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Dobbs 15 RIP

jake_fink

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,279
Location
Taranna
I don't know if this is worth posting and mods should feel free to delete (as they feel free to do in any case) should it be a problem.

Winter is coming and I've been thinking about getting a new beater for the cold wet weather ahead. I've been thinking of various Akubras and, though I've had one disappointment, I was thinking of a federation, only in tawny fawn.

Bored yet?

Anyway, I went to a site called Club Obi Wan to see if anyone had posted a picture of the tawny fawn federation, and I discovered that vintage hats are appearing in the fedora section where on previous visits I had seen mainly new hats made in the Indiana Jones style. Now, I know the FLounge has a history with the COW forum but for my money I've never understood why anyone would want to dress up like Indiana Jones any more than I can understand why anyone would want to dress up like Batman, however, to each his own, live and let live and all that stuff, and the IJ thing has given us the benefit of some good jackets and hats and hat makers and tailors, so really, I'm not complaining. I have to say though, I was surprised and a little disappointed (floored really), by something I saw there.

Someone, in their obsession with Indiana Jones, has taken a Dobbs fifteen, apparently a homburg, and in A#1 condition and attempted to chop and "bash" it into an Indiana Jones style hat. :eek:

I've seen some bad homburg treatment here, where someone has purchased a homburg or some other hat with a pencil roll and tried to make it a fedora against its will. Usually that type of thing is filed under "experiment" and the hat is later allowed ot be what it was made to be. But this act of vandalism is bizarre and depressing because good vintage hats are getting harder to find (at least up here), and they are getting outrageously expensive, and because the poster never actually got his Indiana Jones style hat out of the destruction.

I guess the upshot(s) is:
1 I've learned yet again to keep out of COW.:rolleyes:
2 Vintage hats have caught on and will, I'm afraid, continue to be harder to find and continue to rise in price (especially if they are killed). :(
3 Some people just can't get around their obsession and can never own enough of one style of hat. :eusa_doh:
4 Protect your hats, treat them nicely, there are people out there who mean them harm. [huh]


Here's the link for those of you who are curious and haven't already seen it (I saw some familiar faces in there - hi guys!):

hat cruelty

over and out
 

ideaguy

One Too Many
Messages
1,042
Location
Western Massachusetts
OH MY FUR & WHISKERS I don't believe what I just read "over there" . Are these people for real? or still stuck in the land of make-believe? takes all kinds, proof once again; just watch where you put your hat down...:eek: :eek:
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,188
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
Yep, this news is sad but true. As I posted on COW, I saw no good reason why this was done.
I know some people want the "ultimate" Indiana Jones looking hat. In my humble opinion one can buy an Adventurebilt and call it a day.
Or experiment all day long with glue, paper clips, and duct tape trying to shape some new produced fedora into "the look" from one particular scene.
But why rip apart a vintage hat like the Dobbs in question?
Thank goodness I have just "rescued" three Dobbs from further desecration. :)
I urge everyone to do the same.
Maybe we should start a "Save the Dobbs" campaign.
 

Lorne

One of the Regulars
Messages
239
Location
Boston
Club Obi Wan???

I just checked out "Club Obi Wan".


The place vibes Star Trek conventions, living in Mom's furnished basement and being a virgin at 30.

Brothers, a moment of silence for all those misdirected fedoras...


Lorne
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,188
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
I just checked out "Club Obi Wan".


The place vibes Star Trek conventions, living in Mom's furnished basement and being a virgin at 30.

Brothers, a moment of silence for all those misdirected fedoras...


Lorne
Now I remember why COW members think Fedora Lounge members are obnoxious.
Some friendly advice would be to not knock COW members too harshly because:
a- Fellow Fedora Lounge members are COW members
b- Some people would look at guys in fedoras and trenchcoats and wonder why we are "playing Dick Tracy".
:)
 

skwerl-hat

One of the Regulars
Messages
288
Location
Las Vegas Nevada
oh that poor unfortunate hat!
theres a million 10$ plastic hats that deserved mangling, but a vintage dobbs?? someone take away that guys hot glue gun before he hurts another hat.
:(
 

Sefton

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,132
Location
Somewhere among the owls in Maryland
As was already said; why not just get an Adventurebuilt? From what I've seen those are as close as you will ever get short of breaking into Steven Speilberg's house (or Harrison Ford's or whoever has it) and stealing the original hat. We all have our own particular odd obsessions, but that's a real shame about that Dobbs...

And yes, let's not insult the COW people. Live and let live folks (and let those Dobbs live too!)
 

