in a bit before posting new pics-it's still a little bit too new looking for my taste!(the brim is about half way there)-but I reckon by the end of this summer it should be nicely broken in.
It had a bit of reverse taper on the sides before(caused by the shape of my head) but I found that moving the centre dent over took a lot of that taper away(and not pulling the hat so tightly down on my noggin!).
I was a bit dissapointed at the reponse to this hat when I posted before.I had a few nice comments but no technical questions or requests for specs etc-suprising for a brand new custom hat offering by a new hat company-as people ask these questions about factory made hats like Feds and Henrys all the time,and this was an unusual hat,made in a unique way,with a lot of attention to detail and noone has offered a hat made this way on cow before.
Thanks again 3thou,I'm proud to own this very special hat-looks like it's going to be a genuine one of a kind!(I'll post more pics when I've beat it up some more!)

everyone just lurked your hat mark seven.....no worries, that is an awesome lid and it is very impressive work that got the end shape considering the initial block. trust me, my first block looks really close to $3K's block and i don't think any of my initial hats looked that good. be proud to own that my friend.

Thanks mark seven! That's looking much better. I was going to say the bow is an 1/8 inch too far forward, but that's just how much it's worn off center a little. I like it a lot! A lot. .... Cheers!!

Looks pretty good! More than one way to skin a cat, or block a hat. I like the radius on the sides of Mark's hat. Fedora

Fedora wrote:Looks pretty good! More than one way to skin a cat, or block a hat. I like the radius on the sides of Mark's hat. Fedora

Hey 3K if I were you I''d frame the above post.......this is sort of like having Steven Spielberg say " Hey kid you made a pretty good movie"..........congrats

Well, Fedora is being kind and could dobltless point out out what doesn't look right. ..If I pop up my crown, the flat top is gone and it looks like a regular dome much like a Fed or AB. It's from having camel humps for a while, maybe reverting a little too, so it quickly becomes not that different a cat. ..G, the world needs depression era hats right now, and there aren't enough hatters to fill the need! It's up to you! The Fed felt softens up quick, and I sand the crown 1/3 to 1/2 thinner. It's easy to get good shapes from thin felt.

where can you buy a Winston 360 at?
whats the website?

thecoolmiester wrote:where can you buy a Winston 360 at?
whats the website?

I believe you make it yourself, it's a term for a top hat kind of block, I think the name references Winston Churchill.

Winston 360 is the name of 3thoubucks's hat company-named after the 360 block that he uses to make his hats.
Not sure if he has a website,all my communication was through PMs.