Club Obi Wan

Ok, so what's the deal? As any serious hat wearer knows, and any of our current hat makers will tell you, it is bad for the hat to pick it up or handle it at the pinch/crown. Always handle, carry, put on and remove your hat handling the brim. I'm reminded of an episode of The Cosby Show where Grandpa Huxtable schools Theo in hat wearing and explains always handling the hat by the brim.

Indy, being a man of his time, was a serious hat wearer. Yet, time and time again, through all four movies, he is constantly handling his hat by the pinch/crown. What gives?

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

I must admit to noticing that as well. When Indy goes to see Walter re. the Grail, not only does he grab by the pinch, but also put the hat down on its brim.

Ian

Look at most classic movies and you'll see the same. It wasn't so uncommon to pick up a hat by the pinch or resting it on the brim.

It's because he's a man's man that doesn't bother with what's the correct method of taking care of his clothes. He just puts them on to wear. That should be obvious just by the condition of his jacket alone!!!

I bet he never put pecards on it!!!!

...and his shoes?!?!?! Look at those brogans!!!!

-TS

The idea of a typical hat being an expensive item is relatively new. There were some more expensive hats ($20 was expensive for a hat way back when), but I imagine they were either handled more carefully by those to whom they were expensive, and/or were bought by people who could afford them better. But really, a fedora today may be more comparable to a top hat from yesterday.... We take extra good care of them to avoid getting a hole in our hats or taper in our crowns, though I don't know of many people who go an extra mile to preserve their wal-mart ball cap. I don't really grab the pinch itself, but I do grab the crown near the back of the dents, and it lands on its brim or gets hung up.

-KB

Is it still a good possibility that an eventual hole will wear in the crown from handling it, even if it does not have a tight front pinch. I give my fedora as the example. I have a CS AB which we all know has the loose front pinch. I grab my hat by the brim sometimes, and by the crown other times. Sometimes I place it upside down resting on the crown and other times I throw it on my desk resting on the brim.

I used to baby my hat because of the cost, hatter and the overall personal value I place on the hat. One day I read a post on COW, and Fedora wrote a little blurb that struck a cord with me. I am not quoting him but I will try and sum up what he was saying. He spoke of wearing his hats and letting them take the abuse they were intended to take. He mentioned letting his grandkids or nieces and nephews, not sure which, play and roughhouse with his fedora, and not caring how rough they got with it. So reading his blurb on enjoying one's fedora instead of constantly babying it appealed to me. I do not distress my hats! I want them to age naturally.

So I guess my question pertains to handling the crown. Is it still possible to wear a hole in it even without the tight pinch? I want my fedora to age gracefully. This does not include holes in the crown.

I really don't pay too much attentions to my hats, to be honest. They are my friends and I treat them as such. I don't know about you, but my friends and I love to take jabs and make fun of eachother as much as we enjoy sitting and drinking together. I'm the same way with my hats. I rough 'em up, but show them that I love them. When I'm outside and sweaty and I tilt my hat back to wipe my forehead, I just grab the pinch, push back, wipe down, grab pinch, and lower it back and keep going. Its whatever comes naturally to me at the time. Sometimes it rests on the crown, other times on the brim, and still others in the postion that it landed in when I chucked it over by the sofa. I may only have one dress hat that still looks new, but you know what all my other hats have that those that get babied don't? Life, character, and a personality. And that is what it's all about.

Dave

beaverlid wrote: So I guess my question pertains to handling the crown. Is it still possible to wear a hole in it even without the tight pinch? I want my fedora to age gracefully. This does not include holes in the crown.

I would imagine you could still put a hole in it, but it would probably take a lot longer. However, if you grab it by the pinch, in time, the pinch will probably grow tighter, which would basically be the hat conforming to your character. It wouldn't grow into a raiders pinch, but it would probably end up closer than it is now. Alot of why raiders pinched hats get a hole is because of how tight it is in the first place, and creating a flex right there. And as far as your fedora aging gracefully, what does that mean? I have a couple of hats that have had holes in them from the beginning (vintage hats, mind you) and they just suggest character. Any other visual aging comes in the form of discoloration, or moth bites or basically something happening to the hat. They don't quite age with wear like a jacket does, except conforming to you, and becoming your hat (as opposed to the hat you own) I'd rather have a characteristic, "I wore this hat so much it got a hole in the top of the pinch" hole in my hat over a moth bite or ugly discoloration (though there can be nicer discoloration as well...) any day of the week.

-KB

Kentucky Blues wrote:

beaverlid wrote: So I guess my question pertains to handling the crown. Is it still possible to wear a hole in it even without the tight pinch? I want my fedora to age gracefully. This does not include holes in the crown.

"And as far as your fedora aging gracefully, what does that mean?"

