All Weather Western Hat

[Walloon]

So it's sounds like say a Mackey Tycoon would be perfect?

 

[suitedcboy]

Camp Draft is not 100% beaver. It may be rabbit and hare only with no beaver or a small part beaver. I'm sure someone may have some insight on this. Well felted rabbit and hare is a great felt. It may not be as stable when wetted as beaver but it very close when it is good felt.

 

[Brian Niebuhr]

I have a custom Mackey pure beaver. The feel of the felt is nice but my Akubras hold up to rain better. I don't like the Mackey sweatband. I have to peel it off my forehead and it is painful sometimes.

 

[Neophyte]

You might try looking at the Akubra Pro 30X. Western styling with a 30% beaver, 70% hare felt mixture.

 

[Walloon]

So there is more to it than just the felt composition? Density perhaps.

 

[johnnycanuck]

Interesting being I just bought a old Stetson that fits that bill. Have you tried looking at on-line garage sales (Kijiji, e-bay)
Johnny

 

[Brian Niebuhr]

From what I understand... It has to do with the felting process. If the felt is not fully felted at the factory, it will continue the process as you wear it out in the rain and such and end up shrinking. A fully felted pure beaver hat should be better than a fully felted rabbit but an under felted beaver is not as good as a fully felted rabbit. A lot of modern hats go through a cheap, quick process that doesn't fully felt the felt. The available fur isn't as good as it used to be either (both rabbit and beaver) and that seems to justify the whole cheaper process.

 

[Rabbit]

So there is more to it than just the felt composition? Density perhaps.

There is lots more to it; felt density is just one of the factors. I leave the details to the felt companies... Felting is an industry; we as outsiders are hardly in a position to understand what exactly causes all the possible differences in the final product.

There is at least as much variance within one type of felt (or felt mix) as between different types.
Same thing applies to cloth, for instance cloth for shirtings. Oxford cloth, often used for winter shirtings, can be hard-wearing and last through hundreds of washes if it's high-quality, or it can wear out quickly if made from inferior cotton.

 

[johnnycanuck]

I think I will jump in here and add something.
I have a wool felt scout hat from Smithbilt. I have no idea what they do to the hats but it has not shrunk on me yet. Lots of camping/out door time. I have fir felt hats that have not done nearly as well in the rain. With that said I do feel this hat is an exception to the wool felt rule. The real negative is it does not keep its shape very well. Keep getting floppier and floppier so back to the hat press it goes after every camping trip.
Johnny

 

[gtdean48]

Microscopically, beaver fur fibers have more barbs than hare or rabbit & will "felt" tighter over time.
A hat body continues to felt until it reaches a state of "dead felt". Getting wet & drying effects this felting.
Modern hat bodies are moved from felting to finishing way faster than vintage bodies were so they have more felting left to do after getting sweatbands & ribbons & liners...
All things equal, beaver fur felt will become a tougher, nicer dead felt hat because of these barbs.
Nutria is closest to beaver in this respect.

 

[TheDane]

Walloon, think of the fur as a thorny bush. The thorns of the bush act like barbs, that will have a tendency to make branches tangle up and stick together.

The same with fur. The hairs are covered with small barbs, that makes the fur a better, denser 'coat' to the animal. Some of the water-based rodents have a lot more of these barbs on each hair (and the barbs are also stronger), and among them is the beaver. When exposed to water and heat, the fur-fibers shrink - reducing the distance between barbs even more, and thereby locking them even tighter together. Have you ever tried to wash a wollen sweater in hot water? It usually gets very, very small - but surprisingly bullit proof. The hotter the water and the more movement of the sweater, the denser the felted sweater gets

As others have mentioned, felting fur for hat-use is a very complex process, though. Beaver fur will felt more densely and stable than rabbit, if the fur is prepared alike - but there are lots of other parameters, determining the felt quality and degree of weather resistance