Maj.Nick Danger

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,469
Location
Behind the 8 ball,..
Does anyone actually know just exactly what kind of hat the movie hat was? Probably a dozen or so would have been specially made for the movie series?
I saw a modern made Stetson Indy hat for a little over a hundred that was quite sevicable.
 

Atomic Glee

Practically Family
Messages
628
Location
Fort Worth, TX
Maj.Nick Danger said:
Does anyone actually know just exactly what kind of hat the movie hat was? Probably a dozen or so would have been specially made for the movie series?
I saw a modern made Stetson Indy hat for a little over a hundred that was quite sevicable.

"THE" hat, the one most everybody wants - the Raiders of the Lost Ark hat - was, in the film, a specific model of fedora (the "Poet," I think, though I'm hardly an expert) made by Herbert Johnson.

These days, I figure that by far the best, closest hat you're going to get to the RotLA hat is an Adventurebilt.
 
To each their own. I don't get the "recreate how someone looks in a specific frame of a specific movie" thing, but whatever floats someone's boat is fine by me. There are many who do just this with casablanca and the maltese falcon and and and and ad nauseam.

I have posted before about destruction of homburgs, and advice therefor given over at cow (believe i was edited that time).

My personal take on it is that homburgs should remain homburgs. But then, i'm also of the opinion that previously bashed fedoras should be left in the bash they wish to adopt.

bk
 

Kt Templar

One of the Regulars
Messages
289
Location
Nr Wimbledon, SW London. UK
I think most of us over there were horrified that he did that to such a beautiful hat. He got it for $45 so considered it a candidate for surgery.

He'll know to offer it up over here first next time :). It's been noted that he could have bought best part of an Adventurebilt with the proceeds.

I believe his main idea with using a vintage hat was that it would be closer to the original felt.

For the record the original film hat was a HJ Poet. But current Poets are not the same felt, block or brim shape as the movie ones. So they are "Poets" in name only.

And what's wrong with Star Trek anyway!
 

Marc Chevalier

Gone Home
Messages
18,192
Location
Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
Atomic Glee said:
"THE" hat, the one most everybody wants - the Raiders of the Lost Ark hat - was, in the film, a specific model of fedora (the "Poet," I think, though I'm hardly an expert) made by Herbert Johnson.

The very first Indiana Jones hat -- the one worn by Harrison Ford in the first movie -- was made in Brazil by some unknown hatmaker, and was discovered by "Herbert Johnson" ... which bought it, stamped their own logo on it, and sold it to the film. No kidding. "Herbert Johnson" has never revealed the name of the Brazilian hatmaker.

.
 

The real Henry

Practically Family
Messages
512
Location
Löhne, Germany
This is for sure a sad story, but I already told my oponion in the COW.


@Marc Chevalier: The hat- and hatbody-maker 'Cury' from Brasil says HJ got the bodies for the Raiders hat from them. Steve Dlek aka Fedora got a felt-sample from them some years ago, but the felt they make today is extremely bad.

Regards,
Henrik.
 
Messages
11,579
Location
Covina, Califonia 91722
Different values.

This is one of those times where the perceptions and values are vastly divergent.

We shrink in horror at the thought of some one gutting a classic car to make a hot rod.

We learn from the antiques roadshow that a vigorous cleaning let alone refinishing of some furniture will cut its value drastically.

People like my brother will use your favorite magazine as a coaster, taking delight in reducing the cover photo into some ringed hell.

When I had the fragile, stained liner and cracked sweat band of dad's Borsalino replaced, and it was resized so the ribbon would not survive and it was replaced. Well a lot of people gave me a rash of poop. (I wanted something I could wear and the sweat band and liner would simply distract the heck out of me if they were not replaced. ANyway the hat looks great and I can wear it proudly.)

It is a purist stand point and relative to how pure a purist you are.

One man's poison is another man's prune danish.
[huh]
 

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
14,393
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
"That's grandfather's axe. The handle broke and we had to replace it, then the head cracked and we replaced it too. Good old Grandfather's axe."
 
Messages
11,579
Location
Covina, Califonia 91722
scotrace said:
"That's grandfather's axe. The handle broke and we had to replace it, then the head cracked and we replaced it too. Good old Grandfather's axe."

Actually we replaced the handle twice but the head only once.

In my case the thing that makes a hat a hat, the fur felt body was there.

I have yet to see anyone walk around with out the body, just the liner and sweat band on.

Some furnature you can have re-upolstered.

Shoes can be re-soled and heeled and even the lining pieces replaced.
 

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