Club Obi Wan

Hi guys,

As you can see I am a very new member here. I came to this forum with some questions regarding the hats that I cannot find any answers about elsewhere so I thought I should try one of the most ultimate resources about hats with possibly the most diehard fans

I am looking for two hats the first one modified Indy hat so to speak and other is a white fedora. I will explain them below in detail.

I need an Indy hat or actually modified Indy hat so to speak by this I mean that I genuinely believe that the true specifications of an Indy hat are too big for my rather skinny frame and would need a dimensional brim of 2 1/8th sides and 2 3/8th front and back or 2 on sides and 2 ¼ on front and back with a reduced crown of 4.5 to 4.75 inches max. I know this may be sacrilegious to most fans but I am 99.9% sure that if I bought the original hat I will NOT wear it because it is too big for my frame.

So given that I want to reduce the brim and crown but keep everything else the same, what are my best options for this type of hat? If I went with the original my first choice would have been AB hats likely but given that I am changing its dimensions is AB hat still recommended? I am not really limited by budget needs for these as long as the hats are first rate but not something outrageous in price.

One question about Fedora (Steve Delk) / AB hats is that the website it says price of $650 with lead time maximum of 6 months. Does that mean the hat will be ready in six months?

The second hat I am looking for is pure white in beaver or rabbit like Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal one. I have already asked this question in detail over at fedora lounge and to this date no one has been able to answer as to who made the original white fedora used in the video.

The details of that are in this thread

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=42202

However, if you do know the answer please let me know.

But here is my main question to hat lovers here. I have been informed that there are no white beaver or rabbit bodies produced in US anymore. Is this true and if I need a white hat in beaver or rabbit what are my options in custom? Who, if you guys know has white bodies in their stock if any?

Is it possible to make a true white hat out of beaver and if no then why not? My friend bought a white hat from Gary white hatter 2002 and was charged for pure beaver so the hat is white beaver I guess but is it possible? What are some of the tell tale marks of beaver apart from rabbit?

Please let me know what are my best options are for a pure white hat and a “modified” Indy hat.

BTW Seach feature help Guys I was trying to seach for "white beaver" or "white fedora" but the search kept splitting the words up even when I used quotation marks and it excluded the word "fedora". How do you search for these terms together like "white felt" etc?

Thank you
Cheers

AB hats have a 6 month wait from ordering to delivery, and actually it will more likely be a year. Heck of a hat, though.

In any event, if you want a top notch Indy hat, adjusted to look right on you, then custom is the best way to go. AB, AB Deluxe, or Penman would be the best men for that specific job.

As far as a white beaver or rabbit felt hat, I was told a while back that true white was not possible with fur. At least not without doing harm with bleach. Wool felt, however, does exist in white.

If anyone can get white beaver or rabbit (which I doubt), the guys on Fedora Lounge are the best people to find it. I think Art Fawcett has a light weight off-white, if that helps at all.

Going custom is the only way to get this done, as Chewie already said. The three hatters he mentioned are the best in the business. Marc at AB Deluxe is not currently taking orders so if you want to order right now, your only options are Steve at AB and John at Penman. My suggestion, however, is to e-mail whoever you end up going with a photo of you wearing a fedora and provide the dimensions. This will give them something to work off of and can provide with measurements they think will work for you. In my experience, hatter knows best.

As for the Michael Jackson hat, I've heard it was wool. If you want a white beaver hat, John Penman offers a color called Sahara, which when paired with a black ribbon, looks white. G-MANN has a Penman with that color body/ribbon combination. This would be my suggestion.

Dave

Isn't silverbelly darn near white?

No, it closer to a cream color....

...and the fact that the search function won't raise anything regarding a white fedora/felt doesn't surprise me, as I don't recall there ever BEING such a conversation about such an item. It has to be discussed in order to be found in a search. Keep in mind, this is a site for discussion of Indiana Jones related gear. There were no white fedoras in the films, so that's not a topic you're going to find here.

