Club Obi Wan

There was a time, years and years ago, when I was a constant presence on the hat forum. I was obsessed with the Raiders hat and bought and experimented with a great many hats in my futile quest to ind the perfect replica - Akubras, HJs, ABs, Christies, loads of them Shaped them, trimmed them, stretched them, swam with them... all sorts of madness. Anyway I gave up on the Raiders hat a good long while ago and haven't worn an Indy hat at all for at least a year. But recently I got interested again in having a fedora, and probably a brown one, and probably a straight sided one.... probably a Raiders one!

To cut this ramble a little shorter, after poking around the hat forum a bit, one of our members wrote to me that he had a Henry in my size that he was willing to part with and I jumped at the chance. It arrived two days later. When I opened up the box and took out the hat it was as if I was a kid again and I had just watched Raiders and somehow managed to get a hat like the one in the movie! Grinning from ear to ear!

The Henry is a lovely hat, lovely felt, a rich brown colour, nice and soft and to me really looks the part. I gave it a generic Raiders bash and have been wearing it ever since. I can't remember the last time I felt so happy about a hat.

So I'm not going to compare it to movie stills, not going to obsess and fuss about it - just going to wear it whenever I happen to feel like it - which might well be pretty often! Thanks to Ian for sending this hat my way!

And now some pics..
I should be smiling more but I was trying to explain to my daughter how to use the camera (excuses excuses...)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/p ... CN3429.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/p ... CN3422.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/p ... CN3426.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/p ... CN3430.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/p ... CN3421.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wow !

now that's a great looking Indy hat !
have two Henrys myself, one in 58 cm crystal skull bashed (just a tad too large) and a 57 cm with a Riaders turn that never quite looked too good on my noggin'. I just sold it to a COB member and i hope it fits him as well as yours fits you !

You made a GREAT choice, whiskey!

I was impressed with the Henry I examined a few years ago.

That one suits you perfectly!

Regards! Michaelson

Looks great on you and that bash is awesome!!

So glad it finally found a loving head to sit on....instead of just sitting on my hat rack...Brings a tear to my eye...

Just a point to note about this hat though; Although it is a Henry, it was re-blocked by Mr Penman so the shape you are seeing isn't necessarily the same block shape as the Henry as supplied.

Ian

Whisky that hat looks great! Well done.

regards

Stones

And THERE'S that Nowak again! Man, I've always admired your jacket Whiskyman! It's one of the best Raiders jackets I've ever seen. Is that the original 747?

Regards, Dr. J

Lookin' very sharp, my friend! Congrats on a great hat connection! You wear it well!

DHW

AWESOME!!!!! Looks good on you!! Man.......you guys (mitch) and your great looking mugs!! Some of us aren't so blessed so (myself) so the hat would look better over our faces than on top of our heads. But seriously, what a great looking hat!!! And yeah, I wouldn't sweat the SA bash so much. Just chill, enjoy the hat, and let the hat take on it's own personality.

that hat suits you very well, whiskey


CJ

That lovely hat could not suit you better!


Looks GREAT!

Agreed - great hat - great look on you.

your whole attitude shows in your pics....you look content, confident and happy...looks great. enjoy your gear, again!

Man, The Henry looks better and better with each picture I see, it looks amazing, especially the last picture... Seems very nostalgic, for some reason. This also makes me less patient to eventually receive my Henry from John Penman...

The Cat in the Hat is back Nice to see you back under cover. Sweet looking hat!!!

Thanks guys!! really enjoying wearing a hat again - even though the pics look a little staged. I generally wear it a little more tipped back. Also it's hard to capture the colour of the hat. Seems a bit washed out in these pics.

Oh, and the jacket is a Wested. Got rid of my Novaks years ago.

Nice hat and nice pics. Sometimes obsessing over things can ruin the fun in them. Ive been there a 100x over with other things. By the time you get done nitpicking,and researching,and trial and error, you end up losing interest..Enjoy the hat, the style and the feeling..

I think without the "nitpicking" this site wouldn't exist...We are all fans in the degree we are because we nitpick....And I've found, rather than meaning I get bored of the subject, it's meant that it just opens the "rabbit hole" deeper and deeper....Which may not necessarily be a good thing...LOL

Whisky....Quality.

Lovely hat, and very well suited bash for you as well Sir....I'd not have said "Henry" at first glance....You (And Ian and John I guess?) did a lovely job on that one, and it works perfectly for you!

