Think he meant = "UN-crease" as in remove the crease to return to open crown.....Originally Posted by Chuck Naill
Think he meant = "UN-crease" as in remove the crease to return to open crown.....
Deputy Swoopy, Crease Police - Mounted Division, Fedora Bureau of Investigation - Icon Defender
I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these to other people and I require the same from them.
WAR = What is it good for?
I never know what is the real height--the open crown height, or if creased, the front height, or the back height. I could measure one of those heights, but then I wouldn't have any confidence that the height I picked, is the same as what somebody else is talking about. Brim width though is easy.
This may sound silly and un-necessary.....but, with all the various people, ages, different levels of hat experience and also Hat Slang.........
along with the rapidly increasing of new people joining the Lounge.....
maybe the bartenders and a few knowledgeable Loungers that reguarly give help, advice and guidance to fellow Loungers and newbies should put together a "FL Hat Glossary" sticky thread.
So that everyone could be on the same page as to the terminology used on the Lounge.
Just an off-topic thought.......
Last edited by Mystic; 06-26-2012 at 06:47 AM.
Is there much free-space between the top of your head and the underside of the crown, when worn? If not, you may not be able to decrease the crown much.
My favourite straw has a simple homburg centre-dent, and though it looks like it has a lot of crown the inside just barely touches my hair.
Don
Feel younger than you look, and
Act younger than you feel.
I don't think they make it anymore, and I can't remember what Dobbs called it. It's the same hat I'm wearing in my avatar, by the by.
I've done a fair amount of searching and it seems that 4" is the standard height for a Panama these days. So I guess that's what I'll be going with.
The challenge in replicating straws is that their finished creases (or bashes, or whatever you wanna call 'em) are defined by the shaped blocks on which they are formed. The crease is pressed into them, on the block, with a corresponding piece called a tipper.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating ...
The repertoire of a custom hatter working in straws is limited by his blocks. He may be able to make a hat with a crown shape you really dig, but maybe he can't make a lookalike hat for you because he has that particular block only in a size three sizes removed from yours. While there are little tricks to go up or down a size or so, he can't make a size 7 3/4 hat on a 7 1/4 block.
He is also limited by what the straw bodies give him to work with. They are only so big (or small). Sometimes he just can't get a customer as much (or as little) brim width as he wants, along with so much (or little) crown height. This is especially troublesome on either end of the size scale.
But that's all part of what's cool about straws, though, especially the ones coming out of small custom hat shops. The bodies are woven by hand by Ecuadorian villagers, so no two are quite identical, and then the hat finisher (aka hatter) is often working with blocks and flanges pushing 100 years old, in styles that nothing made in more recent times quite replicates. So the guy who ends up with such a hat atop his head can be absolutely confident he won't see its twin on his sunny day trip to the horse track.
I have to say you explain so very much, tonyb, and in looking at straws or panama hats, there are some that may look alike but as you say would not be exact. I have wanted to have a custom panama or straw hat to be made like a style Frank Sinatra wore, real 1950's looking (similar to a production hat called the Bishop) but with more height to it, in a color that is natural straw (non white) sand. The real question would be, if a hat maker would be able to bring the crown up a bit on a block to increase the height?
......maybe the bartenders and a few knowledgeable Loungers that reguarly give help, advice and guidance to fellow Loungers and newbies should put together a "FL Hat Glossary" sticky thread.
So that everyone could be on the same page as to the terminology used on the Lounge.
.......
That would be great if anyone would use it.
You can tell from the questions... multi photo repost... and the numerous same thread topics that very few use the stickys.
It is almost a waste of time for us bartenders to take the time and do all the work.
RBH
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
''I won't be wronged.
I won't be insulted.
I won't be laid a-hand on.
I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.''
*John Bernard Books- 1901*
My suggestion is that you find a photo of Old Blue Eyes in such a hat (or a hat close enough to what you have in mind) and email it to a hatter who might be well equipped for the task, along with your description of how a hat you'd really dig might differ from the pictured lid. (That hatter wouldn't be me, alas.) If you wish, I could recommend a couple such hatters. I don't know for certain that they could get you want you want, but they very well may. Unless the hatter just got unusually lucky (not likely, that) acquiring blocks for straws came at considerable hassle and/or expense, so the hatter is of course looking to amortize the purchase.
Last edited by tonyb; 06-26-2012 at 08:28 PM.
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