Hi John. Good to see ya'. I joined in December after I missed the possibility of joining in August. Been lurking for a couple of years by now and was glad to finally get the chance to join.
Both hats are as close to the KotCS hat as possible, because both hats ARE the hats used in KotCS. We made over 40(!) brown hats, so that's over 20 ABs and over 20 AB-Dlx.. And before you ask, no, I cannot tell them appart myself :lol The custumer pointed out that the hats had to be IDENTICAL. And they are (lookwise). Heck, Steve and I spent so many hours on the phone over details that you'll never see in the movie anyway, to make sure everything would be identical (i.e. the width of the stitches where the sweatband is sewn together etc.). Steve sent some of his rawbodies my way and vice versa. That way we could match the color to be identical. We also exchanged sweatbands and mixed all up, just in case they'd show the inside of the hat in the movie. That way even WE wouldn't know who made it (real friends don't compete with each other
). So both of us made some ABs with AB sweatbands, ABs with AB-Dlx. sweatbands, AB-Dlx. with AB sweatbands and AB-Dlx. with AB-Dlx. sweatbands :confused I even had some blocks made to match the one the costumer picked (and then the entire set later). So, whatever way you go, it's pretty darn close to a perfect KotCS Fedora
Anyway, I believe that the sweatbands used by Steve are goatskin rather than cow hide. It holds up round about as good as horsehide, but is softer to wear once it's worn in. The roo hide has a denser structure, hence it's quite tough to get it to shrink (but bloody expensive). That's probably the reason it's used for (good) bullwhips.
Ok, sorry for climbing up my soapbox again:redface I could talk Indy Fedoras all day:unsure
Regards,
Marc