Very high quality!

I asked John to reblock it on his new Raiders block when I sent it to him. He also somehow corrected the size to a true 59cm and sewed the liner in. I think that the liners are now sewn in as supplied, but mine was from an old batch.
I'm really happy that you like it and it really looks awesome on you....

Ian

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk

It's nice to see more pics of a Henry; I just ordered one and will be wearing it LC style... since I already have a Fed IV with the classic raiders crease (and a whole lotta miles so far). I can only hope that mine will like nearly as nice as this one and I'll be happy. Can't wait!

Its good to see you in a hat once again Nick. Im going to be the jerk and say I think you need a tad more brim.

That does look good on you, good to see you wearing a fedora again.
I have one questionn, when you rebashed it, did you also put the crease on the right side, (left side, when on your noggin). I love that look, and if you did, how'd ya do it.

Croft

Thanks folks - I'm having to get used to wearing it in public, feeling a bit self conscious still.

As for the bash, I didn't give it much thought - it's the way I've always bashed my hats - I think...

It takes a while to get used to wearing hats; we're no longer a hat wearing soceity (not counting baseball hats which in fact may not really count). We should be, because hat's first function is to protect us from the ravages of the sun. But you will get used to it and eventually you'll feel naked without one. Especially should you lose your hair. The trick is to get alot of hats, which is indeed tricky, considering how much they can cost today. You'll be looking at that hat and thinking to yourself how can I wear a 4, 5, or 6 hundred dollar hat outside? That's the hard part. So you need alot of them....

Kim Hoffman wrote:It takes a while to get used to wearing hats; we're no longer a hat wearing soceity (not counting baseball hats which in fact may not really count). We should be, because hat's first function is to protect us from the ravages of the sun. But you will get used to it and eventually you'll feel naked without one. Especially should you lose your hair. The trick is to get alot of hats, which is indeed tricky, considering how much they can cost today. You'll be looking at that hat and thinking to yourself how can I wear a 4, 5, or 6 hundred dollar hat outside? That's the hard part. So you need alot of them....

Exactly, I have numerous hats, including a nice vintage Dobbs that I interchange with a modified moonstone Fed IV when going to work. Since I wear them every day now, it's absolutely a part of who I am and if somehow I forget my hat, I'm almost lost.

Absolutely. I don't go anywhere without a fedora on my head.

Well I watched Raiders last night and decided to give my Henry a more deliberate Raiders style bash, which meant giving it even more of a turn to give the brim more of a swoop. I'm not sure whether it's an improvement or not. The brim does have more swoop but the bow is quite far forward now and the hat is pretty wonky looking. What do you think? Keep it like this or revert to the previous bash?








How it looked before
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/p ... CN3429.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y285/p ... CN3430.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I love a good "wonky" hat but in this particular case, I think it looked much more at home in the previous bash. For some reason, this one looks forced whereas the first bash looks cool and comfortable on you.

Since we do not need two separate threads on the same topic, I've combined the threads together. Whiskyman, please decide which 6 photos you'd like to keep as images and which you would like to turn into links. Thank you.

Best wishes,
Nebraska Schulte

P.S. You have a nice looking hat there.

If you like it, go with it.

But if it were me and my hat? I'd go back.

Yeah, I actually think the original crease looked more like a good raiders hat.

nice work on the block, but i concur with what's been said : the first version suited you best.

I think the original bash looked good as well, in my opinion.

I also think the original bash looked better so I've put it back. Quite apart from that, it's actually more comfortable on my head!
Thenks for taking the time to look at the pics and offer your thoughts.

No prob, that's what we're here for. But I will say that I am jealous of how nice your Henry looks, John Penman is waiting to get his next batch of Henrys in, as soon as that happens, I'll be able to join the Henry club.

whiskyman wrote:I also think the original bash looked better so I've put it back. Quite apart from that, it's actually more comfortable on my head!
Thenks for taking the time to look at the pics and offer your thoughts.

Yeah, sometimes it just takes a few adjustments to see how well things looked at the start. Plus, it sorta loosens the hat up a bit. I've played around with the bash on my hat so many times that while most of the time it lost the look I was after, it softened the hat up and made it more comfortable in the end. Plus, I think how I have it now, though not 100% screen accurate to most of the Raiders shots I was trying for, it can now take on a nice SoC look with some fuller's added.

Glad to hear that you went back to the old bash, it looked really nice.