Some thoughts on my Raiders block quest
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:28 pm
I thought this deserved a thread of its own, although I have mentioned much of it in an off topic way on other threads.
Way back when I first tackled the job of making my own Raider block, it was due to all of the hats back then looking wrong. Most just had too much taper when compared to the Raiders film. And, I had already spent right at 7500 bucks buying various brands in 3's, trying to find one that looked more like the film. But there was always something that just did not look right to me at the time with these other hats. The best was the Optimo Indy, but that early felt would taper too easily, as I wear my hats in the elements, and always have. But at least their block shape was the closest for me, and everyone who bought one recalls the fine workmanship in those Optimos. The finest hat most of us had ever seen, other than vintage.
My early attempts at making a Raiders block were such an improvement to me over everyone else that I was instantly pleased, and even offered free reblocks with this block with any brand of hat, IF you wore my size.
At least the hat did not have that taper that most Indy fedoras had at the time. And most were pleased, as me, because they had suffered the inaccuracies over the years along with me with the other brands.
As time passed, I would watch the film with hat in hand and started to see some slight differences, and that got me started tweaking the block. I would tweak it, reblock a hat on the new block and then watch the film again. I did this alot. And it was done over a few years. Slight modifications, nothing ever major.
At the time, I really thought the block had to be a perfect match to the film block, in order to turn out a good looking Indy fedora. And, I felt this same way until only recently. Today, I no longer hold that view, because I have seen several different blocks that will yield that same Raiders look. Now granted, these diverse blocks are very similiar in looks, with the major differences being the degree of taper used, and the radius that is used. If you have too much, you lose the Raiders look. If the hat is too straight, you get a caricature of the hat. But there is a degree of variation in this taper and radius angle that all will work and give good results. A max of 3/16ths of taper on the sides is all you can use, IMO. Or, you can have the sides straight up to a certain point, and then start a gentle radius that moves up to the dome. Either way will give you a good looking Raider fedora. The end result is hard to distinguish, one from the other. And of course, the trouble with many of the old offerings was that the hats just had too much taper built in to start with.
My CS block is a straighter block on the sides than my old ones. In fact, there is no taper on the sides of the CS block at all. And if you make a Raiders fedora using this block, this is what you get.
I also believe some of us have the perception that this is what the Raiders fedora should look like, with its squareness of the crown shape. But, to me, today, it is a caricature. My opinon only.
Even the CS block if creased to the Raider specs looks good from the side.
But seen from slightly above, front shot, I can see how the crown is too square, because I don't see any Raider fedoras in the film that looked as square from this view.
Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but it's all I had of this hat.
To me, this is just a bit off, but even this CS block yields a decent Raiders fedora, although it is caricatured, but some like the caricature.
The only hat that looks even close to being this square in the film is this one.
But even this hat was not as square as the CS Raiders posted above.
Then there is Terry's hat, and it looks almost square, but not really.
So, I feel that there was a little taper in the Raiders fedora, not much, but some. That taper in some scenes is more, with much of this being the way the hat was creased, with the back really low, as inside the temple scenes. As the hat was exposed to the wear and heat, it bulged, and those bulges negated any taper that you would have seen, if the hat has not bulged out. It also probably lost some crown height as well, as some hats do appear shorter than others.
Along with the shrinkage that HAS to happen with rabbit in the heat, the back will morph into a hat with a lowered back, if you had creased the hat down low in back. This happens with my own hats with wear. So, if you popped it out open crown, if it started out the same height and radius on the front and back, the back would now appear lower, with a different raidius. This is natural and what felt does. And no doubt the SOC hat had this feature, as well as the other well worn, hard to replicate hats in the film. The distressed hats. This changes the look of the hat of course, and makes it more accurate to those particular scenes. We are looking at hats in the film that shrink and morph, and we see newer ones too. This has to be considered in a big way when replicating the block and look. And this is the reason LLS's block works so well, and can present those looks with ease. But with that said, I have always worked from film stills. And when I finally studied these next two pics of Terry's hat, I saw that the hat with the crown popped up, appeared to be completely symetrical, front and back, and this is one thing that move me back to the symetrical blockshape. Peruse these.
So armed with this new "look" on my part, and me not wanting to use the same blocks I made a new block, again, my own work. It's my ego, nothing more. And apparently, Terry's hat had not morphed yet, as if you recall, his hat had shallow creases in the top from what we can see from the behind the scenes footage.
So, with my fairly new understanding that several blockshapes would make a good Raiders fedora, and not knowing exactly how they finessed the block to lend that look, I used again what I could see from studying the film. I added taper, but nothing like you see on HJs and some Christys. And certainly not the kind you see on Stetson Temples. I studied a wide variety of vintage blocks, all with some taper added, and all without the domey domes that were used for tradtionally c dents, telescopes and teardrops. But more along the lines of what you see with a front to back center top crease, like the homburg that utilized the Indy type crease on top. Face it, domes or dome shapes were created for particular final looks of the hat. Each had its purpose. And so many modern fedoras came with a domey dome, while the Raiders fedora was not this sort at all. But remember, the Indy type top crease was common in English hats, while the c dents and teardrops were common in the USA. I recall an old pic of an English crowd from the 30's and most of the hats had the Indy crease. If you had a pic of the same era from the USA, you would have seen mostly tear drops and c dents.
