Akubra Overload

The Shoe said:

I finally found the time to give my new Campdraft a Diamond bash. This was my first time shaping an open crowned hat. I’m pretty happy with the results, but no offense will be taken to constructive criticism…especially as I’ll be doing my new Fed IV before too long. View attachment 343541 View attachment 343539

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daddy0d0 said:

Nicely done! Ill call you when my Blue Grass Green comes in and you can come do mine!

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The Shoe said:

...I still haven’t done the Fed IV shaping - it’s just not felt weather here in Japan (especially lined felt).
I do have a question for all you Akubra people out there. In its open crown state, the brim pops right back up when I try to snap it down. Is this normal? Will it change when I shape it?

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Zombie_61 said:

In my experience the Fed IV brim doesn't have enough tension on it to snap up and down like you would on an Akubra with a bound brim like the Campdraft. I've just shaped the brims on my Fed IVs when I creased the crowns (i.e., front of the brim down), and left them like that. I've also found that the flange on the brims of my Fed IVs developed/became deeper over the first couple of weeks, so once I learned that I waited until the brims developed that extra depth before I shaped them. It's not a huge difference, but I like a curvy brim so...

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The Shoe said:

Thanks, Zombie.
I’ll do that. It’s a shame, though. I like the feel of snapping that brim down. When you say you wait a couple of weeks, do you mean between getting the hat and shaping it, or between shaping the crown and shaping the crown?

Gary

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Zombie_61 said:

When I got my first Campdraft and snapped the brim down that first time I thought, "Okay, that was kinda' interesting." But after doing that a few times as I began wearing the hat I thought, "Jeez, what a pain-in-the-neck. I wonder if I can just leave it snapped down..." So I did. Much better.

I got my first Fed IV because it was the closest I could afford to the hat Ford wore in Crystal Skull. I didn't want a Raiders hat, or a Last Crusade hat, I just wanted a nice fedora that was similar to the Crystal Skull hat. Still, when the hat arrived I thought the brim was quite a bit flatter than Ford's Crystal Skull hat. Too flat. But I shaped the crown anyway and started wearing the hat. After a couple of weeks I noticed the edges of the brim curling upward, and thought, "Oh. Okay, that's better." By then I had already given the front of the brim that "snapped down" appearance, so I liked the contrast between the front curling down and the sides and back of the brim curling up. When I got my second Fed IV five years later I remembered the brim flange developing, so I creased the crown but left the brim alone until I saw the flange (curling) develop again, which was a couple of weeks after I had received it. I was hoping the flanging would give the brim enough tension to allow me to snap it up and down, but that didn't happen so I shaped the front of the brim and left it "snapped" down.

Sorry that was so long-winded, but I hope it helps.

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