Tonak fedora

[matei]

During a recent visit to Romania to see some family I picked up a dark blue Czech (Tonak) fedora. The felt is very soft and pliable compared to my Herbert Johnsons. It cost me about €30. Regardless of the price - it looks nice.

At this price it is the ideal hat to experiment with for different crown shapes!

There are a surprising amount of hats available. Most of the larger shops (Romanian version of malls or department stores) have a small selection. They are mostly foreign made.

 

[Biltmore Bob]

I have had some (very little) experience with the hats that you speak of. Mine is a Solentino, but I have been told it was made by Tonak. The felt of mine is very thin, tight, and light. The crown crease soon lost it's shape and would not accept a crease, either when I tried to do it myself with a kettle on the boil, or a professional hatter here in Houston. I wore it for about a season, until it became very tight fitting, I guess it shrunk. I did not store it properly, and noticed a few moth nibbles that whent clean through the felt. The hat was very inexpensive, $50 US.

 

[BellyTank]

Yes, that'll be fun.
I have a couple of free samples from a Polish company that I'm currently playing with- it's amazing what a complete visual change you can make with a bit of hand forming and steam. Yeh- Tonak are Czech, the Poles and Czechs make a lot of hats- pretty much most of the fur felt fashion hats that are sold in Europe and a lot abroad too and marketed under different names in the 'States.
The 2 that I scored are black and I think are Rabbit -one has a slight velour finish and the other is smoother.
I haven't really found any of the Czech or Polish ones that are straight-crowned, they all seem to have some taper- but I'm working on it...

Have fun-

B
T

 

[Winkydink]

available in the usa?

is this the company you guys are talking about;

http://www.tonak.com/ang/tonak.html

http://www.levinehat.com/selentino_hats.htm

http://www.levinehat.com/Selentino_Sterling.htm



winky.

 

[BellyTank]

That's the company-

B
T

 

[BellyTank]

European Hat Pictures...

...hahaha... not yet my friends but I just borrowed a camera, so will put up some pics of the Polish hat later today-
Maybe Mrs. BellyTank can model it for me...

B
T

 

[BellyTank]

Here are some pics...

This hat is made in Poland, is actaully dark Carcoal/almost black in colour and has a very fine velour finish- but as usual, the digital photos/flash make the felt look coarser and fuzzier than in reality- it's very dark and very smooth, with only a slight nap to the finish. This hat was a sample and not of the colour and style of my choosing but I've been able to see what they can make and to have a play around with it. It currently looks totally different from when I received it- the brim was deeply domed, which I have ironed out a bit and the crown was lightly centre dented and appeared more tapered.
The crown at its highest with this treatment, is just on 5" at the side-
brim is slightly dimensionally cut and is 2.5" at its smallest.
The crown could be higher but it has a tapered dome, so I made it lower to get away from so much visible taper. If these people would make straighter crowns I would almost be happy-

B
T

 

[Flitcraft]

That actually looks pretty good in the photos.
I like the gray on gray color scheme better than I thought I would.
Looks classy and understated.

 

[BellyTank]

Thanks-
it's virtually black in the flesh.
The camera and flash don't do it justice- it's much darker and much more even in colour and smoother than possible to show in these pics-

B
T

 

[Flitcraft]

Man, based on your description, that sounds like one killer lid!
I know you keep saying the people where you are in Denmark
don't like the vintage look, but how could you not appreciate
a hat that looks that cool?

 

[BellyTank]

Well, in some ways, it's better than I thought it would be- it's not trying to be a vintage lid, it's just a 'contemporary' interpretation- probably an 'Old man's hat'.
But- there's definitely potential there I think. I'll keep trying to get them doing some taller, straighter crowns. This was what they chose to send to me from what I communicated to them- from they currently make and I have re-styled it.
I would agree that it's 'nice' but I remain hopeful that I can get an economical European version of what I'm looking for...
My Sister-in-law has just re-located to Poland, so I have some good contacts there. To get something good out of a lower-value economy would be great.

Thanks-
B
T

 

[fedoralover]

That hat is very very close to being a dead ringer for the Huckel I had. The shape of the crown is exactly the same. I was very impressed with the felt.

fedoralover

 

[BellyTank]

Well- this is a Polish manufactured one- not Czeck and I completely restyled the crown from a shallow centre dent- so it WAS completely different originally.
The felt is pretty soft and about 1.5mm thick.

B
T