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[Edward]

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Montecristi Ecuador Panama Blank
Unfinished Panama Body in Balsa Wood Box
About 5 inch open crown (4 1/2 after shaping)
2 1/2 brim
Unfinished - no sweat or hat band

I remember years ago reading a post by a lounger who had one of these unfinished Panama hat bodies in its balsa wood shipping/storage box and the process of finishing by shaping the hat and installing a sweat and hat band. I assume these type of blanks were intended to sell to tourists and have them finished upon return home. I hadn’t come across one until now… and no risk throwing 5 bucks at this one.

The hat body was crammed into the balsa wood box instead of being rolled properly… probably not a surprise and totally fine with me. I just wanted to have some fun with it and see if I could shape it with steam. With a little bit of work.. I got it into some semblance of a hat shape.

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Then with more steam and time was able to shape it fairly well. I threw on this ribbon I had laying around just to see how it would work. And even managed to run a couple errands with it.

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The weave is not as tight as my finer panamas… but it is certainly a finer than others I have. I’m not good at counting weaves… but I think it may be in the 125 to 150 wsi range as I’m seeing about 12x12 ish. Maybe someone could correct me if I am wrong there.

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It will need a sweat and hat band to complete. But honestly I may just roll it up and return it to its balsa box and keep it as a conversation piece as that is where it’s value is to me… being something different. We shall see.

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Digging through this thread looking for a specific post and I stumbled across this one. My first straw hat, way back in 2007, was one of these. The only photo I can find of it is this:

I remember just wearing it in the manner I had assume was intended: the ribbon there is the black elastic loop that was used to wrap it in the box. The elastic kept it in place - which was once or twice quite handy when a breeze caught the brim.

All these years later, and knowing what I do now, your speculation on the original intent of this as an easily shipped body rather than a finished hat in and of itself makes a lot of sense. As the latter it worked well enough (though I rolled it and wore it hard a lot, and eventually it developed a hole in the pinch), but it would be interesting to see it finished with a band and a ribbon. I shouldn't wonder it would hold up a little better treated as a 'fixed' hat and not rolled.

Love your ribbon, btw - great one for a Dolphins fan (or, in a pinch, St Patrick's Day).

 

[Edward]

I posted about this hat a couple of weeks ago in the 'what hat are you waiting for today' thread. This is a new hat, from The Hat Centre in Stamford Hill, London. Lovely business. I have actually been there in person a few years ago. Chaotic store, boxes everywhere. It's a small, family-run business with an older, Jewish gentleman in charge who I found very pleasant (with a great sense of humour). That part of town has a lot of Orthodox folks, and you see a lot more hats worn than in many other parts of London. His business sells to both locals and more generally online. This is not the first hat I've had from them, but my first of this model. https://www.hatcentre.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=153&product_id=141 It's sold as "Antelope Felt Hat". This is the navy colour; it's also available in a range of other options (I fancy a green one at some point). Photos taken in my office (please excuse the clutter!)/.

For comparison, I've taken the open crown shots beside a new, Mk IV open crown Akubra Federation Deluxe; so many folks here are familiar already with that model, it seemed to be a good comparison. The brim of the Antelope Felt is clearly wider - it's a 75mm all round, about half an inch bigger than the Akubra is on the size, and a quarter of an inch bigger than the Akubra front and back. Crown is fractionally shorter, maybe quarter to 3/8" of an inch at most. Looks to be more of a height difference than there actually is, I think because of the wider brim. The ribbon is also a bit deeper than the Akubra's, with more flounce to the bow. The other immediately visible difference is the wind trolley, which I like as a visual detail (we'll see how it works in practice in good time).

There's a big difference in feel. I don't think one is necessarily *better* that the other, but the felt on the Hat Centre is definitely thicker, and noticeably softer from the off. Whereas I'll steam the Akubra when it comes to bash time, the bash you see in the Hat Centre hat in the last couple of shots was done entirely dry with the hat fresh out of the box. Brim snaps nicely.

