New Akubra "R.M."

[jimmy the lid]

Have just returned from my first visit to Sydney -- a beautiful city filled with wonderful, friendly people, fantastic pubs and, of course, plenty of Akubras. Had a chance to visit some different hat shops while I was there. The Rocks Hatters had a good selection of outdoor Akubras. Strand Hatters had a broader selection of styles, including fedoras like the Stylemaster. I was thinking of picking up a Campdraft, but they were in short supply. Strand Hatters had one in black and one in bluegrass green. The bluegrass green was interesting, but not a color I could see wearing on any kind of consistent basis. So my search continued.

Finally, I found myself at R.M. Williams -- The Bush Outfitter. They had a couple of different styles of Akubras. The one that interested me was their signature hat, the "R.M." -- essentially a Campdraft that comes with a sort of western bash instead of being open-crowned. The felt was fairly soft, and easily popped back out into an open crown. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the softness of the felt, as I had expected it to be more stiff, in light of what I have read here about the Campdraft. The color is mid-brown -- the same as the Federation. I figured this could pretty easily be re-bashed fedora style, so went for it. The crown itself is tall with straight sides (a tad over 5.5 inches) and the end result kind of reminds me of an OR-style Fed. This is my first Akubra, and I'm liking it a lot.

Stock photo:

After re-bash:

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Not-Bogart13]

That is a sharp hat! I love the re-bash. :eusa_clap
NB

 

[RBH]

Job well done Jimmy!
Love the rebash.
When are we going to see you wearing some of these great fedoras you have????

p.s. you would love a Campdraft!

 

[deanglen]

High Five! :eusa_clap Great re-bash and great hat choice!

dean

 

[Rick Blaine]

H*lls Bells!
You have some magic fingers, Mr. Jimmy!
Nice treatment!

 

[jimmy the lid]

Many thanks, Gents. I must say, I really do like the look and feel of this hat. Can't wait to see how it holds up in action.

RBH -- I'll get some photos together. Gotta practice my "voguing" first...

Hey, Dean -- when I look at the original bash of this hat with you in mind, it's not hard to see this as an Akubra campaign hat...

Cheers,
JtL

 

[warbird]

Very nice. I like the rebash, but I must say I also really like the original shape, yes it is very campaign and OR reminiscent.

 

[akaBruno]

Forgive me but...

That original bash... needed to be rebashed. My Grandpa used to pull that same center bash way down low on the brim. I guess he thought it looke cool.

BRUNO

 

[Wesne]

I love the look of that hat with the new bash. I've been thinking of getting a Campdraft to complement my Stylemaster and seeing your hat has me just about ready to put in an order to Australia. I had been thinking of ordering it in bluegrass green for something different, (my Stylemaster is acorn fawn, kind of a light milk-chocolate brown) but that mid-brown looks really nice also. I've never seen the bluegrass green in person, and only a couple of photos of questionable quality. How would you describe it - is it blue-green, or gray-green, or "green-green," and is it a very vibrant color? How does it compare to this Stetson?

 

[cookie]

Rebash or sacrilege on the FL

That is a sharp hat! I love the re-bash. :eusa_clap
NB

Careful their brother - you just bashed the great man himself the late Reg "RM" Williams. That is his signature hat as seen in all the photos of him. He invented that hat bash that's why its the RM signature hat!

Just kidding....enjoy the moment.

 

[jimmy the lid]

Careful their brother - you just bashed the great man himself the late Reg "RM" Williams. That is his signature hat as seen in all the photos of him. He invented that hat bash that's why its the RM signature hat!

Good thing I left the country!

Cheers,
JtL

 

[jimmy the lid]

How would you describe it - is it blue-green, or gray-green, or "green-green," and is it a very vibrant color?

Wesne --

This photo does a pretty good job of recreating what I saw in person in terms of the bluegrass green color:

It is not a vibrant color. It's all a matter of personal taste, of course, but I just found that the the blue/gray undertones to the bluegrass green didn't grab me when I tried it on. It definitely is different, though -- so it might be a nice change from more common colors for some folks.

Incidentally, here's a link to the Akubra R.M.. The web price is significantly more than I paid, which was about $100 USD.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Wesne]

Thanks Jimmy.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

The conversion works out to about $100 USD. I might have to consider it....
NB

 

[jimmy the lid]

For some reason, the R.M. Williams website lists the hat for USD $146.50. Apparently R.M. Williams has a store in NYC, so don't know whether that has any impact. In any event, I imagine that other traditional sources of Akubras on the web can do better, for example: Nungar Trading Company.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Doctor Strange]

I noticed a "R.M. Williams Longhorn" hat at Aussie Bush Hats and Oilskins (who seem to typically have the lowest prices) yesterday for $87 in current conversion rates. But I'm not sure it's exactly the same hat - this one had a different band and ventilation holes.

 

[jimmy the lid]

Right you are Doc -- it's a different hat. When I visited R.M. Williams, they had two different hats in the store -- the Longhorn and the R.M.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Kodiak]

I definately like that hat... wow... too many hats, too little $$$. I've been looking to expand the collection of bush/military/explorer-style hats, and this one looks like a promising find.

I like the bash on the RM, but how did you bash the one that you got Jimmy?

 

[jimmy the lid]

I like the bash on the RM, but how did you bash the one that you got Jimmy?

I started by applying a little bit of steam to get the hat back into an open crown -- the purpose of this was to minimize the remnants of the previous bash. Didn't take much, since, as I have mentioned, the felt is already pretty soft and malleable. Then I just went from there, a little steam and shaping it by hand. Went pretty quickly as the felt was easy to work with.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[riccardo]

A little answer...

Scuse me sir...
who was/is RM Williams?

Scuse my ignorance!