Club Obi Wan

I thought this would be fun, showing some of the pics I have of this brand. First up is one of the vintage HJs, I bought and sold over the years. Notice how it is nothing like what follows from HJ.





And the inside of this HJ.



Here is a totally different HJ, vintage.



And yet another vintage HJ.



Now for an HJ I bought way back, several years ago.




And one from a year or so ago, with same blockshape, but creased. This is what I generally get from an HJ, i.e. too much taper.



And here is what I envison, when I think of the Raiders fedora.

NICE!! That looks great, Steve!!

Fedora wrote:I thought this would be fun, showing some of the pics I have of this brand. First up is one of the vintage HJs, I bought and sold over the years. Notice how it is nothing like what follows from HJ.

Sir,
was this hat screen used and, if not, how much does it have in common with those that were?
JTW.

I simply don't know how some can still say that the HJ bought today is the same as the HJs used in Raiders. Just look at that modern HJ! That first one, though, is a beauty. Thanks for those pics, Steve. We rarely get to see vintage HJs, much less ones that are that close to the Raiders hat.

Dave

Those vintage HJs look amazing.

Too bad there isn't any way to pressure HJ to improve the production quality of their poets. I mean, if you wanted to get a HJ that could do Raiders. For LC/ToD/Young Indy, would the tapering issue be as big?


BTW: What does the liner of a new HJ poet look like?

In answer to your question about new Poet lining...




I bought this 'Poet' in April 2008 from Swaine Adeney Brigg, London.
JTW.

That first vintage HJ is the one that I owned and wore for a while. Very credibile Raiders hat.




Whereas this was the best I could get out of my modern HJ

jones the whip wrote:In answer to your question about new Poet lining...




I bought this 'Poet' in April 2008 from Swaine Adeney Brigg, London.
JTW.

I was curious, because the HJ Poets sold at themovieshop.com, at least the one in the picture on their site, had a white lining with no HJ crest, just "Herbert Johnson" in gold-ish lettering against the white satin.

I've also seen, after a quick google image search, another variant of that lining w/ a black lining. If I find it, I'll post the image.

The red crest is a sticker

moses wrote:The red crest is a sticker

I concur, the 'By Appointment' crest is a sticker. I understand some people have had trouble with their stickers losing the adhesive quality, but... so far so good.
JTW.

I could never get over a sticker for a hat liner.

The lining I was talking about:

The lining looks black, is it actually white?

There is that variation I posted before, and a white version:



(from the Movie Shop website)


Funny, no red crest sticker.

When I initially visited S.A.B. to try on hats, I noticed that some of the HJ hats had stickers and some did not. I also noticed a variation of these stickers, some were diamond shaped and others oval.
I simply requested that my finished hat include an oval sticker, I assumed this was standard?
JTW.

Those newer HJs posted above have totally different sweatband material. Not my pics, but the others. Wonder why that is. One of those hats actually has a decent sweat, the other is what I get in, the split cowhide. I will never figure these folks out. Fedora

Hi Steve. Did you reblock that 2nd and 3rd HJ or did you buy them pristine like that?

Kind regards,

Richard

Hi Steve. Did you reblock that 2nd and 3rd HJ or did you buy them pristine like that?

No, no reblock. Almost impossible to reblock a vintage hat anyways. The old shape ALWAYS comes back! It has "set" too well and always reverts to it's original blockshape. Fedora

Thanks Steve, I did not know that. So I guess that would be a result of the felt being dead, which would also prevent any tapering?

Did not know that about the Reblocking either. So reblocking will just simpling straghten the crown from the tapering that may occur over time?

So I guess that would be a result of the felt being dead, which would also prevent any tapering?

Well, just so we don't get a theory of mine confused with fact, this dead felt is something I came up with to explain why my vintage hats seem immunee to taper. I am not the only one who has experienced this, as it seems to be across the board on really old vintage hats. They just don't taper when wetted like new hats.

And, if you try to change the blockshape of a vintage hat, it lasts only a short while. It reverts back to the original blockshape! The felt just remembers the original shape, which a new hat does not.

I have seen a brand new hat that I bought and stored while new, taper while it just sat in a box in my closet!! Apparently the vintage hats never suffered from this or all would be tapered. So the quality of felt, or method used to felt the hat is part of the equation as well. Fedora