Recommendation for Outdoors Hat

[galopede]

Hard choice here!

I have three Akubras and a Tilly. When it gets really hot (I'm in Britain and it doesn't need to get very hot for us to complain!) then I reach for the Tilly. Mostly for the better airflow through the holes. I get a very sweaty head with the Akubras, much as I love them. As some said above, the Tillys can be stuffed anywhere with no problem too.

There again, Akubras are damned good hats!

Gareth

 

[KingAndrew]

My Akubra Fed IV is my go-to hat for foul weather. I wore it today for that reason. And I wore it hiking in the mountains in Sichuan province last week.

I've found that after a few good soakings, the felt has softened up quite a bit. It's certainly not stiff any more, although it is far from floppy.

If you're worried about heat, look at the Akubra Slouch Hat or one of their other models with ventilation holes. My Akubra is warmer than my Tilley, but I get compliments when I wear the Fed, and nobody's ever complimented my Tilley.

If I'm really concerned about heat, I wear straw hat. But those are no good for rain and the sorts of rough conditions I think you have in mind here.

 

[Brother cavefish]

Cant fail with Akubras

 

[Scott Gillin]

My two cents. I'm in the rainforest in Suriname in a maroon village and my fed iv has been fabulous. I should mention I am practically living outside. The temp is around 89°for and about 80% humidity. I went on a long walk today through three villages in direct sun. It's very close to the equator here. I got a sunburn through my t shirt. My head sweat a little but so did the rest of my body and I think the hat really kept my head a little cooler and definitely kept the sun of my neck and ears. Plus a bush guy from French Guiana told me he loved my hat and wanted one like it!

 

[Andykev]

Living in Idaho, I would buy a VS hat from Art. I have three, no....6 of them. Three are the current production, and the others are vintage hat bodies made custom for me years ago. Ok, everyone above has touted an Akubra. I think you will be served well with a regular, beaver fur fedora. YOU CANNOT ruin a good fedora (unless you drive over it with a truck). These hats will last forever. The felt only gets tighter and better each year, after year.
You will be able to wear it year round, in town, around your home, or out hiking or camping. I would select a color which will not show "trail dirt"..meaning "don't" buy a very, very light color. Stick to the natural or the medium tan or gray. Remember you can replace the liner, the sweatband, the ribbon, and have it blocked anytime in the future. Those many vintage hats I have? I have a "yard hat" which is a Cavanaugh 100% beaver, from the late 40's or early 50's. It's a "milk coffee" brown. Worn it trimming trees, rain, you name it. It still looks better than many new modern hats. You can't go wrong.

 

[bendingoak]

tuff……. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNt69cBPCPI

 

[ingineer]

D.C.
a Penman or a VS, great choices if in your budget
to parahrase the old axiom.
One is none, two will do, three is glee.
you need two hats, one for installing the irrigation pipe, a sunbody will suffice, and a felt
buy the Akubra now while the price is at a low, a year from now you will regret no doing so
i have several, and more on the way.
Campdraft one of my favorites. Silverbelly is iconic, fun to crease the open crown, cattleman, tycoon, etc.
i would never go back to just one cover.
fed IV

 

[Brother cavefish]

tuff……. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNt69cBPCPI

blasphemy

 

[Andykev]

tuff……. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNt69cBPCPI

You can do that with almost any good quality felt hat (NOT WOOL). I recommend VS as I know the hatter and the hat. I am sure Penman will give the same service and I stand by my recommendation to buy a beaver felt fedora, for your needs. (Stomping a light colored hat as shown in the video will mark the felt, so perhaps a dark color if it's to be walked on ).

 

[gtdean48]

You can do that with almost any good quality felt hat (NOT WOOL). I recommend VS as I know the hatter and the hat. I am sure Penman will give the same service and I stand by my recommendation to buy a beaver felt fedora, for your needs. (Stomping a light colored hat as shown in the video will mark the felt, so perhaps a dark color if it's to be walked on ).

:arated:
I have one of the VS Nutria blends as my hunting/camping/hiking hat = real tough, rugged but nice felt.
I also have an ArtLite natural, undyed beaver that is vented for my warmer weather "using" hat.
Either one can take all I can give it...

 

[jlw]

Where are Akubras manufactured?

 

[gtdean48]

Where are Akubras manufactured?

Australia

 

[bendingoak]

You can do that with almost any good quality felt hat (NOT WOOL). I recommend VS as I know the hatter and the hat. I am sure Penman will give the same service and I stand by my recommendation to buy a beaver felt fedora, for your needs. (Stomping a light colored hat as shown in the video will mark the felt, so perhaps a dark color if it's to be walked on ).

Beaver over any other felt, yes sir. Never made the video to suggest anyone to do that. I did it to show that if I can do that to the hat, it will last a life time of hat wearing and you can feel safe about it. Also not everyone uses the type of thread I use. The thread I use is a bit of over kill but I never worry about thread popping or rotting from water or sweat. Please do not take my statement as knock on anyone else, it's juste sharing on what I do and why.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Really? You realize that you're probably challenging the main reason that hats exist at all? And, for that matter.... why we have hair mostly on our heads? I don't think either evolution or ancient cultures were deceived by a US training manual from the '70s.

