Club Obi Wan

I had a question and I was just reading how a bunch of people pinch there AB by the pinch but since they are pure beaver doesn't that mean they should be able to handle it? Well my mane question was since the Henry is a rabbit beaver blend so will the hole come faster then the AB beaver hats? See I am going to England and Egypt in the winter and was wondering will it hold up to the rains?

The rule of thumb is that you do not want to handle, pick up, etc. your hat by the pinch. Oil and dirt from your hand will be obsorbed by the felt, and the constant pressure of the hand on that portion of the felt will cause problems in the future, not to mention the discoloration of the felt due to the oils & dirt, etc. Better to handle the hat by positioning the fingers on the front and back of the brim, toward the inside edge of the brim toward the hat band when you put the hat on or take the hat off.

Your Henry will definitely hold up to the rains in England. My FedIV deluxe (which is Rabbit/Hare mix) handles the rain in England with no problems, so I am positive the Henry will hold up even better than my FedIV does.

As for holding the hat by the pinch. I am sure it will still take a number of years before a hole develops so I wouldn't worry too much about grabbing the hat by the pinch occasionally. I always try to remember to handle my hats by the brim, but if I forget and occasionally grab it by the pinch I don't worry about it.
Though I wouldn't want to grab it by the pinch all of the time, it's not going to destroy the hat being grabbed sometimes by the pinch.

Joe

Texan Scott wrote:The rule of thumb is that you do not want to handle, pick up, etc. your hat by the pinch. Oil and dirt from your hand will be obsorbed by the felt, and the constant pressure of the hand on that portion of the felt will cause problems in the future, not to mention the discoloration of the felt due to the oils & dirt, etc. Better to handle the hat by positioning the fingers on the front and back of the brim, toward the inside edge of the brim toward the hat band when you put the hat on or take the hat off.

What he says.

I second what Joeyeah_right said.
Don't worry too much if you occasionaly grab your Henry by the pinch. But try to do it by the brim.
Also, I have a Henry and it holds up the rain really good.
Only try not to soak it too much often... If you do, no problem just avoid too much exposure. If you like you can get any plastic bag and put your hat inside it while you're on the street if you don't have an umbrella...


teko

Any hat that gets it's core soaked will tapper/shrink.

BendingOak wrote:Any hat that gets it's core soaked will tapper/shrink.

My Poobah hat has yet to taper after a good soaking.

Ian

BendingOak wrote:Any hat that gets it's core soaked will tapper/shrink.

tekors wrote: If you like you can get any plastic bag and put your hat inside it while you're on the street if you don't have an umbrella...


teko

Why have a hat if you're not going to wear it, especially in the rain?

Having said that, fedoras are not rain hats (neither are leather jackets foul weather gear) so as Michaelson would say, in a real frog strangler water could penetrate all the way to the core and that could result in taper.

I don't know what water repelant is provided on the Henry's, but spraying some on prior to your trip will help too.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

Indiana Jeff wrote:

tekors wrote: If you like you can get any plastic bag and put your hat inside it while you're on the street if you don't have an umbrella...


teko

Why have a hat if you're not going to wear it, especially in the rain?

Having said that, fedoras are not rain hats (neither are leather jackets foul weather gear) so as Michaelson would say, in a real frog strangler water could penetrate all the way to the core and that could result in taper.

I don't know what water repelant is provided on the Henry's, but spraying some on prior to your trip will help too.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

Hahaha... i know Indiana Jeff..
I only gave him a suggestion in case he doesn't want his hat to get soaked in the rain, like in an extreme situation.
I don't mind getting my hat wet a bit... but soaked would be a problem, I mean..you drive your car but you take care of it a bit, don't you? That doesn't mean you will place some protection pads around your car to protect it against accidents

regards

[/quote]

I don't know what water repelant is provided on the Henry's, but spraying some on prior to your trip will help too.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff[/quote]

Well said...
Stefan once told me that the Henry comes already sprayed with water repelant. But after some time you might want to sprayed it again nbefore the raining seasons (i will do with mine). Ask for the most common fur felt water repelant.

I just came to a realization. There are far more people on these boards (an Indiana Jones board, no doubt!) who are afraid to simply wear their hats without worry than I've ever met out in the real world.

Here's the deal. Buy a high quality hat and wear the snot out of it. Let it get soaked. A high quality hat can be re-blocked many times.

Always goes back to penny wise pound foolish.

