Open crown or not

[BigDog]

Hey guys, I have a quick question. Being fairly new
to fedoras, what is the norm. when it come to
the crown? Do most of you guys bash your own hat
or not. Wanting to order an open crown but worried
about bashing my own. What do you think?

 

[DavidVillaJr]

Don't be afraid. Putting in a crease is easy. It just takes practice. There are plenty of tutorials around if you need visual help.

Although - sometimes it's nice to just get a new hat and GO - with a pre-creased crown.

dv

 

[scottyrocks]

I prefer an open crown. What eventually happens to most of my hats is that I reshape them anyway, so I prefer to start with a clean slate if if given the opportunity.

 

[Wolfwood]

Yup, I was unnecessarily intimidated by open crowns when I began my hobby. Then I read how everyone said how easy shaping a hat is and decided to give it a try. Turns out that it really was easy. You can shape and reshape it until it satisfies you, so there's no need to "get it right" on the first go.

 

[DanielJones]

Yeah, I prefer an open crown too, even if I get one of my hats reblocked, I prefer to have it left open crowned to shape it as I please. It's not as hard as one would think. And if no one has, I wish you a big welcome to the Lounge. Happy hat hunting!

Cheers!

Dan

 

[danofarlington]

Hey guys, I have a quick question. Being fairly new
to fedoras, what is the norm. when it come to
the crown? Do most of you guys bash your own hat
or not. Wanting to order an open crown but worried
about bashing my own. What do you think?

Open crown is fine. I give mine to the local hat man to shape the crown and brim. I don't like to do it myself.

 

[gtdean48]

Depends on your dexterity I guess. Some folks would rather the hatter put a crease in it or use a block. I like hand blocking look over the perfect crease a formed block would do. Some folks want & need symmetry. I've been tweaking hats for years, so I like mine open crown. I forgot to specify that on a renovation done by Optimo, so I got back 1 of their teardrops. Not bad but way to perfect for my taste. Again the answer is...."it depends..."

 

[zetwal]

Open (or hand creased) is my preference as well ... and welcome!

 

[hatophile]

I prefer an open crown. What eventually happens to most of my hats is that I reshape them anyway, so I prefer to start with a clean slate if if given the opportunity.

Agreed!

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I had my Beaver Brand Stony River re-blocked at Hatman Jack's into a Fedora shape (C). I've worn it since it got a bit colder and it isn't symmetrical anymore. The Beaver brand is a pretty stiff hat, you can hear the brim "snap" down when I put it on. The Stetson Temple I just bought just slowly bends down. The Temple's brim has acquired a new shape through handling, but the crown hasn't.

IN SUMMARY, I don't think it matters what you start with, you'll end up with an asymmetrical hat with lots of "personality" no matter which way you go.

Later

 

[T Rick]

If you're inclined to try it but are wary, just go for it. Just got my first, an Akubra Camp Draft this afternoon. Standing in front of the mirror, in five minutes time, I'd tried three separate bashes (diamond, teardrop and porkpie), just to see how hard it was. All of these were quite crude of course, but gave me an idea both of how they might look and how difficult it will be (it won't). And all of these were dry (in an hour or so, I'll be spraying it down with distilled water, to attempt my first full fledged-that I'll wear-bash).

If you just love the look of the factory stamped bashes, go ahead with that, nothing wrong there. But also, if you get an open crowned hat and discover bashing simply isn't for you, there is always the local Hatter. They'll do this quite easily and very reasonably from what I've read.

 

[Jim2903]

If you're inclined to try it but are wary, just go for it. Just got my first, an Akubra Camp Draft this afternoon. Standing in front of the mirror, in five minutes time, I'd tried three separate bashes (diamond, teardrop and porkpie), just to see how hard it was. All of these were quite crude of course, but gave me an idea both of how they might look and how difficult it will be (it won't). And all of these were dry (in an hour or so, I'll be spraying it down with distilled water, to attempt my first full fledged-that I'll wear-bash).

Let us know how it goes. I expect my CD to arrive in a couple of weeks and I'm thinking about putting a diamond in it, for a change of pace from my usual C-crowns ...

