Thoughts from a fedora newbie

Posted by John Freudenthal from ws126.critz.msstate.edu on July 27, 2000 at 01:54:57:

In Reply to: I'm gonna get the Indiana Miller. Any last moments of advise? posted by Reggie on July 27, 2000 at 00:17:04:

: I hope my mom doesn't change her mind about letting me get it. It all seems too good to be true. Does the indiana miller do good in rain? I am woried about the crown shrinking. When any of my old wool hats shrank, the crown tapered inwards and the height got shorter. But the sizing always remained unefected.(sp) I'm getting the open crown. Are there any words of advise on shapeing it? Does cold water work best? Should I use steam from a kettle?

I recently got my first fedora ever (first hat other than baseball cap), and it was an Indiana Miller, open crown. It took me a while to start really playing with shaping it, but you can get it to look pretty decent without using water at all, except for that snap brim. I did my first serious shaping session this past weekend, and found that just cold water helps a lot. And for the snap brim, I wet the brim with cold water, then ironed the back of it down (with paper between hat and iron) flat, but let the sides curl up a bit still. It looks pretty close to the TOD hat now.

One thing is, I could never tell the differences between all the Indy fedoras until I got one myself, and learned what to look for. The next mod I intend to make is to replace the Miller's 1-3/4" ribbon with 1-1/2" ribbon. I don't plan to make the dimensional cut--at least for a while...speaking of dimensional cut, how precise should the brim width be all around the hat? I have noticed that the brim width varies as much as 1/8" around the hat. As a matter of fact, my hat already has a dimensional cut--but it's backward, with 2-7/8" brim on the sides, and 2-3/4" brim on the front, and 2-5/8" brim on the back.

Good luck with your purchase!

John Freudenthal

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: : I hope my mom doesn't change her mind about letting me get it.  It all seems too good to be true.  Does the indiana miller do good in rain?  I am woried about the crown shrinking.  When any of my old wool hats shrank, the crown tapered inwards and the height got shorter.  But the sizing always remained unefected.(sp)  I'm getting the open crown.  Are there any words of advise on shapeing it?  Does cold water work best?  Should I use steam from a kettle?

: I recently got my first fedora ever (first hat other than baseball cap), and it was an Indiana Miller, open crown.  It took me a while to start really playing with shaping it, but you can get it to look pretty decent without using water at all, except for that snap brim.  I did my first serious shaping session this past weekend, and found that just cold water helps a lot.  And for the snap brim, I wet the brim with cold water, then ironed the back of it down (with paper between hat and iron) flat, but let the sides curl up a bit still.  It looks pretty close to the TOD hat now.

: One thing is, I could never tell the differences between all the Indy fedoras until I got one myself, and learned what to look for.  The next mod I intend to make is to replace the Miller's 1-3/4" ribbon with 1-1/2" ribbon.  I don't plan to make the dimensional cut--at least for a while...speaking of dimensional cut, how precise should the brim width be all around the hat?  I have noticed that the brim width varies as much as 1/8" around the hat.  As a matter of fact, my hat already has a dimensional cut--but it's backward, with 2-7/8" brim on the sides, and 2-3/4" brim on the front, and 2-5/8" brim on the back.

: Good luck with your purchase!

: John Freudenthal

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