We'll see how it wears in, but so far this is a very nice hat for a comparable price to the Akubra Federation Deluxe (a little more expensive than the Standard Federation). It wears similarly with broadly similar dimensions, and comes in a few colours in which the Akubra is not available. I don't know where it is made exactly - it's just branded, like all the Hat Centre's stuff, with their own logoing. Highly likely it's a Tonak body, though, and quite probably made in Eastern Europe, as afaik the Hat Centre is a retain operation and doesn't directly manufacture themselves. Very pleased, though. THC is worth a looksee if you happen to be in town and have an hour or two to kill. It's not got the panache of Locks, maybe, but if you're actually looking to buy at a reasonable rate... Do check ahead for opening hours, though, as these are a bit erratic (if they've told you they are open and you find the door locked, he might just be in the store room and minding shop on his own, so ring the bell). Mail operation can be slightly slower (again, one-man operation for the most part), but worth the wait ime.



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Whew, that took a lot of digging to find this post, however.... I wanted, just about a year on, to cross-reference this to a second hat of the same model, from the same source. I was sufficiently pleased with my navy blue in this hat last year to order another from the Hat Centre just last week. And here it is:

The hat centre refer to this one as Russet, which is bang on in person. It's a glorious, reddish cinnamony mid brown, which sits very nicely between the golden hue of my Fed in Tawny Fawn and the Fed DLX in dark brown. This is a hat that will work nicely with something like a deep brown suit in a way that the dark brown fed would do less well, imo. It's a colour I've had in mind for a while, and I am very well pleased with it.

The felt is, again, thicker and softer than the Akubra, with a nice hand to it. I wouldn't say it is better or worse than the Fed, but certainly different. Out of the box, this iteration is very much softer than the Akubra, but - in contrast to the navy - just stiff enough that it needed a little steam to bash. This is what I've done with it for now - a simple centre dent and pinch. I'll probably keep it that way - I like the proportions it has with this, and it lets the colour speak for itself.

I think this side view, at least on my monitor, best captures the colour.

As with the navy blue, it's very much a case of "equally great, just different" up against the Akubra. The open crown shape is the same as before, so very slightly more rounded on the crown than the Fed, but I wouldn't call it tapered - once bashed, the difference really has to be looked for. The one aspect where there is a clear winner between the two, and even that is subjective, is the ribbon. I love the slightly deeper ribbon here, and though I'm not especially likely to use it in anger, the wind trolley is a lovely detail. The 57 is a good fit, ready to go without worry that it'll snug up too much with wear, and the height, bashed, leaves just a nice amount of room between my scalp and the top of the crown (afaik this was deliberately designed to accommodate a Yarmulke). Really chuffed with this one. It'll get an airing in Paris week after next; hopefully a chance for my traditional selfie at the Eiffel with a new hat. My sole criticism really is that they - as is the case with the Fed, and so many others - use a white liner rather than a black or other dark colour. Purely something I'm aware of because for me (rocking the Yul Brynner look since '06) a white liner can show signs of being grubby more over time, can yellow a little, which a black or other dark liner hides somewhat.


I expect I will pick up more of these - one of the other bonuses comparing this with the Fed is that the two come in quite a different set of colours. Black aside (and I have already four very nice black fedoras including an Optimo in similar design, so no call for black in either this or the Fed), there's only the grey that is at all close the the Fed, and even that is more like Moonstone taken down several shades, a much more iron grey without the hint of blue I see in a Carbon grey (your mileage - and eyesight - may differ!). I do have my eye on the green (it'll be interesting to compare it to the newer olive when they get photos on the website), and the French Navy (a markedly lighter blue than the Navy, somewhere between a traditional navy and a royal blue. What I'd call an 'airforce blue'). They're all here if you're interested- the model is the "Antelope Felt Hat". https://www.hatcentre.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=153 I have zero connection with the business other than being a satisfied customer.