Sorry, but with several decades of experience to draw on I personally have real trouble believing that. I've used a variety of hats and caps to control body heat loss far more effectively, awake and asleep, than adding or subtracting layers to any other part of the body. So did untold thousands of years of our ancestors ("... she in her kerchief, and I in my cap, had just settled down for a long winter's nap..."). I don't think it was just a fashion statement for ten thousand cultures.

It is a fact that a large amount of the body's blood flow (and thus heat) goes to the brain, it is a fact that the body cannot afford to throttle that blood flow down much for obvious reasons, it's a fact that people's heads shine like miniature suns in infra-red photography in the cold, and with proper equipment tuned well enough you can even see the convection currents pouring off of their heads like flame off of a match head. I'd have to see some really compelling evidence that thousands of my own experiences confirming all that are based on some sort of illusion or self-deception.

Sure, we wear felt hats in extreme heat in the West here too (where I'm originally from), and it's a whole lot cooler than without them when the sun beats down unrelentingly, especially if humidity is low, especially if the crown is high enough to keep the sun-blasted top of the crown away from your skull and the brim wide enough to provide some shade, and especially if there's some breeze. A hat in the desert or high mountains can be a literal lifesaver, you will die much faster without one. None of that violates what we think we understand about the thermodynamics, and none of it is any consolation when hauling a load up a mountain or otherwise doing heavy exercise in the generally-shaded, still, humid, heavy air of the Southeast where they simply do not work in the same way. You'll be a whole lot more comfortable and a lot less sweaty just taking it off, and I don't mean "mind over matter".

I can't deny that you're having trouble believing this. I'm simply reporting on the science. And the notion is more complicated than the above. We wear coats and socks to stay warm. And yes, hats. The point is the head is not a special source of heat loss or gain that isn't the same thing as saying it has no impact.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Living in Idaho, I would buy a VS hat from Art. I have three, no....6 of them. Three are the current production, and the others are vintage hat bodies made custom for me years ago. Ok, everyone above has touted an Akubra. I think you will be served well with a regular, beaver fur fedora. YOU CANNOT ruin a good fedora (unless you drive over it with a truck). These hats will last forever. The felt only gets tighter and better each year, after year.
You will be able to wear it year round, in town, around your home, or out hiking or camping. I would select a color which will not show "trail dirt"..meaning "don't" buy a very, very light color. Stick to the natural or the medium tan or gray. Remember you can replace the liner, the sweatband, the ribbon, and have it blocked anytime in the future. Those many vintage hats I have? I have a "yard hat" which is a Cavanaugh 100% beaver, from the late 40's or early 50's. It's a "milk coffee" brown. Worn it trimming trees, rain, you name it. It still looks better than many new modern hats. You can't go wrong.

Well said. That's why a good felt hat is literally an investment.

 

[Mantis]

Roughin it

I wanted to post this for all of you bush-crafters, bushwhackers, campers and hunters out there. I just signed up for David Canterbury's Pathfinder survival school. This course is in Ohio and he teaches wilderness survival techniques for all levels of experience. I signed up for the first lesson (a 72 hr survival scenario).

I am going to be camping for a week near Pittsburg for a medieval combat sport called Dagorhir, then I am going to do the Pathfinder school in Ohio. After that I am shooting over to Tennessee for some good music and more camping. After Tennessee I am going fly fishing in Aspen, then Utah Montana, South Dakota, Arizona and the list goes on.

The point is I have some hardcore adventures coming up, and a good hat can make roughin it a heck of a lot better.




I got the Akubra Tablelands on sale for about 70 bucks on Australiangear.com (the sale has ended unfortunately). And I could not be happier with my first Fur-felt hat. However, a few modifications were necessary for life in the bush. I Took my hat over to Vince Corvelli at American Hatters in Bethesda MD. I told him that I wanted the sides of the brim pitched up like an American Cowboy hat, and The front and back pitched down (this will let me move through the bush without snagging the wide brim on branches). I also wanted a pretty lanyard made out of Horse Hair.

I dropped my hat off today at 5 o'clock pm , vince told me that it will be ready by 10 am tomorrow! I will post pictures of the modifications.

 

[Mantis]

If you are going to move this post, dont stick it anywhere with BSA

 

[ingineer]

Fly fishing?
A recommendation
http://greatfeathers.com/terminal-tackle/misc/anglers-image-wool-hat-band.aspx
The alternative is take one of those car polishing bonnets and cut it to fit.
Helps quite a lot if you don't have a fishing vest to keep your fly's dry

 

[Mantis]

Ahh very nice thank you.

 

[gtdean48]

Horsehair stampede strings can be scratchy against your face until they are well worn in....
Some never quit being scratch!