My quest for the perfect Raiders block has come to an end. And not because I think I have found the perfect block. It is just that with my new epiphany, I realize that several blocks will make very accurate Raider fedoras, and unless I happen to get a pristine real Raiders fedora in my hands, prior to shrinkage, I am simply wasting my time. I no longer feel there is a magic involved with the blockshape, just that it has to have certain features that many vintage blocks already have. Fedora
Way back when I first tackled the job of making my own Raider block, it was due to all of the hats back then looking wrong. Most just had too much taper when compared to the Raiders film. And, I had already spent right at 7500 bucks buying various brands in 3's, trying to find one that looked more like the film. But there was always something that just did not look right to me at the time with these other hats. The best was the Optimo Indy, but that early felt would taper too easily, as I wear my hats in the elements, and always have. But at least their block shape was the closest for me, and everyone who bought one recalls the fine workmanship in those Optimos. The finest hat most of us had ever seen, other than vintage.
My early attempts at making a Raiders block were such an improvement to me over everyone else that I was instantly pleased, and even offered free reblocks with this block with any brand of hat, IF you wore my size.
At least the hat did not have that taper that most Indy fedoras had at the time. And most were pleased, as me, because they had suffered the inaccuracies over the years along with me with the other brands. As time passed, I would watch the film with hat in hand and started to see some slight differences, and that got me started tweaking the block. I would tweak it, reblock a hat on the new block and then watch the film again. I did this alot. And it was done over a few years. Slight modifications, nothing ever major.
At the time, I really thought the block had to be a perfect match to the film block, in order to turn out a good looking Indy fedora. And, I felt this same way until only recently. Today, I no longer hold that view, because I have seen several different blocks that will yield that same Raiders look. Now granted, these diverse blocks are very similiar in looks, with the major differences being the degree of taper used, and the radius that is used. If you have too much, you lose the Raiders look. If the hat is too straight, you get a caricature of the hat. But there is a degree of variation in this taper and radius angle that all will work and give good results. A max of 3/16ths of taper on the sides is all you can use, IMO. Or, you can have the sides straight up to a certain point, and then start a gentle radius that moves up to the dome. Either way will give you a good looking Raider fedora. The end result is hard to distinguish, one from the other. And of course, the trouble with many of the old offerings was that the hats just had too much taper built in to start with.
My CS block is a straighter block on the sides than my old ones. In fact, there is no taper on the sides of the CS block at all. And if you make a Raiders fedora using this block, this is what you get.
I also believe some of us have the perception that this is what the Raiders fedora should look like, with its squareness of the crown shape. But, to me, today, it is a caricature. My opinon only.
Even the CS block if creased to the Raider specs looks good from the side.
But seen from slightly above, front shot, I can see how the crown is too square, because I don't see any Raider fedoras in the film that looked as square from this view.
Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but it's all I had of this hat.
To me, this is just a bit off, but even this CS block yields a decent Raiders fedora, although it is caricatured, but some like the caricature.
The only hat that looks even close to being this square in the film is this one.
But even this hat was not as square as the CS Raiders posted above.
Then there is Terry's hat, and it looks almost square, but not really.
So, I feel that there was a little taper in the Raiders fedora, not much, but some. That taper in some scenes is more, with much of this being the way the hat was creased, with the back really low, as inside the temple scenes. As the hat was exposed to the wear and heat, it bulged, and those bulges negated any taper that you would have seen, if the hat has not bulged out. It also probably lost some crown height as well, as some hats do appear shorter than others.
Along with the shrinkage that HAS to happen with rabbit in the heat, the back will morph into a hat with a lowered back, if you had creased the hat down low in back. This happens with my own hats with wear. So, if you popped it out open crown, if it started out the same height and radius on the front and back, the back would now appear lower, with a different raidius. This is natural and what felt does. And no doubt the SOC hat had this feature, as well as the other well worn, hard to replicate hats in the film. The distressed hats. This changes the look of the hat of course, and makes it more accurate to those particular scenes. We are looking at hats in the film that shrink and morph, and we see newer ones too. This has to be considered in a big way when replicating the block and look. And this is the reason LLS's block works so well, and can present those looks with ease. But with that said, I have always worked from film stills. And when I finally studied these next two pics of Terry's hat, I saw that the hat with the crown popped up, appeared to be completely symetrical, front and back, and this is one thing that move me back to the symetrical blockshape. Peruse these.
So armed with this new "look" on my part, and me not wanting to use the same blocks I made a new block, again, my own work. It's my ego, nothing more. And apparently, Terry's hat had not morphed yet, as if you recall, his hat had shallow creases in the top from what we can see from the behind the scenes footage.
So, with my fairly new understanding that several blockshapes would make a good Raiders fedora, and not knowing exactly how they finessed the block to lend that look, I used again what I could see from studying the film. I added taper, but nothing like you see on HJs and some Christys. And certainly not the kind you see on Stetson Temples. I studied a wide variety of vintage blocks, all with some taper added, and all without the domey domes that were used for tradtionally c dents, telescopes and teardrops. But more along the lines of what you see with a front to back center top crease, like the homburg that utilized the Indy type crease on top. Face it, domes or dome shapes were created for particular final looks of the hat. Each had its purpose. And so many modern fedoras came with a domey dome, while the Raiders fedora was not this sort at all. But remember, the Indy type top crease was common in English hats, while the c dents and teardrops were common in the USA. I recall an old pic of an English crowd from the 30's and most of the hats had the Indy crease. If you had a pic of the same era from the USA, you would have seen mostly tear drops and c dents.
My quest for the perfect Raiders block has come to an end. And not because I think I have found the perfect block. It is just that with my new epiphany, I realize that several blocks will make very accurate Raider fedoras, and unless I happen to get a pristine real Raiders fedora in my hands, prior to shrinkage, I am simply wasting my time. I no longer feel there is a magic involved with the blockshape, just that it has to have certain features that many vintage blocks already have. Fedora
But alot of practice is very beneficial.Fedora
