Years after being inspired to make himself the perfect Indiana Jones fedora, a Columbus, Mississippi man gets the chance to do so for the real deal.
By FilmStew Staff, FilmStew.com
Here's hoping that the infrastructure for the website AdventureBiltHats.com is solid. Because once word gets out among the masses that this is the place that made Indiana Jones' latest fedora, the online traffic will be coming at the URL faster than that boulder in the original Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Proprietor Steve Delk became obsessed years ago with finding the perfect Indiana Jones fedora, and after his travels revealed that there was really no such thing available for purchase, he decided to design one himself. Though he charged Paramount Pictures his going price for the hat - $350.00 – he knows a good opportunity when he sees one. "As soon as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull breaks May 22nd, I'm going up [in price]," he tells Jackson, Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger.
Delk might have forever remained a cabinet maker if it wasn't for his personal fedora odyssey. He recalls in the interview that his search for the secrets to making the perfect hat led him to the Library of Congress and a purchased copy of Scientific Hat Making. Amazingly, Delk spent three years learning the craft before finally making his first official fedora.
For Crystal Skull, Delk says he made 48 beaver felt fedoras. That may sound like a lot, but when you add up the number Harrison Ford needs through the length of filming, those required by his three stunt doubles and the few lucky people on director Steven Spielberg's gift giving list, it was the gig of a lifetime. "I basically worked without any sleep for three days to get six made so they could start filming," Delk recalls. "It generally takes about a day to make a hat. I make them exactly the way they would have been made if you went into a small hat shop back in 1930."
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