Heck, buy ANY hat and wear the snot out of it! You'll just get more snot out of the higher quality hat.

binkmeisterRick wrote:Heck, buy ANY hat and wear the snot out of it! You'll just get more snot out of the higher quality hat.

binkmeisterRick wrote:Heck, buy ANY hat and wear the snot out of it! You'll just get more snot out of the higher quality hat.

Especially one like this that has got a tad too much snot in it in the first place...


Travis

binkmeisterRick wrote:I just came to a realization. There are far more people on these boards (an Indiana Jones board, no doubt!) who are afraid to simply wear their hats without worry than I've ever met out in the real world.

and I'm happy not to be one of them! My Henry stands up well to a bit of rain, all I do is treat it as suggested by Fedora. Oh and I do not pick it up by the pinch.

that's the basic rule...

I tend to wear my AB beaver and even my AB rabbit in any weather, but my new CS grey, sorry John this one I'll baby, it is after all my dress hat. But had a lady today say all kinds of nice things.

But ya, try not to grab by the pinch, but I some times still find my self doing it
My rabbit will eventully get this hole, but not from grabbing, more like when it flew off my head, out the window off my jeep, rolled around and got run over. But hey what a way to distress a hat,..... right.

Croft

Indiana Croft wrote:I tend to wear my AB beaver and even my AB rabbit in any weather, but my new CS grey, sorry John this one I'll baby, it is after all my dress hat. But had a lady today say all kinds of nice things.

But ya, try not to grab by the pinch, but I some times still find my self doing it
My rabbit will eventully get this hole, but not from grabbing, more like when it flew off my head, out the window off my jeep, rolled around and got run over. But hey what a way to distress a hat,..... right.

Croft

Very good way of distressing your hat indeed...
well done

binkmeisterRick wrote:I just came to a realization. There are far more people on these boards (an Indiana Jones board, no doubt!) who are afraid to simply wear their hats without worry than I've ever met out in the real world.

I don't see it as much as people worrying about wearing their hat as it is trying to protect a considerable monetary outlay. Even the Akubras are going to set you back around $100 to say nothing of the Henry or custom hats.

I think it's analogous to whip care. Most here would not use their whips in wet conditions or on gravel despite what Indiana Jones did with his whip. Will using a whip in the rain or on gravel kill it the first time? No, but such usage will shorten the life of the whip when said usage can readily be avoided.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

I agree. I think when hats were more common place, they were more affordable in general, even adjusted down from today's inflation. I think a $100 Akubra, a relatively inexpensive fur felt fedora by today's standards, is relatively more expensive, in the context of the times we live in, than a sub-$5 hat of 60 years ago.

Indiana Bugs wrote:I agree. I think when hats were more common place, they were more affordable in general, even adjusted down from today's inflation. I think a $100 Akubra, a relatively inexpensive fur felt fedora by today's standards, is relatively more expensive, in the context of the times we live in, than a sub-$5 hat of 60 years ago.

well said...

Indiana Bugs wrote:I agree. I think when hats were more common place, they were more affordable in general, even adjusted down from today's inflation. I think a $100 Akubra, a relatively inexpensive fur felt fedora by today's standards, is relatively more expensive, in the context of the times we live in, than a sub-$5 hat of 60 years ago.

If one uses the CPI, and bought a 10x Stetson in 1948, which back then each X cost 10 bucks, a 10x or pure beaver hat would have been 100.00 dollars. If we then use the CPI to determine what 100 bucks would be in todays money.....

$100.00 in 1948 had the same buying power as $922.86 in 2010

If this is true and if this is a viable method for determining this, beaver hats are actually cheaper today. http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

It's often useful to think in terms of how many hours or days of labour an item cost. On that basis too the cost has come down.

LJ

Fedora wrote:

Indiana Bugs wrote:I agree. I think when hats were more common place, they were more affordable in general, even adjusted down from today's inflation. I think a $100 Akubra, a relatively inexpensive fur felt fedora by today's standards, is relatively more expensive, in the context of the times we live in, than a sub-$5 hat of 60 years ago.

If one uses the CPI, and bought a 10x Stetson in 1948, which back then each X cost 10 bucks, a 10x or pure beaver hat would have been 100.00 dollars. If we then use the CPI to determine what 100 bucks would be in todays money.....

$100.00 in 1948 had the same buying power as $922.86 in 2010

If this is true and if this is a viable method for determining this, beaver hats are actually cheaper today. http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

Thanks for posting this.

So...Bottom of the range has gone up, whilst top of the range has come down....

Even if you factor in the improved production methods of producing felt, that just isn't consistant.

Qestion for John or Steve; Is beaver felt produced in the same way as rabbit?

Ian

hey thanks for the replys guys