Stetson Skyline 6x

[NeilM]

I recently purchased a chocolate Stetson Skyline western hat and I'm curious about it's composition. Site says 6x fur felt. Does that mean 100% European rabbit/hare? Does it have any wool or beaver? Also, does Stetson ever downgrade 20x hats to 6x that don't pass inspection? My first Stetson and I'm impressed with the quality so far but I have not worn it in the rain yet and curious if I can because I plan to wear this hat camping and fishing.

Neil

 

[deadlyhandsome]

In the post-Stetson era Stetsons, they used to use the felt designations in “beaver,” such as 4X Beaver, 5X Beaver, etc. (it was used before then too, but for simplicity….). The hats probably had very little beaver fur in the mix, but there was probably some. It mostly told you how the hat fit in the hierarchy of their product line at that time. Recently, Hat-Co stopped using the beaver designations and just used “fur felt.” The 4X is now a wool felt (Buffalo or otherwise). Since the 1930s the law requires disclosing wool content so we know there wasn’t any wool in the older “X Beaver” hats or in the current “fur felt” hats. Stetson won’t tell content, but it’s almost certainly rabbit, hare, or a combination of the two.

The current 6X felt is rugged and should meet your needs. I would be careful about getting it soaked but a light rain shouldn’t cause any harm. Stetson used a powder to even out the color and that powder would sometimes run and leave the hats streaked if they got wet, but Stetson stopped using powder some years back.