 

[Neophyte]

Creasing a hat is intuitive. You'll know what to do once you get your hands on it. Just don't make too tight a pinch, or too sharp an edge, and don't spray on the water until you've either got what you want, or you need to touch up something.

After owning several open crown hats, I've been very displeased with the one or two factory-shaped hats that I own.

 

[jlee562]

It's really not as daunting as it might seem...I was really apprehensive to order an open crowned hat at first, but it's really easy and fun to shape a hat.

 

[Alan-Eby]

Hey guys, I have a quick question. Being fairly new
to fedoras, what is the norm. when it come to
the crown? Do most of you guys bash your own hat
or not. Wanting to order an open crown but worried
about bashing my own. What do you think?

Welcome to the Lounge there are a bunch of cool guys and girls on here.
Being fairly new to non-western hats myself I got a crash course when I decided to destroy one of my old cowboy hats and turned it into a fedora-ish type hat. I ended up flattening out the brim (and cutting off about 1 1/2 inches) and punching up the crown into an open crown so I could create what I wanted. I'm still waffling on what exactly I want out of the hat but should I buy a new fedora hat I would definatly go with an open crown so I could do what ever I wanted.

 

[fluteplayer07]

Welcome to the Lounge! Creasing a hat isn't hard at all. It's not like altering a suit or adjusting a fountain pen nib. Anything that is done can be undone in a matter of seconds. A quick burst of steam fixes a crease in place, but also allows you to reshape an existing one.

The easy creases take minutes (I remember a video circulating a while ago showing a diamond crease done in about 7 seconds). The harder designs can take upwards of an hour, though, like a JTL Teardrop.

Cheers,

 

[T Rick]

Creasing a hat is intuitive. You'll know what to do once you get your hands on it. Just don't make too tight a pinch, or too sharp an edge, and don't spray on the water until you've either got what you want, or you need to touch up something.

After owning several open crown hats, I've been very displeased with the one or two factory-shaped hats that I own.

Oops. I hadn't heard that, I'd have sworn I read that I was supposed to wet it and then shape it, and let it dry. And in fact I did! It is nearly dry now, been wearing it to dry.

Let us know how it goes. I expect my CD to arrive in a couple of weeks and I'm thinking about putting a diamond in it, for a change of pace from my usual C-crowns ...

I actually went for a crude version of Jimmy The Lid's teardrop/tugboat style. Liked his and a similar one I've seen by Mr. E Train.

Mind you, I don't have a steamer (yet...) so I sprayed the open crown with distilled water, got in front of the mirror, and began. Now I could say I was winging it, but in reality I was not. I'd had the benefit of reading 'The Lid's tutorial post, and though I didn't follow it exactly (and like I said, no steam), I used many key points from it to get certain elements correct.

And yes, it's crude, a first attempt, and will likely get modified or redone. But how long did all this take? A whopping ten minutes, from dry to "I can live with that, let's see how it looks when it dries". Pics coming (so far pics open crown and finished wet, when I've shot it dry I'll put them up in a thread somewhere here.

 

[frussell]

T Rick - you didn't do it wrong. Different people have different methods, but the way you're describing is the way I've been shaping my hats for several decades now. Some hats just won't take a dry crease, you have to wet them or steam them first. To the original poster - open crown for me all the way. I've only had one hat come to me that I kept in its original crease, everything else has been rebashed, some many times over. That's half the fun. Welcome. Frank

 

[DanielJones]

Well T Rick I can't wait to see the pics of the "fruits of your labors". Some hats need a little spritz to help the shaping along as the felt is to springy and just won't hold the bash you put into it. I usually dry bash mine to start with until I get it darn close to what I want, and then I use my small hand held Stanley Steamer for garments on it to hold the bash. The water spritz will do the same thing as will a short walk in the rain.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[T Rick]

Well, a couple pics here too couldn't hurt (cross posted from the Akubra Camp Draft thread). For the OP, this was a first time, 10 minute effort (though I did read Jimmy's great tutorial that is linked in the sticky thread "Links To The Important Threads").