Art Fawcett VS Hall of Fame

[Tedquinton]

Wow G Durand, I have long since run out of superlatives for these felts, but that hat is truly beautiful. Absolutely incredible.

(Expletive deleted) I wish I could afford one!!!

 

[seabass]

Some very amazing hats Art !

 

[RJR]

Simply beautiful.

 

[smoothsailor]

very nice indeed

 

[splintercellsz]

Outstanding! :eusa_clap

 

[Landman]

...I really like it in the Cattlemans crease. I never saw it that way when making it but it works.

I agree. Great looking hat, Michael!

John, the 2 5/8" brim on mine might look a little short because of my extra long oval block. I'm going to try and takes some pics of it creased and will post them later today.

 

[Landman]

Here it is in a basic teardrop style crease. It also looks good in a Cattleman's crease but because of the mid-width ribbon I decided to leave it in this crease. The felt is so light there is no need for any steam when creasing it but a little steam does help hold the crease in place. Once again, the camera has washed out the light blue tone of the felt.

Here is a picture of the inside.

 

[barrowjh]

Thanks, Landman, that helps a bunch, now the 2 5/8 looks right. I re-measured several of my hats and confirmed (to myself) that 2 5/8" is the brim width of several favorites. An olive strat, 3X Resistol San Ant, and beaver 25 San Ant are all 2 5/8" brims with about 4 1/4" height crown at the pinch and about 4 1/2" height at the top of the curl a quarter of the way back from the pinch. I'm thinking that is the crown dimensions resulting from most of these felts, so a 2 5/8" brim may work just fine. Appreciate the help

 

[Landman]

You are welcome, John. The crease on that one is 4 1/4" at the front. I have found that is my favorite height for a crown too.

 

[Banky]

Beautiful hats, Art. Being that these bodies came from our store I can confirm what Art is telling you guys, this felt is by far the most challenging to work with but very gratifying when it come together. From the craftsman's standpoint there isn't much to work with, so if you mess something up you have to pray you have enough material to make it go away again. Art is probably more daring than myself I haven't destroyed one of these yet (knock on wood) but it gets hairy at times, I've just never encountered a felt that behaves like this stuff does.

 

[philosophy101]

What an graceful hat! The crown looks so soft, creating an elegant, relaxed look, while the brim appears crisp and sharp. Congratulations to both Landman and Art!

 

[g.durand]

Great looking hat, Mike.

 

[tropicalbob]

That's really a beauty. I think the word for it would be "opalescent."

 

[MikeU]

Your new hat looks great I'm really liking this ribbon work narrow look", I'm waiting in the queue for mine , enjoy sir looks sharp..!!

 

[SpeedRcrX]

It's finally here!

I love this hat, the color is quite unique and the association with the ribbon is awesome!

That felt is something.

But I think photos will do the talk even if they don't do justice to this hat.
Sorry Dguy, I sold my A700 so no photos with my 50mm, I'm planning to purchase the A77. So for now these are done with the iPhone 6.

That last photo is the closer to the real color.

 

[Landman]

Great looking hat, SpeedRcrX. The sweatband on yours looks different than what Art normally uses. May just be the photo. It looks very nice though.

Have you weighed yours? I haven't bought a scale yet so I'm curious. Without a liner and a short brim I bet yours is really light.

 

[hatsRme]

Splendid! The color IS legit. So, SO sweet, SpeedR!! Wear it in the best of health!

 

[SpeedRcrX]

@Landman Yup I did my hat weights 86gr for comparison my black cherry weights 134gr

@hatsRme thanks I'm really digging that color.

 

[Rabbit]

Congratulations, SpeedRcrX and Landman. I envy you! I hope to be able to justify one of those further down the road - if there's any of them left by that time.

Leaving the factors brim size and hat size aside, the Mallory felt must be just about half the weight of Art's Winchester lites. That's real scary light.
51g (1.8oz) for Charlie's hat body after brim cut and before sweat & liner installation and 86g for Speed's finished hat - that leaves about 35g for the extra material. The black cherry lite would be 100g stripped, then.

I wonder how Art managed to pounce these Mallory felts, after not ripping them during blocking... they must be paper thin.


Edit:
I just checked the weight of some of my VS hats with an analogue cooking scale (no guarantee for accuracy, although at least the scale can be tared).

All three hats have a full liner, bound brim and two-inch hatbands.
Silberbelly LITE, old batch (before the re-issue) 100g
Dove LITE, new batch (when the LITEs were re-introduced) 100g
Silverbelly dressweight 150g

I'm curious Speed, was it your dressweight BC that you were weighing?

 

[SpeedRcrX]

I'm curious Speed, was it your dressweight BC that you were weighing?

Yes but I also have a black VS lightweight with similar dimensions and no liner as my coffeetone and I weight it and the result is 94gr