Adding a puggaree to Akubra Kokoda

Wolfwood · May 12, 2010

I decided that I need a more casual summer hat (in addition to my fedoras) and special ordered an Akubra Kokoda in size 63.

Then I removed the leather band thingy and replaced it with a puggaree. This is one of the first test shots of the new look. What do you think?

Personally, I'm planning to tighten the pinch a bit and perhaps try to tweak the brim slightly - not sure yet.

Boodles · May 12, 2010

Nice. Brings to mind the MikeK-ized Riverinas.

As time passed I began to think that the Riverina was a bit hot for the warmer months. I like the idea of the vent grommets in your Kokoda. Does this model have a liner? Somewhere in this forum there is a piece by Mojave Jack where he modified a Stratton with vent grommets. That also looks a bit like your Kokoda.

Wolfwood said:
I decided that I need a more casual summer hat (in addition to my fedoras) and special ordered an Akubra Kokoda in size 63.

Then I removed the leather band thingy and replaced it with a puggaree. This is one of the first test shots of the new look. What do you think?

Personally, I'm planning to tighten the pinch a bit and perhaps try to tweak the brim slightly - not sure yet.

Wolfwood · May 12, 2010

No liner on the kokoda. The puggaree covers up all but one of the vent grommets at the moment, though - one of the things that may require further tweaking.

Mr E Train · May 12, 2010

A bigger photo would be nice because I can't make it out too well. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a pug attached like that before, with the overlap in the front rather than on the left side where a ribbon usually goes, but I think I like it.

Razzman · May 12, 2010

I like the look of the hat with the pug. :eusa_clap You might try to find one smaller in width, which would not overlap the vent grommets.

Boodles · May 12, 2010

I'd like to keep the vents open if possible

This version of the Akubra sounds interesting. If you used one of the off-the-peg mil-spec looking pugs, which I have on my Riverina, you can't do much in the way of reducing the width. The hand tied pug that MikeK cooked up for us could probably be adjusted with the overlap to leave all the vents open. I suppose the loss of a few vents in Finland's weather may not be such a big deal as it likely would in my latitude, North Carolina, USA. With no liner and vents this comes close to the Stratton hat that Mojave Jack worked up. I'd like to have a Kokoda.

By the way, most of the MikeK copycats, like myself, squeezed in the pinch on the Riverinas. You may well like that on your Kokoda.

Wolfwood said:
No liner on the kokoda. The puggaree covers up all but one of the vent grommets at the moment, though - one of the things that may require further tweaking.

chippy · May 13, 2010

Mr E Train said:
A bigger photo would be nice because I can't make it out too well. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a pug attached like that before, with the overlap in the front rather than on the left side where a ribbon usually goes, but I think I like it.

actually its quite common to have the pug like that, here, if fashioned like the Aussie slouch hat. no doubt the Akubra hat company made use of the well known (to Australians only i expect?) Kokoda name that has a lot of history behind it, and fashioned a country style hat with aspects of the Aussie slouch hat incorporated in it. not sure whether it was Wolfwood intentional or not but the pug increases that flavour, its reminiscent of how the diggers hats took on their own shape with the owners character

here is a page showing some soldiers and colour pics of hats at the bottom

another showing slouch hats available to buy as they were from the Boar War to current Aust Army issue

Australian Commonwealth Horse hat from about 1901, the hat current hat is pretty much the same

one of the many pages on the Kokoda track that many men died on, has some pics of soldiers wearing their custom shape hats

Wolfwood · May 13, 2010

Here's a bigger pic (these are clickable for a bigger version, btw), with the downside of showing my ugly mug in a larger version as well:

And, yes, I'm yet to see if I need to have all the vents visible or not. We do get some pretty hot days here in the summers, but rarely more than a couple of dozen per summer.

Also, the position of the puggaree was indeed copied from the sluch hats that I've seen.

Boodles · May 13, 2010

Thanks Wolfwood

I can see now that the pug on your Kokoda is the same as the one I put onto my Riverina. Except for the one exposed vent on your hat and the squeezed pinch on mine the hats look about the same. I like the look. For the warm season here I'd probably try to fit a MikeK hand wrapped pug so as to leave more open vents. With vents and no liner I think it would be a good match to my climate.

Wolfwood said:
Here's a bigger pic (these are clickable for a bigger version, btw), with the downside of showing my ugly mug in a larger version as well:

And, yes, I'm yet to see if I need to have all the vents visible or not. We do get some pretty hot days here in the summers, but rarely more than a couple of dozen per summer.

Also, the position of the puggaree was indeed copied from the sluch hats that I've seen.

Wolfwood · May 14, 2010

Since it happens to be a hot day today, I did a small experiment. The single vent makes a small difference in comparison to a non-vented fedora, but I think I'll try some trick to get all the vents exposed.

And yes, the puggaree was ready-made and bought. Got a link where I could see MikeK's hand-wrapped puggaree, Boodles?

Boodles · May 14, 2010

Akubra Safarized

I cannot figure out how to copy in more than one link. The other two threads I found are easy to search for:
The Perfect Safari Hat and Akubra Riverina Owners. Both are in hats.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=26255&highlight=riverina

I forgot that these hats have two vents on each side. Duh. Maybe it's the plastic protected liner that makes these hot.

Wolfwood said:
Since it happens to be a hot day today, I did a small experiment. The single vent makes a small difference in comparison to a non-vented fedora, but I think I'll try some trick to get all the vents exposed.

And yes, the puggaree was ready-made and bought. Got a link where I could see MikeK's hand-wrapped puggaree, Boodles?

Ren · Feb 3, 2017

Wolfwood said:
I decided that I need a more casual summer hat (in addition to my fedoras) and special ordered an Akubra Kokoda in size 63.

Then I removed the leather band thingy and replaced it with a puggaree. This is one of the first test shots of the new look. What do you think?

Personally, I'm planning to tighten the pinch a bit and perhaps try to tweak the brim slightly - not sure yet.

Ren · Feb 3, 2017

When I took delivery of my Kokoda, the first thing that came to my mind was the funny smell from its band (raffia?) . Unsatisfied with the band, I ordered a puggaree that looked the same as yours. But, despite the attractiveness of this, I was left unsatisfied once again. Then I decided to customize the hat another way. I removed the leather band from my damaged black Coober Pedy and placed it on the Kokoda. I added a kangaroo-like silver pin to secure the piece itself. A few blobs of superglue were enough to fix the band in place. The result is quite satisfying.

HPIM0151

Ren
Feb 3, 2017

HPIM0153

Ren
Feb 3, 2017

RJR · Feb 3, 2017

Ren said:
When I took delivery of my Kokoda, the first thing that came to my mind was the funny smell from its band (raffia?) . Unsatisfied with the band, I ordered a puggaree that looked the same as yours. But, despite the attractiveness of this, I was left unsatisfied once again. Then I decided to customize the hat another way. I removed the leather band from my damaged black Coober Pedy and placed it on the Kokoda. I added a kangaroo-like silver pin to secure the piece itself. A few blobs of superglue were enough to fix the band in place. The result is quite satisfying.

HPIM0151

Ren

Feb 3, 2017

HPIM0153

Ren

Feb 3, 2017

Nice touch.

Adding a puggaree to Akubra Kokoda

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