The International Wool Felt Consortium

[scottyrocks]

I think its a matter of education and experience. Like many of us, wool fedoras came first because they are generally less expensive than fur. As I became more educated about fedoras through personal and in-store experience, and of course, reading, and my comfort level increased, I 'moved up' to fur felt hats. My wool hats are either in a box in the attic, or in the garage where they serve as house renovation head covers. I dont want to get paint or joint compound on a fur felt hat, whereas I dont care if a woolie gets blopped on.

 

[Sam Craig]

I've been buying, collecting, wearing DAILY, fur felt fedoras since the early 1970s, but I do own a few wool hats for certain occasions.
Recently when we were hit with incredibly cold weather and very high winds, I wore a couple of mine because they are easier to tuck down against the wind.

It certainly IS easy to see why they are cheaper, but for heavy wear, I can understand why the are popular, too.

On the other hand, the two I get some use out of ... black and brown ... are ones I picked up at a discount store for $10 and $5. They look just like the one Jaxon C-crown pictured earlier in this thread, but different color.

The problem I see with most new wool hats on the Web is the cost. Sure, they are cheaper than most fur felt hats on the Web. But they are not cheaper than what you can still find with a lot of work at thrift stores, etc.

Sam

 

[John in Covina]

It has been years since I got to wear a wool felt hat. While there are probably levels of quality that effect the weather resistance and life span, I still consider it a serviceable starter hat. The idea is that if you find you don't continually lose them, ruin or destroy them then at some point you may wish to take the next step and move up to a fur felt.

Some of them look really nice.

 

[JimWagner]

Some of them look really nice.

Case in point, a Stetson wool felt I picked up a few months ago from Dillards.

 

[Sam Craig]

Case in point, a Stetson wool felt I picked up a few months ago from Dillards.

Yeah, I've seen those at Dillards, and the Jaxon ones aren't bad looking, either.

 

[bowlerman]

I actually know a few people who prefer wool felt hats for humane reasons.

Yeah... It kind of bothered me at first, but I somehow got over it, more or less. I mean I've been a carnivore my entire life, so why waste the pelts, so to speak.
Incidentally, of my 6 wools, 2 of them kind of suck, 3 are fine for occasional use, and 1 happens to be one of my all around favorites, as well as my first real hat. It's a Knudsen Bat Masterson:

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[scottyrocks]

1 happens to be one of my all around favorites, as well as my first real hat. It's a Knudsen Bat Masterson:

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Bowlers, in general, seem to work better in wool than fedoras do. Maybe its the lack of a crease.

 

[azhiker]

My first fedora was a Scala Indy type hat. i bought it for an outdoor hat while in alaska, 2 years ago. I wore it almost everyday for over a year, rain, snow, sunshine, heat, etc. I have since moved to fur felt fedoras. Oh BTW, the scala still looks new! i do perfer my fur felt because they are nicer, but as far as holding up..

 

[bowlerman]

Bowlers, in general, seem to work better in wool than fedoras do. Maybe its the lack of a crease.

You're probably right, though I do have a Bailey wool derby that you'd *think* is crushable, it's so soft and costume-like. The Knudsen above is more like a helmet!

 

[HeyMoe]

both of my cowboy conversion fedoras are wool. This past weekend I had to pull my daughter's friend out of our driveway with my Jeep. I was wearing one of the conversions and layed down in the snow to stick my head under the car to hook the winch cable up. She said "whoa dad, your hat" my response was a chuckle as the hat got knocked off and a large glop of slushy snow fell on and into it.

I got up, knocked the slush and nastyness off my lid and all was good. I would never do that with the fur felts I have.

 

[scottyrocks]

Ive posted this before, but here is something I do in a woolie that Id never do in a fur:

 

[warbird]

I will never again buy a wool hat, other than something like a British driver cap or similar. Everyone of them I have ever owned has shrunk, deformed severely in rain and snow and otherwise been crap. They are also hotter in warm weather and colder in cold weather than fur felt. I have several fur felt hats that are on the lower end of the spectrum that I wear as beaters. Or I will wear straw hats. I gave my son all of my wool fedora and western hats, 3 or 4 in all and he likes to wear them around.

 

[MCrider]

While I prefer fur felt hats, I have owned wool ones and besides the price and crushable points, I also think they may be a good starter hat for someone who might not be sure whether they will feel comfortable wearing a hat in public. I'd hate to see someone spend a $100+ and then decide that fedora's aren't for them.
I don't know about woolies that deform in the rain. I have one that has been soaked clear through in the rain more than a few times, had snow piled up on the brim and the only thing that's happened is that it's losing its rich brown color.
I guess in the end, I heartily recommend a wool hat as a first or a work hat. If you decide it's something you like then you save up for the better or custom furs. And if your like me, you occasionally pull out the old wool hat, plop it on your head and remember the good times you shared!

 

[Jim2903]

I never understood what the big deal was with fur felt -- until I bought my first fur felt hat. IMO, the look and feel are superior, the quality of the material is worlds apart, and the ability to reshape them at will is a great advantage. I still have several wool felts but rarely wear them anymore; I rotate among my five Akubras for daily wear.

 

[Silvan]

I guess I'm the only one after almost a year since you started the thread.

