Club Obi Wan

Just got my Steele and Jones Raiders fedora to match my jacket from them. It’s great and I love it. The brim needs some serious shaping and I don’t know how to do it.

It’s not bad as is.

If you want to add more shape you can either spray the brim lightly with water (distilled water preferred because it is less likely to discolor the felt) and then gently shape it to what you want, or you can lightly steam the brim using a kettle to get the same result. You don’t have to treat it like a Faberge Egg, just don’t saturate the felt or go overboard with steam.

Once it’s either slightly damp use one hand inside the crown to hold it and stroke the other along the outside of the brim to curl it up or down, depending on what you’re trying to do. Then either wear it or put it on a stand until it dries.

I wouldn't mess with it. It looks pretty decent as is, and will keep getting better as you keep handling it, keep wearing it, and use the brim to pull it on every time you wear it. Don't try to force character.

Not to induce too much terror, but too much tea-kettle steam misdirected can shrink fur felt. But gentle steaming does soften the felt enough to add some new shaping.

Your hat looks like high-quality fedora-weight felt (not western-hat stiff). If the felt has that nice flexible softness, you can also try GENTLY hand curling and rolling the brim where you want to add some new curves. That may give the brim enough of what you're looking for, and shouldn't do any damage.

If that less-invasive technique doesn't work, you can always try steam or spraying with distilled water later on.

Or go with Mulceber's advice, and see how the hat evolves just by wearing it for a while.

Mulceber wrote:I wouldn't mess with it. It looks pretty decent as is, and will keep getting better as you keep handling it, keep wearing it, and use the brim to pull it on every time you wear it. Don't try to force character.

+1

Just handle the brim and gently shape it from time to time. That's a good lookin' hat!

Like others have said, for a Raiders just wear it and handle it. If it were an LC and you wanted those cowboy curls then I'd say lightly dampen the sides and curl it and gently tie it with some string over the crown and let it sit overnight, but a Raiders is so flat that just wearing it and breaking it in works best.

Get that Raiders look to match your jacket:
Sit on it, stomp on it, smash the sides together between your hands while you are not wearing it.
Wear it while you are sweating.
Put it on when you get out of the shower.

It was interesting to see Indy gear at some of the events that looks brand new, creases in the pants, dry cleaned shirts, spotless hats, shined shoes and belt buckles.....


Better this way:

zeus36 wrote:Get that Raiders look to match your jacket:
Sit on it, stomp on it, smash the sides together between your hands while you are not wearing it.
Wear it while you are sweating.
Put it on when you get out of the shower.

It was interesting to see Indy gear at some of the events that looks brand new, creases in the pants, dry cleaned shirts, spotless hats, shined shoes and belt buckles.....


Better this way:

that way You ll finish to destroy the hat soon... and will obtain a great tapering crown soon too imho..

Agreed, it's better to wear that hat and let it gain its own character. The hat will last longer and look more authentic that way.

Sitting on, distressing, and otherwise abusing the hat will only bring a short-term benefit of looking like the movie hat. The key is to just wear it.