Bashing an Akubra

I have an Akubra Fed. I''ve steamed it and steamed it and rolled it and rolled it...and I can't get the brim to bow very well. The brim also seems to flatten back out in a relatively short time. Any suggestions would be helpful.

There are many ways to shape a fedora. One of them is steaming it. Once you steam it very well it becomes very flexable and menageble. It will stay like that for around five seconds and then it will come back to it's original stiffness. The best way to shape it the way you want is to first return it to the open crown and then try doing something to it. With the brim it is the same. First steam it and make it perfectly flat. Use some book with hard covers for this. And then steam it again and shape it the way you want.
If you do not like workin gwith the hot steam then you can use cold water. Take a rag and put it in the water. Then gently add moisture to the hat. Do this gradually. After that you will have more time to shape it the way you want. But remember this is gonna take more time to come back to being stiff again. So take some old newspapers and put the hat on them to dry out.
If you are planing to dip the front of the brim (which I suspect you are) you can eather turn the hat upside down or let the front of the brim suspended over the edge of the stack of newspapers.
One tip, if you leave it upside down you might make a top of the fedora slightly flat so I suggest you use the other method.
This is how much I know. If you have any other problem fell free to ask.

One more thing about the front of the brim. Do not just bend it in the front tip of the hat. It is an awful look. Beter start bending it somewhere arond the begining of the bow. And than work from there. Watch some scenes from raiders and it might be easier to understand this.
If you want to get that Raiders look the make the bend more intense on the right side than on the left. There are more things about the Raiders hat than this, but you realy shouldn't go that far.

Some corrections: A spray bottle is better than a rag. Also to get that great Raiders brim you should use The Turn. Basically you put the hat on straight, then turn it to the right so that the bow moves more to the front and the brim warps. After the brim looks good bash the crown so that the center pinch is aligned with your nose. You can also steam or wet the front of the brim and hang the hat from it, so that the brim dips down in the front.

VP said:

You can also steam or wet the front of the brim and hang the hat from it, so that the brim dips down in the front.

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That is the weirdest aproach to shaping a brim I have ever heard. I would avoid this. First you cannot control the amount of the dip in front of the brim and second you can demage the fedora that way.

Hundreds of people have done that, me including, and it didn't damage the hat at all. Akubras are tough as nails and quality hats, they can take almost anything.

Anyways I prefer the turn. It's essential for that distinct Raiders look.

VP said:

Anyways I prefer the turn. It's essential for that distinct Raiders look.

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Awesome link...thanks, VP. I've heard of stiffeners you can apply to the lid...any suggestions?

Doc Savage said:

Awesome link...thanks, VP. I've heard of stiffeners you can apply to the lid...any suggestions?

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I do not own an Akubra but it seems to me that it is stiff enougf hat already. If you put too much stiffner on it you might regret it in the end. Fedoras are supposed to be flexable but to hold their shape in everyday life.
There are such things like stiffners in the spray but I do not know where you could find it. Try asking in the local hat store.

VP said:

Anyways I prefer the turn. It's essential for that distinct Raiders look.

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Did you do the turn to the hat you posted on what you look like thread.

Akubras don't need any extra stiffener, they already have almost too much in them. Fedoras are supposed to be soft, not like cowboy hats who are so stiff that they feel like cardboard.

qwerty said:

Did you do the turn to the hat you posted on what you look like thread.

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Yep.

Here's a few more links:

http://eaglesnest.goblinjournals.com/pagey.html
http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:tIE0FTYlqGYJ:www.whyaxis.net/indy/hatshaping/hatshaping.html (the original page is dead but it still appears in Google's cache without pics)

My Akubra Federation just arrived. And now I am trying to get it into the right shape. But I suck at making this

Is there any tutorial (maybe a video tutorial) on how to form the fedora into the right shape? This is my first hat of my life, actually. So I am very new to this stuf.. dont know what to make wrong or not.

Can somebody help me maybe?

I've steamed mine and that worked fairly goo, but now I use a squirt bottle and that seems to work better and faster for me. But you sould ask Deckard about your fedora need, that guy seems to be an expert on it