I prefer the look and feel of fur, but as much as I like to dress fancy and pretend I'm some kind of high class redneck, the fact is that occasions when I can break out the good stuff are really few and far between. I'm the most overdressed guy doing the fine dining thing at Pizza Hut, because in my real life I've usually got a smear of fifth-wheel grease somewhere on my body, and the only jobs I've actually landed have been the ones where I wore beat up bluejeans and a flannel shirt, and left the tie at home. I've actually tanked job interviews due to dressing too nicely. "We work around here, son."

The nice thing about wearing a wool felt hat when you're driving a truck is that it will take any kind of beating you can throw at it, and bounce right back into shape. Run over it, have it blow off your head to land in a ditch, smack it into the bottom of a trailer, turn it inside out and throw it across the cab in a fit of road rage... Sure, it basically looks like a fancy horse blanket stuck on your head, but fine fur felts are just too delicate for this environment.

The hat I've gotten the most miles out of is an old, brown, Indy-esque Resistol C-crown that was the most fedora-like hat I could find at the western store (which is the only hat store in town). (Nearly everybody starts with an Indy hat, right?) It's been soaked through, snowed on, and just generally beaten up several dozen times over. My dog chewed up the sweat band, prompting me to want to wear the hat out and get rid of it, but it has proven to be a completely indestructible, all-season beater hat.

The new hat I'm getting is another wool felt. My fur hats sit around the house about 350 days a year, so I figured I might as well buy something I could actually get some use out of this time.

Even though it, too, will just look like a fancy horse blanket. Whattayagonnado.

 

[Sam Craig]

I have had wool hats in the past that were quite useful ... that was before I began reinventing my used westerns into fedoras .... they have filled the niche quite well.

In the past it was nice to have a couple of wool fedoras for wearing with jeans and for times when I didn't know where I would end up at work and I didn't want to keep putting my classic fur felt fedoras at risk

However, I have to say since I began retro-fitting my westerns and turning them into casual-wear fedoras, I really prefer their fur felt to the wool. They are easier to keep looking sharp, too.

Around here, coming up with a good used "cowboy hat" is fairly easy and I pick them up when they aren't too expensive, just for future material. So I don't have a reason to drop 50 bucks for a wool hat. But I realize not everyone has access to used cowboys to recreate.

A decent woolly is a good second choice, if you are going somewhere you don't want your Whippet to be put at risk

Sam

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I have two wool hats, Baileys, that are O.K., they are both a discontinued model Executive that have a high front crown, snap brims that are 2 inches. One I have owned for over 10 years, still looks good and like new. The other is basically new, I have not yet worn it. However, fur felt does more for me than wool. I would still buy a wool hat if I spot one I like. Knowing what I do now about hats, I would do some things as treat the hat with water guard and some stiffener right off.

 

[Old Rogue]

A few months ago I was seriously looking at a wool felt as my first fedora. Due to the sage advice from a number of folks in here I elected to spend just a few more dollars and got a fur felt Jaxon Bogart for $88. I've been very pleased with it. I've looked at some of the $30 wool felt Indy hats at Walmart and they appear to be a decent value. Not quite the quality of my Jaxon, but would be fine for a beater.

 

[PADDY]

Personally, I wouldn't knock a good vintage wool felt hat. I have owned and worn wool, rabbit and beaver felt. And, I've enjoyed them all. I have had XXXX beaver that was downright awful, despite it's prestigious 'content.' Look for something that 'suits YOU,' that makes you look and feel good, irrespective of the materials is my 'tip.'

 

[AdamW]

I know this is an old thread but I felt more comfortable re-animating one than posting a new one.

I've got a couple of fur fedoras but I've been looking harder for quality wool ones lately due to my personal take on the ethics of fur (everyone's got an opinion, mine's mine, yours is yours, I don't preach about mine, please don't preach to me about yours, let's just take each others' positions as read and move on...)

There's a few decent threads in the archives on wool felt hats but it's always good to have more information, so anyone have good current information on sources of decent quality wool felt fedoras? I'd love to find somewhere which makes hats to the same high quality as good fur hats, only using wool felt, but it seems like wool felt is more often used as an entry level, 'cheap alternative'.

I've got one fairly decent looking light brown wool felt fedora from 'Brixton' (made in China) - it's clearly more of a fashion hat than a traditional one, fabric sweatband, synthetic lining, no solid structure to it, but the felt's actually pretty decent and it looks nice from the outside. I've also ordered a wool homburg(!) from Bailey via John Helmer, so I have some high hopes for that. I also found a company called Pachacuti via an article in my favourite bleeding-heart liberal newspaper - they have some fairly nice looking hats for sale at http://www.panamas.co.uk/hats/men?cat=40 but there isn't much detail about the construction available there, and not a huge range of styles.

So if anyone has pointers to other sources and known-good wool manufacturers these days, that'd be great. Also - the most-cited drawback of wool felt seems to be that it's more susceptible to rain damage. This bothers me not at all because I always carry an umbrella when it's raining. The second most-cited drawback seems to be that it's inherently softer than fur felt and so harder to form into a really stiff hat or wide brim, which also doesn't bother me overmuch (I tend to prefer a narrowish brim anyway). Are there any other real drawbacks to wool that I haven't picked up on yet? Or is it more just what I mentioned above, about it being the state of the industry that wool felt is more used for cheap fashion hats than decent high-end ones?

Thanks for any more wooly insights

Forgot my third question - does anyone know if any of the bespoke makers would work in wool felt if asked? Or are they strictly fur only?