Impressions and images of my new Akubra Federation IV in Carbon Grey

jecoe,
From your latest picture it looks like the color I'm hoping for but I know this won't be my one and only hat. I will probably end up buying a lighter grey next and then a brown...and then a silverbelly...and the list goes on and on.

Thanks,
pj

jecoe@earthlink said:

Panama Jack --
I posted this photo in a different thread, but it's so hard to keep all these Akubra threads going at once, I will show it here, too.

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That's the picture that sold me. I've now got this hat on order. Nice hat. If it looks half as good on me as it does here in this picture, I'll be happy.

rrog

I hate to complain about Hatsdirect because they were so prompt to ship and got it here so quick.

I opened my box and found this:



Pardon the picture, but of the ones I took this shows it the clearest. This was all over the bottom of the brim all the way around. It looked like grease and mud. In fact, the first thing that crossed my mind was that they must have dropped my hat on the floor of an engine repair shop. I was quite heartbroken, to be sure. On the bright side, however, the top of the hat was pristine, and had what appeared to be zero taper (ironically I'd rather have that front side taper as shown in the picture on the last page ... it would suit my head shape better, but alas).

I took some wet paper towels (soft ones so as to make sure the towels wear away first if anything gets abraded) and some Shout gel and started to work carefully around the bottom of the hat in a clockwise direction. A very small bit of the felt abraded with the scrubbing (not noticeable when complete but gave me cause for concern while cleaning), but all in all I was able to remove 98%+ of the gunk. There are still two pinpoint black dots right on the edge of the brim on one side and a grease spot the size of a pencil eraser that you can barely make out still ... my wife only noticed it when I pointed it out directly to her. All in all I'm satisfied with the cleanup, but kind of peeved that it was necessary.

Then to the bashing, which made me nervous since I never did it before. I thought from descriptions here the hat would be very stiff (I got a deluxe), but found it worked very easily in my hands, not too much stiffer than a Stetson Nostalgia I checked out down at Bernie Utz's, but definitely felt more solid and sturdy than the paper thin and fragile feel of the Nostalgia. I was able to bash it around easily, but it would just pop right back out the moment I'd put it on my head, or do anything at all with it. I finally had to spray it down and let the bash dry to get it to "stick" though I can't say mine looks anything as nice as Dumbjaw's.

I'll post pictures as close to true color as I can manage once it fully dries (it's finishing that process on my head right now). I have a Moonstone Grey, so I hope it'll help some folks colorwise.

hey Airspirit,
please throw a few pics in this thread when you get a chance. i started it hoping it would be one about the fed IV deluxe.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=35989

Quick update: both my brown and grey Federation IV Standards have now withstood two separate downpours. Not a drizzle or a light rain, but torrential rains that thoroughly soaked them through and through, enough where if I tipped the hat, rivulets would literally stream off of them. Not only did they not come out worse for wear, they came out better. These are incredible, truly all-weather hats and I'm thoroughly impressed. Considering the AUD -> USD conversion, I feel like I outright stole these.

Want to add my new Carbon Fed IV

Sorry about the wait, been scotchgarding the thing and life happened. Without further ado:


Under manmade lights there are brownish highlights to the felt due to the yellow in the bulbs. The lighting was CFL. I went with a modification of Dumbjaw's awesome bash making a C crown necessary due to the lowering of the top.


Under natural (overcast Washington) light the brown is almost gone replaced by more of a bluish hint. The front is more accurate than the back in this image as it is corrupted by the kitchen light and shadow.


On me from the front, it took a ton of work to get the crown down to where it didn't make my head look too tall and skinny.


Side angle. Pardon the myspace effect.

All in all I love this hat and once my Stylemaster in mid-grey comes in maybe I'll post a side by side of the colors. I'm seriously considering ordering one of these in a light brown. Now just to make the brim a bit more swoopy ...

That's a good looking hat. And I know it's personal preference on my part, but I think the brim looks great the way it is. You wear it well. If it's as comfortable as it is nice looking, you ought to really enjoy wearing it.

rrog

The sweatband on the deluxes is something else: it is soft as velvet. The only problem that I have with the hat at this point is that my head is slightly long oval and the hat seems rounder than the average hat, so it will take some time to adjust to my head, but when it does it will be amazing.

