The Akubra Squatter

[Yeps]

The jacket is gray herringbone, but the scarf is blue. It works rather well actually, blue and green. Think trees and the sky (night sky for dark blue). Your converted squatter is good-looking, but I won't advise you against buying another. Well, maybe wait a little while, for your wallet's sake. The campdraft is probably the best look on you from what I have seen. You have enough of a square face to balance the crown, and the wide brim looks good.

 

[Neophyte]

The jacket is gray herringbone, but the scarf is blue. It works rather well actually, blue and green. Think trees and the sky (night sky for dark blue). Your converted squatter is good-looking, but I won't advise you against buying another. Well, maybe wait a little while, for your wallet's sake. The campdraft is probably the best look on you from what I have seen. You have enough of a square face to balance the crown, and the wide brim looks good.

Don't worry about my wallet, it's fine. I've a ton of extra cash now because I sold most of my instruments and equipment on Ebay (except for my latest banjo), not to mention a couple of gaming systems. Just some disposable cash. I've saved a lot of it, but the rest I'm going to spend lol.

I like the Campdraft. It's currently the only hat I'll wear (you'd have to see the Squatter in person, it ONLY looks good in the photos, don't ask me how that works lol). I'd just like some variety, and I'd like a black or grey hat to go with my non-earth tone clothing.

The Squatter hat itself, or at least the one I got from HatsDirect, didn't have that much taper. Lowering the front of the crown too much and tightening the pinch too much has caused a significant taper effect, but the hat itself, while not "stovepipe" is what I'd call "bulbous". Now that I've developed my shaping skills a bit, I'm going to try again, this time with a black Squatter from DavidMorgan. I was inspired by this pic of CRH on his adventure:

 

[Blackthorn]

Well, I never thought I'd get another Akubra because of my irritation at their limited offerings of color, but I just ordered a Sqatter in mid-fawn. I need a rain hat that I don't care about destroying, and I may even use it as a travel hat. I'll probablly take it up to Paul's Hat Works in San Francisco to have the brim trimmed to a more fedora-like width, since I'm not a fan of 3 inch brims.

 

[Yeps]

You know what would be nice? The Squatter with a 2.5inch brim, with that much fullness added into the crown.

 

[Blackthorn]

Then it would be a Fed IV without the dimensional brim....seems to me.

Hmm....

 

[Yeps]

Then it would be a Fed IV without the dimensional brim....seems to me.

Hmm....

Exactly, FedIV without the dimensional brim, and with a bound brim.

 

[gtdean48]

Then it would be a Fed IV without the dimensional brim....seems to me.

Hmm....

Well my Squatter is cut down to a dimensional brim = 2 5/8" front to back, 2 1/2" on the sides.
But since the Squatter is a Superfine Quality/Featherweight, it is a lot different than the Fed IV's I have.
I think in addition to opening up the color spectrum, Akubra should open up the Felt weights as well.
If we have to wait 90 days to get one, you might as well get real specific.
I'd first go for a Heritage/Moonstone Campdraft then a Superfine/Tawny Fawn Campdraft & that would hold me for at least a few months...

 

[danofarlington]

Then it would be a Fed IV without the dimensional brim....seems to me.

Hmm....

But the crown is lower, no? I'm not buying the Fed IV because the crown is too high.

 

[monbla256]

I read all the replies about the Squatter is fine but ... and I just don't see what is WRONG with it as it is It has a great crown/brim width ratio, takes almost ANY crease you give it well and is some of the nicest felt/hand I have handled for a stock/production hat ! I have two ( one just ordered) both from DM up in WA. I'm currently wearing a Mid Fawn w/Center Dent Front Pinched crease and the Black on order will be similar . I think it is one of Akubra's nicest hats JMHO

 

[gtdean48]

But the crown is lower, no? I'm not buying the Fed IV because the crown is too high.

You are correct, considerably less crown to crease in the Squatter.

