Club Obi Wan

Ok...heres the setup; As well as being an Indy nut, I am also a classic spaghetti western nut. I also teach high school and my students are well aware of my peculiarities. One day a student gave me a western hat because he saw it and knew I loved those Clint Eastwood movies and he thought that this hat resembled those hats.
It looked like this


Enter John Penman. I contacted John about fixing up this hat for me (it had no liner and no sweat, and was in desperate need of an overhaul). Even though it was slightly out of his comfort zone, he decided he would do what he could. After MUCH aggravation and dismay over the dismal quality of this felt, this is what he produced.


John took a subpar(to say the least) hat and turned it into something I will cherish the rest of my life. A hat given to me by a student and transformed by a master craftsman. If there is good news for the rest of us in this story, John now says that he can totally make this hat(from quality felt, not junk like this).
John you have earned a customer for life and I can't wait to see what you can do with a REAL hat when I order that beaver raiders later.

HIGH REGARDS

Travis

Another truly wonderful movie character with a wonderfully iconic look. A shame there is no Indygear equivalent - I saw one site dedicated to selling replicas but all seemed horribly overpriced. A real shame.

That hat looks great - no just go and bury it in the dirt and shoot two bullet holes in it and its perfect!

Ken

Good recovery job! I like the end result. It probably did Oak good to stretch himself, and to find out he can salvage even the worst of hats.

Randy

That hat looks great. I think it looks pretty #### close to the film hat. Congrats.

Dave

p.s. I second the bullet holes. Thats the only way to be SA.

Great hat...wonderful work on re-do! I think it looks great -- wear it with all spaghetti....did I mean to say that -- yeah, I did. Cool lid! Enjoy many years of comfort with it! W>

Great looking hat Hp! ,another Penman winner!,I did a similar thing to my old Rabbit AB
..did John add the leather hat-band?,looks fantastic!

Fantastic work there! Looks great.
I have a Camptown in his shop waiting for a reblock. I had full confidence before, but now it is ironclad.
Congratulations!

Cheers!

Dan

I'll be the first to admit the style's not my favorite, but the end result is fantastic. Its amazing how something that had really seen its better days; with a little TLC can make a comeback.

Its like a poor mistreated animal thats been rescued!

That hat actually looks quite good on you, nice story, Mr. Penman sounds like he knows his trade. (Morricone spaghetti western music playing in background)

Nice work again by Mr. Penman. I think he'll have a few buyers if he does decide to offer up a replica.

thanks everyone for all the kind remarks.

If anyone wanted this hat I now know I can replicate it very well if I started with the right felt. I can get the right felt, leather hat band and the rest of the parts. It's not like I want to make any western hats but I can make this one if anyone wanted.

To Danieljones....
Which of your Camptown hats do you have in for a reblock? My 1957 Legend could sure use one.

Randall

I just realized that this is a prime opportunity to show off my pic of my son with Clint. It was taken while he was in my hometown filming "Flags of Our Fathers".



After it was taken Clint told a guy in the SUV next to us, "Get that kid a cookie." It was a good cookie too.

I remember that photo. It does look like the kid is eye balling the cookie.

rrhanselka wrote:To Danieljones....
Which of your Camptown hats do you have in for a reblock? My 1957 Legend could sure use one.

Randall

Hey Randall! I have my grey 1945 Metropolitan in for the reblock. I have all the confidence in the world that it's going to come out like a gem. I wouldn't hesitate sending your hat to John. I think I have about 2 1/2 months now before he gets the chance to work on it, but it'll be well worth the wait. After that I think I may just turn around and send him my Fieldmaster for his master work.


Looks like that kid will have one heck of a time getting that cookie out of Clint's clutches there.

Cheers!

Dan

GREAT job, Oak!
(And yeah, agent5, although one day your son will be completely STOKED that you got his photo taken with one of Moviedoms ALL-Time Icons!... there's no disputing the fact that - on THAT day, at least - it was ALL about "the COOKIE!"

Mitch

Mitch LaRue wrote:there's no disputing the fact that - on THAT day, at least - it was ALL about "the COOKIE!"

Mitch

Yeah, I took my 4 yr. old skiing for the first time the other day, and had him take lessons....his favorite part of the whole day????......the cookie at snack time.

Kids are awesome, aren't they? And great picture, Agent5.

Your Eastwood looks great. I'm looking to expand my fedora collection (actually it's a wannabe collection). But a word of advice - if you go for the bullet holes you probably want to remove the hat first

Ryan

If we are going to add bullet holes, I'm the one who will be doing the adding.

BendingOak wrote:If we are going to add bullet holes, I'm the one who will be doing the adding.

Put the gun down!!!!! Step away from the hat!!!!!Thats right...nice and slow.