Club Obi Wan

I have a few AB's I want to have worked on/reblocked. Penman is out of commission due to an injury until who knows how long.

We all know the story about how Steve Delk blocked them a certain way that only a "really good" hatter could notice it. Penman knows this so-called "secret". But since he's unavailable...

Does anyone know of ANY OTHER HATTERS that know what was done to the hats that could reblock and work on my AB's?

Any suggestions/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I think this is a really useful question as John has said he will not work on another hat that has been worked on by another hatter. It seems like we will need a long term alternative, and immediately a short term one. Even when John gets back up I think your looking at a year lead time from what I’ve seen prior to his break for reblocks.

Personally I don’t know who I’d go for, maybe AdVintage purely from photos. When it comes down to it I’d probably go for HJ as I’m in the UK, but it won’t be a KOTCS block.

The sad thing is I will likely keep my AbDeluxe in box as a show piece, and get my regular AB reblocked by HJ in the next year.

Best

Gerry

Reach out to David Garrison. He studied directly with Steve Delk.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

Mike from northwest hats was affordable for a reblock. I asked Thomas at Advintage if he'd reblock any other branded hats and he said he didn't have the time to do other brands except Advintage.

I would ask Brian L for prices. He does good work too.

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Like Jeff said, try David Garrison first since he has direct experience with ABs though he's been mostly out of the game for several years but I know he makes a few hats now and then.

And like Daniel said, Mike does very good work up in Oregon. And Brian at Screencapped has developed into quite a skilled hatter and has done some quality reblocks I've seen.

But yeah, overall we need a few more quality hatters in the game, at least here in the US. Between the surge in vintage style millinery the past 5 years or so and several hatters leaving the trade, there's a big backlog and a growing market.

Now if only we could get the price of felts to stabilize

sadly, quality haberdasheries are becoming a rare thing. I've got about 4- 5 I can think of in Texas but even then....... would I trust them with an AB.....that's difficult.