 

[gtdean48]

I read all the replies about the Squatter is fine but ... and I just don't see what is WRONG with it as it is It has a great crown/brim width ratio, takes almost ANY crease you give it well and is some of the nicest felt/hand I have handled for a stock/production hat ! I have two ( one just ordered) both from DM up in WA. I'm currently wearing a Mid Fawn w/Center Dent Front Pinched crease and the Black on order will be similar . I think it is one of Akubra's nicest hats JMHO

I think a 3" brim is too wide for the crown height of a Squatter. A Campdraft to me is the perfect balance. It has 1/8" less brim but a lot more crown than the Squatter.

 

[monbla256]

How much MORE crown does the CD have. The Squatter has a 5 1/4" open crown, at least mine did. My fathers OR from the 60's has an open crown of 5 1/4" as well and I was under the impression that the CD is the renamed version of the hat they sold under license in Australia as the OR ? So they made the CD DIFFERENTLY than the OR ?

 

[gtdean48]

How much MORE crown does the CD have. The Squatter has a 5 1/4" open crown, at least mine did. My fathers OR from the 60's has an open crown of 5 1/4" as well and I was under the impression that the CD is the renamed version of the hat they sold under license in Australia as the OR ? So they made the CD DIFFERENTLY than the OR ?

The CD is different than the modern OR in that they are more like the original ORs. I consider 1960s, especially late 60s, the beginning of the modern OR.
Vintage OR's had a 5 1/2" crown & the Campdrafts are like those instead of your more modern OR with the lower crowns. CD's are more like 5 3/4" open crown.

 

[Neophyte]

Yeah, from what I hear in the CD thread, there is a general agreement that the CD produced by Akubra is slightly bigger (and I mean slightly) in its dimensions than even the vintage OR's. That's why people love'em.

Now, on topic: I think the Squatter makes an excellent hat, but I agree that as a shapeable hat its dimensions are not the best for a fedora. With a porkpie crown or a cattleman's crease (you'll have to find the pic, but one of the Loungers here put a cattleman in a mid-fawn squatter, and it looked AWESOME!), I think they make very attractive lids .

I loved my green Squatter. I just wish I had tried a little harder to salvage the shaper before trimming the hell out of the brim lol!

 

[monbla256]

Neophyte, you might want to take a look at many of the Fedoras of the 1940s/1950s...

.... and I think you'll see MANY Squatter style of hats listed and sold as FEDORAS I worked with an architect this past year who wears his fathers Knox from 1948 that has the same dimensions as my Squatter. We measured them when I wore it to his office one day and it was almost as if the two hats had come from the same factory except for sweat, band and liner! ( the Knox was a bit softer but then it was older and had been worn much more ) .
A Squatter is NOT the acepted Akubra here but it IS a Fedora style of hat

 

[Neophyte]

I suppose you're right. I guess it's just that I've always viewed the Squatter as a wide-brimmed country hat, easily made to be a fedora via the crease.

 

[danofarlington]

.... and I think you'll see MANY Squatter style of hats listed and sold as FEDORAS I worked with an architect this past year who wears his fathers Knox from 1948 that has the same dimensions as my Squatter. We measured them when I wore it to his office one day and it was almost as if the two hats had come from the same factory except for sweat, band and liner! ( the Knox was a bit softer but then it was older and had been worn much more ) .
A Squatter is NOT the acepted Akubra here but it IS a Fedora style of hat

Let me ask you this. Is the Squatter's 3" brim too much for your preference? I want to buy a Squatter at some point, but am going back and forth about the brim width.

 

[Neophyte]

I liked mine just fine. The taper of the hat plus my lack of shaping skills at the time were the reasons I trimmed the brim down, but I really liked the 3'' brim.

 

[monbla256]

I PREFER my brims to be wide. I really don't consider 3" all that wide, though I've worn Western hats for some time. My ONLY Akubra for over 30 years has been a Bushman ( exclusive to David Morgan)and it has a 3.5" brim and I consider it a "normal" hat But then I live in Texas and they still wear Big hats and some of the ladies have "big" hair

 

[CRH]

Joinin' Neo with the Willow Green.

Yeps, you rock that Squatter!

:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap