Nice. Thanks 
Excellent work! Itâs all come together perfectly.
5 Likes
The Amish have a couple of options:
4 Likes
Aye, but youâll notice all the tops are relatively flat. I have a hat like that too, this Stetson Royal Flush I snagged on saleâŚ
Even those Amish hats are about an inch less wide on the brim than a slouch or my beloved Doc Holiday. It doesnât sound like much, but structurally you reach a point of diminishing returns with brim width.
Part of the problem is that modern menâs wide-brimmed hats are descended from hats designed to be functional on the prairie, to protect from rain. But even if a hat is 100% beaver felt, enough water will eventually cause the brim to droop, and then it needs to be carefully steamed and reshaped, which is easy enough to do, but after a while will loosen the tightly packed fur in the felt if you do it frequently and then the hat wonât hold its shape. While modern felt hats arenât usually subjected to as much outdoor wear, theyâre designed after styles that were.
5 Likes
Costume looks sharp!
Practical question: is it problematic/potentially dangerous to carry realistic-if-nonfunctional handguns into a public venue like that? (Not as in âdanger to others,â as in âputting yourself in danger from overreacting law enforcement.â)
3 Likes
Maybe Iâm wrong - Iâm not a convention-goer - but I wouldâve thought security and con-goers at big cons like Comic Con would be familiar with realistic looking weaponâs props. Whenever I see the photo albums of the awesome arrays of costumes at the big cons, I notice lots of sword props that the average man-in-the-street wouldnât know from a honed blade.
I too would like the know the answer to your question since, if I ever start attending cons, I will likely go in costume.
Sure, but a cop isnât as likely to confuse someone dressed like Kull the Conqueror with a real potential killer. (Unless the person doing cosplay is black, then all bets are off.)
1 Like
Point taken. But donât a lot of the costumes involve realistic looking guns? I think @Mister44 mentioned plugging the barrels with orange tips. I assumed the orange was to clearly indicate it was a prop.
1 Like
So basically this is because felt hats are essentially very tightly compacted fur or synthetic fur-substitute fibers. The steam loosens the matrix by moistening the fur fibers up just enough for it to be carefully re-shapen, and then will contract back together. Youâre essentially doing something similar to what the milliner who made the hat did as the last stage before gluing in the liner and makerâs tag.
However, you want to be careful that the hat doesnât get too damp when you steam it. It should feel softer and warm, but not wet in your hands. Otherwise the felt can begin to come apart or the liner unglued. Less is more and approach the steam with caution.
Just know that if you do this often enough, it can loosen the felt. If youâve ever made this mistake of putting felt through the wash, youâve seen the results of that. I probably steam mine on average once every year or two.
3 Likes
There is a weapons check. I have already emailed the comic con people, explained my intentions, and asked if I complied with their weapons policy. They said yes, it sounds like I did, but the KCPD who do the weapons check have final say.
Theoretically I could probably circumvent them, but I am a rule follower and will get them officially approved. I will be bummed if these custom 3D printed parts go to waste, but they are cool enough to take the risk. Of course when out and about and not in the venue, they will be in my satchel bag, as not to cause alarm in public.
IN the venue, no one will pay a second thought as like I said they will have orange tips, and many, many people have prop guns, from the Stormtroopers with their Sterling based blasters, to people cosplaying GI Joe or Laura Croft, etc carrying air soft. To the untrained eye, airsoft and real steel look incredibly similar, especially at a distance, which is why they require the orange tip.
So yeah, like anything, context. I wouldnât wear even airsoft guns out and about. Within the venue I am not worried and the cops are aware there are tons of people with fake weapons. Then again, some ren fairs allow you to carry live steel, and I have worn swords trick or treating or at a Halloween party. But I wouldnât wear them around town randomly.
9 Likes
Thanks for the info. It is a wool felt, and not super expensive, but at like $80, not super cheap either. I didnât get it that damp, so I think I am ok. It curled up a tiny bit after it dried, but as you can see in the pics, I think it looks right enough to leave alone.
I guess the hat I have been wearing in the winter is a slouch hat as well, as it looks similar to this one, only not quite as wide brimmed. It too is 100% wool felt and says it is crushable. I have worn it for many years and it has held up well and looks snazzy with a trenchcoat or this vintage wool coat I wear in the winter. It is olive green but looks brownish when worn with a brown coat.
1 Like
Yes, my coworker came through.
Custom 3D printed effects for the props. The black stuff that goes into the barrels is rubber like, and the red and black BLAM! is in ABS.
Note one is larger in diameter than the other, because while I have two 1911s, one is in .45acp, and the other is 9mm.
18 Likes
I have to say, your example seems to have the same top/crown as two of the Amish ones! (Iâve seen them up close too.) What about the example all the way to the right? That seems rounded to me. And wide brimmed, without the cowboy upturn that has to be steamed away.
1 Like
Also, if I wanted to cause people harm, I wouldnât dress up in a costume and go through a weapons check. I would dress in jeans and a Crow Tshirt and hide the weapons on a book bag, which they donât check.
But really, these are boogie men with little to no chance of happening.
1 Like
The right-most Amish hat appears to be more in the style of a traditional cowboy hat, the Boss of the Plains, which didnât originally have the pencil curl (so named because you can add it to any fur-felt hat using a short pencil and some steam) because it would trap water and one function of the hat was to keep ranchers and field workers heads dry. The curl is mainly a stylistic flourish. The slight upturn of the sides predates the cowboy hat and began, as far as I know, with the slouch hats used by European soldiers. Its purpose, in addition to looking cool, is to both help keep the brim from drooping and to channel rainfall water out the back of the brim so it doesnât soak the shoulders.
The right-most Amish hat also doesnât have a divot in the crown like @Mister44âs slouch and my Doc Holiday. Originally the divots on the top and the front flanks were a result of people taking hats on and off one-handed in a way that wouldnât mess up the brim. But when John Stetson started selling cowboy hats as lifestyle accessories to the plains settlers after the American Civil War, his customers had seen the divots in the slouch hats worn by their fathers and uncles and brothers when they fought in the war. Like jeans with holes in them, Stetson and his competitors started adding the divots before they sold them, so their customers could look like the hats had seen some use and werenât just foppish affectations. But the Amish are more practical and I wouldnât be surprised if they steam out the divots their hats must acquire from use.
6 Likes
As a gun owner, I worry more about firearm-unfamiliar folksâ fear of those boogie men than what they really should fear, as I donât fancy getting tased. But I figured cons should have experience with all manner of prop weapons from the realistic to the outlandish.
Love those barrel plugs!
2 Likes
I love it when someone really knows their stuff! Thanks for all the explanation.
5 Likes
4 Likes
I still find it odd that Japan doesnât require this. Honestly this is far more of a worry wart nation than the US when it comes to pedantic rules yet replica guns and airsoft guns donât require orange tips.
2 Likes
Either A) they are more practical to think that an orange tip means jack shit. Is it real? Is it fake? Is it a fake made to look real? Or a real made to look fake? So really, it means NOTHING, if you think about it.
or B) There are so few guns in private Japanese hands, and most of those are in organized crime, that the base assumption is any thing looking like a gun will be a fake.
That said it appears Japan LOVES guns. Their meticulous renditions in many anime and manga series are impressive. Even their made up weapons like Hellsingâs pistols or Vash the Stampedeâs revolver have realistic workings, often based off of real fire arms.
3 Likes
