Is the "Perfect" bash important?

[rrog]

So, I just wear it and enjoy it.

Once I get it how I want it, that's exactly what I do too.

rrog

 

[babs]

Also.. As a newb with a few hats now, I'm finding unless you wanna break out the steam and possibly want to reblock the hat, provided you have such an apparatus, typically the hat will have a "bash" that it likes or prefers.

Each hat will have variance in the crown shape and size, along with a look that is it's best to go with the brim. If the hat has been around a long while with a bash as a vintage hat, it'll take a good bit of retraining to change.. And I'm finding areas of the crease will show the old bash unless it cleans up good.

So I guess hats will do well with a certain bash over another to fit the look you want for it. But the same bash I'd guess most certainly won't fit all. Each are their own little individual creatures.

I guess I'm a simple bash guy.. Pop the top, pinch the front, out the door I go.

 

[elvisroe]

Back when I had to wear a suit and tie every day, it seemed that there were those who liked their ties with a perfect knot and those who didn't. It's probably the same with hats.

Totally. I'm sure that back in the day there were those who were fussy with everything they wore while others just slapped their hats on.

As for getting a particular look, I've known some pretty rough old dudes who were pretty particular about the crease of their beat up old Akubras. My Grandfather reckoned in the Navy in WW2 you could tell a lot about the experience of a seaman from the way he wore his hat. Just because it doesn't look perfect to your eyes doesn't mean there's not thought behind it.

The irony of the Indy look eyeryone's chasing (and don't get me wrong I love his hat!) is that they want it to look beat up and off kilter...but in a carefully sculpted way.

I tend to agree with HarpPlayerGene on the beauty of a more handmade looking bash. Back in the day that lightly bashed-in, slightly crooked crown was almost an art form. Inspired by this site and a couple of great Sydney crime photo books, I've rebashed most of my hats over the past year and am not longer a fan of factory creases. A perfect tear-drop on a low-crowned hat looks fake to me now...

..not yours of course JTL

 

[scottyrocks]

I agree. I have re-creased my old hats to look like I want them to look.

Generally, I play with it, using water, until I get it close to the way I want it, keeping in mind that each hat does indeed have a 'mind of its own' when it comes to the exact shape it 'wants' to take. But once its creased, I generally dont mess with it too much, preferring to let the hat come into its 'rumpledness' on its own, and in its own time.

 

[CRH]

...But once its creased, I generally dont mess with it too much, preferring to let the hat come into its 'rumpledness' on its own, and in its own time.

That's what thundershowers are for!

 

[Mr. Paladin]

Some of my hats have a carefully protected near-perfect crease; others beg for casual obvious hand-creasing. I try to give the hat what it wants...

 

[ScottF]

That's what thundershowers are for!

That's so true. If I have to be outside, and expecting rain, I grab a sturdy hat that needs re-bashing - it's a perfect opportunity, especially to get out the dregs of a factory crease.

 

[anon`]

Yes, the bash must be perfect.

However, the hat itself will tell you when it is, in fact, "perfect" and that may not be symmetrical, factory-straight or otherwise squared away. And if that doesn't jive with your notion of the same... well that's just too damn bad for you!

 

[Mario]

With some hats, you'll have to wear them for some time before they start talking to you, before they tell you just how they want to be creased - and sometimes it takes a couple of tries before you get it right...

 

[Ephraim Tutt]

With some hats, you'll have to wear them for some time before they start talking to you, before they tell you just how they want to be creased - and sometimes it takes a couple of tries before you get it right...

....and how long have your hats been talking to you Mr Mario?

 

[jimmy the lid]

A perfect tear-drop on a low-crowned hat looks fake to me now...

..not yours of course JTL

..

 

[Mario]

....and how long have your hats been talking to you Mr Mario?

Well...for a long, long time, actually. One once told me the lotto numbers for the following week. Turned out that it lied...but what else would you expect from a cheap wool felt, eh...?

 

[Boodles]

Another attaboy for Mr Lefty

I had no idea there was ever such a thing. Notice the word "dent" used in the ad. Mr. Lefty, thanks again.

Is this where the hats forum begins its discussion of sprezzatura?

 

[jimmy the lid]

Carefully Studied Casualness...

 

[Lefty]

I knew we had a thread on that ad somewhere. Thanks JtL.

 

[CRH]

Is the perfect bash important - POETRY WARNING!

The answer to such a question I can never be sure of

for I am just a man with a crooked face

in a crooked hat

pondering crooked reflections of light across the

dented felt like craters on the surface of

some forgotten and stylish moon

 

[Blackthorn]

It took me FOREVER to get a decent bash/crease in my Fed IV heritage grade of felt. The felt is thick and stiff and, for me, hard to get into any decent looking bash. At first the front crease was over my left eye, then I started from scratch and it ended up over the other eye. So finally when the bash itself was "finished" I noticed that one side is higher than the other, not to mention that the back of the hat, bash-wise, isn't smooth at all. But the thing that irritated me most was the one-side-higher part. My wife then reminded me that I have a very crooked smile, so the hat is now "distinctly me." Ah well, I'll accept that and live with it.

 

[babs]

You can be gentle with the hat, gingerly treat it like a baby.. Caress it into a gentle bash.. Or......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNt69cBPCPI&feature=channel

Stomp on it, slap off the dust, punch it back out, stick a quick bash back in and off ya go. hehehehe

 

[Tone]

Yep, sometimes it's necessary. Lee Keppler initially did a video demonstrating the same "roll up" technique for general softening of a fedora. Did that a few years back, too, on one of his. It's nice that he continues to explain that the ribbon is a cinch to slip back into place. The ribbon phenomenon baffles many for some reason. [huh]

http://www.adventure-supply.com/SoftenYourFedora.wmv

 

[Dreispitz]

Sometimes it is more important, what´s in your bash