YES! I just got my first Akubra (and not the last) in the mail today. Carbon Grey Fed IV. It was very easy to shape right out of the box but I did have to use some steam to make the brim stay down in the front. I'm not one to post pics of my mug in the hats/caps I own but I might have to with this.

not the best pics in the world. here you can see my first attempt at shaping the crown.

hey...very nice teardrop you have there! I think that is my plan for mine when it arrives, which should be any day now. I plan to pinch it with an Indy type crease though since I love that Raiders look.

airspirit said:

...I hate to complain about Hatsdirect because they were so prompt to ship and got it here so quick.

I opened my box and found this...

Click to expand...

I to thought that Hats direct had great presale service, I received my shipment last night and the hats were ok, but the outside of the box looked like they used to to lay on when they were working under a car, dirty, oil spots, etc.

Oh, and it seems my silverbelly campdraft had migrated to a tawny fawn. I emailed them but they haven't responded yet.

Suits you perfectly. Enjoy it!

Don't be afraid to get yours wet:

Dumbjaw said:

I can attempt this tonight showing the Carbon Grey Federation next to a Moonstone Grey Stylemaster (the latter of which I'm about to ship out to the winning bidder) if anybody would like, although I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with these two colors at this point.

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Dumbjaw, I'm curious. Was it the Stylemaster itself, the fit or the color that you didn't like? I'm talking about the reason you sold it. Was it just not "you" or did you order it with the intent to sell it or what? I've got a Stylemaster on its way and was just wondering.

Thanks,
rrog

rrog said:

Dumbjaw, I'm curious. Was it the Stylemaster itself, the fit or the color that you didn't like? I'm talking about the reason you sold it. Was it just not "you" or did you order it with the intent to sell it or what?

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Oh, no, it's a great hat. The lightweight felt is something exceptional, as I haven't really found any other modern production lightweight felts. The crown is low, but I liked that. The reason why I sold the Moonstone Stylemaster is because I won that Stetson Whippet.

It's not a stretch to say that most posters in this Hat forum are hat collectors, but I'm not much of one. What I've been doing is buying / selling as many as I can in order to end up with the best of the best for myself in the limited 7 5/8 - 7 3/4 stock out there.

What it really came down to is that I couldn't imagine a situation where I'd reach for the Stylemaster instead of the Whippet. This isn't a negative statement about the Stylemaster so much as it is a positive statement about the Whippet along with a telling sign of my typical thriftiness.

Another reason is that I needed some extra spending money for this Christmas holiday. Times are hard, and I've made several sacrifices; the hats I've recently auctioned are one example of many.

Right now, I'm in a good spot as far as my hat collection goes. A bowler for odd occasions, a high-crowned brown Dobbs 20 that I mentioned in the Classifieds recently, a brown Herbert Johnson / Brooks Brothers, a grey Stetson Whippet, a brown Fed IV, and a grey Fed IV. I don't have any glaring holes in my collection. Now if I were an actual collector like many of you, I'd have tons of holes to fill! So it goes. I'm satisfied. There's no doubt that I will continue scouring eBay and vintage shops for good finds, but if it doesn't work for me 100%, then it'll leave my hands.

In summary: If I'm not going to wear it consistently, then I sell it. It does nobody any good to have it sitting in a box in the closet in my modest South Philadelphia apartment if it can be worn, appreciated, or displayed.

You know?

Anyway, I will continue to recommend the Stylemaster, even if it ultimately didn't end up in my wearable rotation.

Here's a good link for comparison of the Moonstone and Carbon Grey, together in the same lighting. The Whippet is Carbon Grey and the Turin Moonstone.
http://www.valleycountry.com.au/catalogue/search_result?b_start=30&intersection=True&name=akubra

Copy-hat

So impressed with this I am getting a carbon one today. Just got the moonstone and dark brown last week.

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I've posted here, and I've changed webhosts since, so a lot of my old image links are broken. I'm just updating the three threads that reflect my remaining three hats (VS, grey Fed IV, brown Fed IV) with images of them now, for reference material.

Model: Akubra Federation IV
Quality: Standard
Color: Carbon Grey
Crown: Open and dry-creased