I guess what I mean by aging gracefully is I want it to age on its own. I don't mind sweat stains or a deformed bash. I could even live with a little taper. Those are the characteristics that give my hat its own personality. A hole in my fedora would be grounds to retire it. That just isn't my style. I really plan to still be placing my AB on my head many, many years from now.

Well, a hole usually doesn't start out huge. In fact, some of the holes I've had in hats may very well be from me thinking I'm seeing a hole, and playing with it until I've "found" (made) one In other words, I found either a SMALL hole, or a thin spot wear one was being worn in, and I kept trying to see it better and made it worse. But given the quality of an Adventurebilt hat, a hole isn't something you're going to find anytime soon. You say a hole isn't your style, but you're okay with sweat stains, taper, etc... Is that to say that sweatstains and taper ARE your style, or just something you wouldn't mind over time? I assure you, if a hole does develop in time, it won't be a big, gaping rip in the crown of an otherwise brand new looking lid. If you're wearing the hat as you should be, and not tweaking it, keeping a watchful eye on it, etc, you probably won't even notice a hole starting to form, or the signs of one getting ready to happen. And in the event that it does, the hat will be READY for it, as the hole will be a result of the shape of the hat, which will be a result of the wearer. In other words, unless your hat gets shot or something, any hole that develops will be a hole suited to you, the wearer. But really, don't worry about it. I know the whole hole thing sounds scary, but it's not really something that's likely to happen until after YEARS of daily wear and use, unless you abuse it by playing with the pinch.

-KB

Sweat stains can be cleaned, tappered hats can be re-blocked but I never heard of a hole being patched up.


If you grab your hat by the pinch. Raiders or any kind. Depending on the felt the hat will dry up from the grime on your hands and down the line crack and develop a hole. It's not going to happen over night but somewhere down the line it will happen. A little TLC will go a very long way. You don't need to baby the top of the line hats but a little care wouldn't be a bad idea.

Try to don and doff your hat by the brim but don't panic if you grab it by the pinch. Try and hang you hat when you can. Oh, and one more thing. Not a bad idea to wash your hands ounce in a while.

What Oak said. Ignore at your hat's eventual peril.

binkmeisterRick wrote:Look at most classic movies and you'll see the same. It wasn't so uncommon to pick up a hat by the pinch or resting it on the brim.

Yeah and that's my point. The hat wearing community, for the most part, knows the proper way to handle a hat to preserve its longevity. I'm not talking about wearing kid gloves, but as John pointed out, take care of the hat and it'll take care of you.

Why then would so much poor hat handling be on display? In Indy's case I can understand the character is being played by an actor who doesn't wear hats daily and sees the hat at a prop that only has to last throught the production (with many more waiting in the wings just in case). But especially in classic films, I would think the actors were regular hat wearers and as such would don and doff in the same method they treated their hats in everyday life.

And, I know that "back in the day" buying and replacing hats was much more commonplace, but in that same line of reasoning men in that day wore suit jackets more regularly. I don't in my line of work, but friends that wear a suit every day don't roll them up in a ball and stuff them under the bed when they get home. Sure they buy new suits regularly to replace those that are getting worn from the daily use, but it doesn't mean they do things they know will shorten the life of the suits they have.

A fluff topic, I know, but as I've developed into a daily fedora wearer, I do try to minimize my handling of my hats by the crown so when I see it, it really catches my attention. There's just no way Indy's hat would have lasted him from being a teen until in his 60's with all that pinch grabbing he does.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

I try not to be paranoic about how i do grab my hat. But avoid do that by the pinch, grabbing it by the brim. Really few times i do it by the pinch and it's not big deal. Just a bit of care, and if possible, i wash my hands before.
I rest it on a sofa, sometimes upside down on the crown.
Other than that, i let the hat gets a character and enjoy it...

There is only one solution to the whole mess. As my grandfather would say, "you only touch your hat twice, once when you put it on and once when you take it off." Of course he was out on the range.

Indiana Jeff wrote:

binkmeisterRick wrote:Look at most classic movies and you'll see the same. It wasn't so uncommon to pick up a hat by the pinch or resting it on the brim.

Yeah and that's my point. The hat wearing community, for the most part, knows the proper way to handle a hat to preserve its longevity. I'm not talking about wearing kid gloves, but as John pointed out, take care of the hat and it'll take care of you.

Why then would so much poor hat handling be on display? In Indy's case I can understand the character is being played by an actor who doesn't wear hats daily and sees the hat at a prop that only has to last throught the production (with many more waiting in the wings just in case). But especially in classic films, I would think the actors were regular hat wearers and as such would don and doff in the same method they treated their hats in everyday life.

This practice, along with so much else in media, is image-driven.

