Club Obi Wan

After seeing a number of gearheads post ads and the like selling/trading one style of Indy hat for a different style of Indy hat, it made me wonder why this is necessary to begin with? Granted, there are various spec changes from a Raiders to a Tod to a LC to a CS, but if someone wants a CS instead of a Raiders, does one really need to get rid of the first hat for the other? Can't the one hat just be reblocked or altered into the other style? I would think this would save both time and money in the long run.

Again, I realize that depending which way you go, a reblock may be affected by how much of the felt you have to work with, especially if it requires losing crown height or trimming the brim. But my question is this: which style of Indy hat can simply be reblocked, reshaped, or easily altered without the need of selling it off altogether? Can a Raiders easily become a LC? Can a ToD become a CS? Which combinations do or don't work, and why? (That said, I still do not condone butchering a perfectly good vintage fedora for this, rather existing Indy hats only. )

I'd especially be interested to hear Steve Delk's take, as he spent so much time in the past physically making and altering hat blocks to come up with the "starting point block" so many other hatters have had the advantage of beginning with.

If I recall what Steve told me a while back, the CS hats (including the grey travel hat) are the wild cards, as they are taller in height than the other 3 versions, and therefore would require more felt taken from the brim in order to support that additional height while keeping the right brim width.

I had once asked him to reblock one of my old AB's into the travel block shape (the one I usually have him make my hats from anyway) and he said there just wasn't enough brim on the existing hat in order to allow him to push the crown as high as it needed to go. The one I had at the time was more of a LC style that he had made me years ago.

Like I said, that's what I was told.

Regard! Mark

That makes sense, but after seeing Bruce Wayne's post about wanting to trade a Raiders for a last Crusade, I PM'ed him and asked why not just have the existing hat reblocked. He hadn't thought of that! That led me to posting this thread. I think a certain number of gearheads may be well-served by this knowledge.

I gave BendingOak a hat to refurb roughly a year ago. It had a tight raiders pinch and I wanted it to have a loose pinch resembling the last crusade. The problem with this conversion, not any fault of Oaks, is the faded crease line in the felt due to the tight pinch. That is one draw back to this type of conversion.

I won't name any names, but there was a guy who actually had my favorite LC penman, and wanted to sell it awhile back for a Raiders. The first thing I thought of was how can he let that beauty go. To each their own wants, but I agree, keep the memories of your hat and reblock it instead of having to break in a new one.

Beaverlid

What can I say...people change their minds about what they want. Me MOST of all! (need proof?...look at my descisions with my wings SL!) The only thing consistent in this life (at least mine) is change.
The truth of my LC is it never really fit right (probably more my fault than John's, as I was a complete hat newb! ) I wanted to reblock it, but it was more cost effective to sell it and pony up the extra for a new lid. I thought that while I was at it, I would go to a raiders style...

And to be fair, you got an Adventurebilt out of the deal! That ain't so shabby.

That does bring another factor into the mix, though. Knowing what some hatters charge for reblocks, etc., at what point does it make more financial sense to sell/trade/buy new? That seems counterintuitive, but if a reblock/refurb costs more than what one would get by selling the old and buying new, does that make doing so a valid option?

Hollowpond that LC was a beauty. Whoever got it has IMO one of the best looking LC fedoras out there. Bink however makes a valid point, an ABD is not to a bad trade.

Yeah, the ab deluxe was boons for the whole thing.
Still shaking my head how that worked out. But in all honesty, if reblocks had not been so high, I would still have that hat today. But, now I'm happy, and the gentleman who bought my hat is happy.

First off, Don't go blamin me for your problems, Bink.

Secondly, I recall Fedora stating that the way he blocks the felt by "preshrinking" it, if you later change it to a different style, it will wnat to revert back to the original block shape.

Thirdly, I shipped a hat to a guy on The Fedora Lounge on Saturday via the post office. The large flat rate box that the hat fit in was only $15 to ship. Optimo charges $30 for a reblock these days plus $15 to ship the hat back to you. Penman charges (I think) $90 for a reblock, plus you shipping it there & him shipping it back. Just some food for thought.

One last thing. I prefer to watch Last Crusade & Crystal Skull over Raiders any day, but I did not think of that on the day I ordered my Raiders hat. A lot of the time when I leave the house it is just real easy to throw on my officer's tie along with my Wested horse hide Last Crusade. However my hat wouldn't be proper...

Bruce Wayne wrote:First off, Don't go blamin me for your problems, Bink.

Why not? You make a great scapegoat. But again, good point on the "preshrinking." I think it's great to get all these bits into one place, as I'm sure there are others who have contemplated the same issue.

binkmeisterRick wrote:And to be fair, you got an Adventurebilt out of the deal! That ain't so shabby.

That does bring another factor into the mix, though. Knowing what some hatters charge for reblocks, etc., at what point does it make more financial sense to sell/trade/buy new? That seems counterintuitive, but if a reblock/refurb costs more than what one would get by selling the old and buying new, does that make doing so a valid option?

And this was my case exactly...to resize and reblock I was looking at 150 bucks (including shipping there and back). I sold my old hat, and bought a new one and the difference was only about $75. And as bink pointed out, it was an ab deluxe!!!!! A complete no-brainer...

binkmeisterRick wrote:...But again, good point on the "preshrinking." I think it's great to get all these bits into one place, as I'm sure there are others who have contemplated the same issue.

The preshrinking comes in to the equation because Fedora has said in the past that he has several different blocks for the different movies. You have a Raiders block, a ToD/LC block, & a Crystal Skull block. Each felt body is preshrunk to one of the blocks to take its shape.