Whats With All These X's???

[North Valley]

Gentlemen and Lovely Women,
This is a copy of a post I did a while back on another site.
Just thought I would throw this out there for fun. NOT TO STIR ANY TROUBLE!!!
NOTE: I do not use X's in my hats any more. I call them what they are. 50% Beaver, 100% Beaver, 100% Beaver Belly, and Mink/Beaver Blend.
Here Goes!
I am lost and confused these days as to what an X rating means anymore. I have seen 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X 6X, 7X, 8X, 8X+ (WHATEVER THAT IS???),10X 15X,20X,25X,30X,40X,50X,100X,200X,500X,1,000X,1500X,2,000X, and even a 2,500X.
I have also seen 3x Hats from the 20's & 30's that are better hats than most 20X hats that I see today.
I thought that I was a "Master Hatter"??? Shouldn't I be able to honestly give a credible answer to this question to my customers and self???
I Also know hatters out there who use the same felt as I do to create what they call a 50X hat and I call mine a 10X but my 10X has a better finish on it than thier 100X.
Are we lying to our customers? Are we fooling ourselves? where does it stop?
I did have a friend ask me what the highest X quality was. I told him I can put as many XXX's in a hat as will fit in the sweat-band, but, I sure won't put my name & logo in it!
Am I the only one lost here?[huh] :eusa_clap

 

[fedoralover]

Rodney, we have discussed this many a time here on the lounge and we know exactly what you are talking about. A lot of main line companies like Stetson etc. still use the X rating on their hats to undoubtedly try to fool the unschooled into thinking they are getting a superior product. There are also custom hat makers who advertise the big number of Xs on their hats for the same reason. The honest hat makers like yourself, Art Fawcett, Steve Delk, don't bother. WE all know the X rating doesn't mean a thing anymore.

By the way, I'd like to come up for a visit again. Is there a particular day of the week thats better for you to entertain a visitor for an hour or 2?

regards fedoralover

 

[MattJH]

There's a lot of good information in this thread and a few mentions in this article.

 

[Manny Tavares]

Thanks, for the links. I too was wondering what it all meant. Sort of like the XXX rated movies of the '70s; it meant nothing other than garbage.lol

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Almost...

When I was first getting into hats I had a so called hatter try to take me with all the xxxxxxx nonsense. Then I found The Fedora Lounge.:eusa_clap

 

[Aaron Hats]

Very true. If a hatter tries to sell a dress hat quoting X's run as fast as you can away from him. He can't be trusted.

 

[tonyb]

Blame it (in part, anyway) on the "average" modern consumer's ignorance of hats -- what they're made of, what to look for, etc. (Those of us of a certain age may have to be reminded that it's not only the typical young man these days who never owned a proper hat, neither did his father nor perhaps even his grandfather. It's 2007, the war has been over for 62 years now, etc., etc.)
Enter the less-than-scrupulous "businessman." Perhaps the surest indication of a fundamentally dishonest person is his tendency to distinguish between outright lies and other forms of deception, as though they weren't all designed to mislead. All those Xes may not quite add up to a lie, but they certainly are a pile of BS. Pity the poor newbie who takes them, or the guy who embossed 'em the sweatband, seriously.

 

[Art Fawcett]

As stated above, I don't use or believe in the "X" system of today. It's just another sales tool of questionable character. There WAS a time when it mean't percentage of beaver content but that was basardized pretty quickly by less than honorable salespeople.

 

[majormoore]

Hat X's

I tell my customers , I get three gardes of bodies, one is a 100%, one is a 50/50 mix and the last one is a staple body (10% with a 90% mix). No X's stamped in the hat unless the customer wants it in the 100% only.

Mike

 

[tonyb]

As stated above, I don't use or believe in the "X" system of today. It's just another sales tool of questionable character. There WAS a time when it mean't percentage of beaver content but that was basardized pretty quickly by less than honorable salespeople.

The most plausible explanation I ever heard was that each X (Roman numeral ten) stood for 10 percent beaver fur content. So three Xes meant 30 percent beaver, four Xes was 40 percent, etc.
But that makes sense, so it can't possibly be 100 percent accurate, eh?

 

[fedoralover]

The most plausible explanation I ever heard was that each X (Roman numeral ten) stood for 10 percent beaver fur content. So three Xes meant 30 percent beaver, four Xes was 40 percent, etc.
But that makes sense, so it can't possibly be 100 percent accurate, eh?

Going along with that, one of the "stories" I've heard is that it took about 10 beaver pelts to make one hat, hence the "10X" at one time meant pure beaver. Again, that is a story, I have no evidence to support it and as has already been mentioned, who would know the difference if a guy substituted a few rabbits for a few beavers.

fedoralover