I can certainly see, long ago, a 'Bogart' or whomever, donning his hat the 'proper' way in the shooting of a scene, and someone, perhaps the director, saying something like, that doesnt look cool (or suave or what have you). Grab it by the top and slide it on with that sly look on your face that helps make you the star you are (yeah, I know, Im no screenwriter).

How many times have we looked at movies and said, hey, that cant happen. How many times have we seen the car chase where a woman walks into the street with a shopping wagon and the car either hits the wagon without touching the person pushing it, or in Speed, where they upped the ante and the bus creams the baby carriage, but theres groceries in it?!?! I'm telling you the audience in the theatre freaked out on impact and then was hysterical with relief when we could see it was groceries. And of course, Bullock's reaction was instrumental in defining her character, considering all she was doing through most of the movie was driving a bus. The point is that stuff in movies doesnt happen like it does for us normal folk. They put on screen what works for the story and the characters. Us? We'd just get run over.

How do you account for old newsreels and such that show real, everyday folks handling their hats in a myriad of ways? If you think about it, it's easier to pick a typical fedora up by the crown or pinch. Longevity arguments aside, a person (not gearhead, but a human being here ) will generally opt for the easiest way to put on any form of clothing, hats included. We're in a different mindset today as fedoras are not the norm and people like us expect to have a given hat until the day we kick the bucket. Back when hat wearing was the norm, folks treated it as another garment that would eventually wear out or change in style. Unless it was a top hat or a formal hat, they just wore them. I doubt they spent sleepless nights wondering how folks were picking up and putting down their hats. As far as classic Hollywood goes, why would it be any different? If they were emulating the times, surely that would hold the same for how hats were frequently handled.

Sure, you can argue that there's a way one should handle a hat, but how many folks really change the oil in their car as recommended?

Me, I just wear 'em. I pick them up and put 'em down any number of ways and sleep pretty well at night.

I agree with Bink, and further more, I would like to know how people define grabbing by the pinch? I see a distinct difference between grabbing by the pinch and grabbing by the crown. If by "pinch" you mean the actual creased front where the dents are closest together... that just seems like it'd be an unusual way to handle the hat. There's not always a whole lot of room for your fingers, and unless you've got a raiders pinch, there's always the possibility that you're going to alter the pinch by grabbing it that way anyway. I suppose you could always put index finger in the center dent, thumb in one side dent and middle finger in other side dent, but I find myself reaching much further back when I grab my hat. And the brim just seems weird to grab...two handed hat doffing? For a hat that practically has handles on the front? Just weird to me. And since when can you turn adjectives like "on" and "off" into verbs by adding a "d" to the front of it?!

-KB

I'm pretty bad about picking up my hat by the pinch: index down the middle, thumb and middle finger on either side. I try not to really grab it, but with just enough pressure to keep hold of it. When I remember, I try to handle it by the brim, but I can't say that I've really noticed any damage from the way I handle my hat.

I do not really grab the hat by the pinch, but I do sometimes "cradle" it by the pinch when putting it on. It's more of the hat is resting on my hands. I do not apply pressure on it. It's my way of centering the hat on my face. When really holding the hat, I hold it via the brim.

It's funny really; I treat my Feds really rough and have no problem picking her up by the pinch. My AB, Penman and Henry though, I defo baby those if only slightly - Seems I baby the lids that need it the least.

Ian

fenris wrote:I do not really grab the hat by the pinch, but I do sometimes "cradle" it by the pinch when putting it on. It's more of the hat is resting on my hands. I do not apply pressure on it. It's my way of centering the hat on my face. When really holding the hat, I hold it via the brim.

Sometimes I do the same, rest the hat on my hand without putting pressure on the pinch. Others I grab it by the brim...

binkmeisterRick wrote:How do you account for old newsreels and such that show real, everyday folks handling their hats in a myriad of ways? If you think about it, it's easier to pick a typical fedora up by the crown or pinch. Longevity arguments aside, a person (not gearhead, but a human being here ) will generally opt for the easiest way to put on any form of clothing, hats included. We're in a different mindset today as fedoras are not the norm and people like us expect to have a given hat until the day we kick the bucket. Back when hat wearing was the norm, folks treated it as another garment that would eventually wear out or change in style. Unless it was a top hat or a formal hat, they just wore them. I doubt they spent sleepless nights wondering how folks were picking up and putting down their hats. As far as classic Hollywood goes, why would it be any different? If they were emulating the times, surely that would hold the same for how hats were frequently handled.

Sure, you can argue that there's a way one should handle a hat, but how many folks really change the oil in their car as recommended?

Me, I just wear 'em. I pick them up and put 'em down any number of ways and sleep pretty well at night.

What he said Agreed Bink!