As you mentioned above, your best avenue would be Fedora Lounge. It's been posted elsewhere, but it has been stated that all Jackson used were wool felt fedoras for performance anyway.

Good luck in your quest, though!

Regards! Michaelson

For your white one, try Art Fawcett.

Silverbelly would be the white beaver felt not sahara. I have both of these felts.

Oops! Sorry.

Dave

BendingOak wrote:Silverbelly would be the white beaver felt not sahara. I have both of these felts.

I believe you, Oak, but just saying my Art Fawcett made beaver hat in silver belly is a light cream color, not white....at least that's what HE calls 'silverbelly'.

Regards! Michaelson

BendingOak wrote:Silverbelly would be the white beaver felt not sahara. I have both of these felts.

So you have pure white beaver skin or rabbit?

JeffB wrote:For your white one, try Art Fawcett.

yes I am already considering that. It is a good second option but it is cream NOT white. He mentioned it was featherweight beaver. Are there any things in particular I should be aware of with feather weight beaver?

Michaelson wrote:
I believe you, Oak, but just saying my Art Fawcett made beaver hat in silver belly is a light cream color, not white....at least that's what HE calls 'silverbelly'.

Regards! Michaelson

Okay to be perfectly clear since I am not a felt bodies expert. What do we mean by silver belly? I thought this was a color not a type of felt. This is white? Or is it an off shade of white?

Please let me know and to be sure ARE THERE ANY WHITE BEAVER OR RABBIT AT ALL? I am asking because I have a white hat from my friend made by Gary white and it is white as milk. He said it was pure beaver so I believe him but if there cannot be any white beaver how this could possibly be? It is 7-8 years old hat. It is too stiff for my taste so I want another one that is much softer. Actually he had a white hat made for him BY Richard Swales (back when he was at HJ) personally and I loved it. Too bad he gave it away to someone.

For Indy modified hat it will likely be pennman or steve delk. I am also deciding on the Indy Magnoli version of it. Do you guys recommend magnoli HJ since the hat will be modified?

The Mag/HJs are the way to go if you want an HJ as Steve works on them. He is raving about the new HJ felt so it must be good. I would still go with a custom beaver hat, but that is just me.

Dave

'Silverbelly' is a color, not a felt 'type'.

As to Gary White, he makes great hats and is a VERY nice fellow, but has been known to stretch a story a ways. He also claimed for years to have made the Temple of Doom hat on his website, when in reality he had absolutely nothing to do with it at all.

Regards! Michaelson

Silverbelly is a color and the closest color to white you can get in a felt hat nowadays. I never said it was white just that the lightest color is silverbelly not sahara.

I bought a Resistol western hat a few months ago and (although I'm not sure what the colour is called) it looked very White with a slight hint of grey when I was in the shop. When I took it outside and wore it with my Miami Dolphins top, it looked like the same colour in daylight. There are some colours that are so close to white that it is pretty much there. Don't know if this helps!

Snapbrim, you just became my favorite member here.

Dave

nice one Dave, I've always lived in London but I've always liked NFL and never been much of a soccer fan. The first place I went to in the US was Miami and that was back in '87 when we had Marino - one of the best quaterbacks in history. The White shirt I was wearing with my Resistol was a 'throw-back' Marino shirt which I'm so pleased with. Maybe I should post a pic of me in the hat and shirt so everyone can see the colour conparison with the off-White beaver felt.

P.S. I also have a replica Dolphins helmet! Can't put it on coz it's just a souvenire not to be worn. But I looks nice with my hat collection.

Marino is the second best thing ever to happen to the Fins, first of course being Don Shula, who is like what Ford is to most of the people here to us in Miami. Post a picture so we can see the shirt...err, the hat.

Dave

What was this thread about?

Not Indy, per sae. Time to lock this one down. There are plenty of suggestions for where to get a Jackson hat made, and the color question has been addressed, too. Time to bring the curtain down on this one, folks.