Well this past weekend by pure chance in a Hat shop I found the Dorfman Pacific Wool Hat. The price was alright and I really didn't want to turn it down.
The hat in it's original factory pressed bash is terrible. Thankfully the wool felt with enough work can be modified. By hand I worked out the creases and tenderized the felt back into what was roughly an open crown. Then I built a rig made out of a bucket and a plastic bowl. Working warm water into the the felt with my hands I stretched and pressured the felt to get the factory creases out. I it stuffed with rags and until it stayed tightly on the rig. I kept it wet for a while and left it over night.
I can see very faint water stains in the wool felt but it's now able to be custom bashed! I think all the work stretched the crown a little higher but not by much, it was already 1 inch too short compared to the hero. Unfortunately I still have to use water and clips to reinforce the bash pinches but it's going to look a lot better.
One aesthetic change was darkening the head ribbon, (the hat I purchased had a ribbon almost the same shade as the felt) which was simple enough, one pass of black Sharpie over the entire ribbon got the correct shade and after it dried is nice and permanent. I'm considering trimming the part of the brim with an embedded shaping cord to get the correct raw edges, but the brim may be too short afterwards.
I'll post pictures soon, sorry I don't have any before but it looked just like this:
This hat comes with an incorrect tear-drop like dip in the back and very weak dimples.
Anyway this is the stepping stone towards the DM Adventurer or FED4, I just wanted this now