The International Wool Felt Consortium

[jlee562]

Knudsen works with wool felt, though they deal most in Western hats.

The Fedora Store also has customizable wool hats through Beaver Brand.

 

[AdamW]

Knudsen works with wool felt, though they deal most in Western hats.

The Fedora Store also has customizable wool hats through Beaver Brand.

Thanks a lot! That Fedora Store customizable one looks very interesting, though it's pretty expensive to buy sight unseen. I'll have to see if there are any reviews around here. Big thanks for the pointers.

 

[TipTop]

Here is a relatively contemporary Churchill that I picked up recently, surprisingly, made of wool. It has a leather sweat, but no lining. It is designed and made well, but I get the impression you have to take its shape as it is and I have no idea how it would react to a rain storm.

 

[scottyrocks]

Here is a relatively contemporary Churchill that I picked up recently, surprisingly, made of wool. It has a leather sweat, but no lining. It is designed and made well, but I get the impression you have to take its shape as it is and I have no idea how it would react to a rain storm.

Nothing surprising about it, really. That's definitely a wool hat.

 

[AdamW]

Here is a relatively contemporary Churchill that I picked up recently, surprisingly, made of wool. It has a leather sweat, but no lining. It is designed and made well, but I get the impression you have to take its shape as it is and I have no idea how it would react to a rain storm.

Thanks! You can certainly see the floppy brim effect there, but it doesn't look bad at all. I can't find anyone selling Churchill wool felts online at a quick search, though.

 

[J.B.]

...so anyone have good current information on sources of decent quality wool felt fedoras?...

Goorin Bros. has a few nice wool-felt fedoras in their "American Made 1895" and "Heritage" collections.

 

[cybergentleman]

Quite happy to read that another lounger shares my concerns over fur. I have not done this yet, as I am currently broke, but, intend to ask a few custom makers about the wool issue. In terms of rigor; a number of western hats are made of wool- I figure, with enough stiffener and maybe a welted edge, a wool felt fedora could be tough/ stiff enough for most weather.

 

[gtdean48]

Quite happy to read that another lounger shares my concerns over fur. I have not done this yet, as I am currently broke, but, intend to ask a few custom makers about the wool issue. In terms of rigor; a number of western hats are made of wool- I figure, with enough stiffener and maybe a welted edge, a wool felt fedora could be tough/ stiff enough for most weather.

Add water repellent to the stiffener as that is the down fall of wool over fur felt.
Wool does not pounce like fur felt, so it will have a coarse hand. Wool also doesn't seem to continue to "felt" like fur. It just shrinks.
Finding a wool/fur blend is preferable to pure wool = Dynafelt.
I have quite a few wool crushers that I get good service out of backpacking. There are so many over the counter that I would never look at a custom wool lid.

 

[Hercule]

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

... 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 resurrecting this thread. Wool fedoras sure get short shrift around here and saying otherwise only gets the fur crowd angrier. There seems to be quite a nerve there and if their claims weren't so hippocritical, there might actually be something to the arguments - they're too stiff (so get a crushable hat), they're too soft (so don't get a crushable hat, or get some stiffener), they shrink when they get wet (so spray some scotch gard on it; say, isn't that also why you don't wear your fur felt hat in the rain?) Treat them as a beater hat and that's what they'll be (as if that weren't true of fur!). Take care with them and they'll look nice and perform well (as if only fur is capable of this?). It's also claimed that there are so few vintage wool felt hats because they simply didn't hold up. Maybe so, but it could just as easily be said that it's because they were the ones actually worn, though it would be interesting to hear some actual manufacturing statistics on that topic. Maybe fur felt should only be worn on Sundays for going to church? No wonder they hold up so well.

As far as I can see from the evidence presented here on FL it's the luck of the draw in the felt used. TonyB had some interesting comments on felt in this thread:http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?61731-Wool-Felt-and-Fur-Felt-in-the-Rain. As I wrote in that other thread, some felts, wool or fur, are just going to hold up better or worse than others when subjected to the elements. If your hat holds up and doesn't shrink or taper or mis-shapen, good for you, you got lucky. Is high end fur felt really treated differently in the process of making a hat? I've been wearing the same wool fedora, day in and day out for the last year and a half, rain, shine, or snow. Hasn't tapered or shrunk one bit. The brim got a little wavy but a bit of steam brought it back to life. Sure I sprayed it when I got it, just to be sure, but I haven't touched it since and it's still doing fine, looks great too in spite of some rough handling by my 6 year old. I get a lot of compliments on it. As far as I'm concerned the only real drawbacks to wool felt hats are that they usually only come in small, medium and large, and it's exceedingly difficult to find hats with certain features like brim treatments and crown dimensions/shapes.

As usuall, flame away.

 

[AdamW]

Like I said, I don't really see the need for there to be an argument. If you like fur then you like fur, there's room for everyone. I just was looking for wool information, since it's always trickier to come by.

gtdean48: a wool/fur blend kind of defeats the reason why some of us want a wool hat in the first place, though. There's certainly a lot available over the counter but as I said they're usually pretty cheap, 'fashion' hats which makes me concerned about the quality of manufacture.

cyber: do let me know if you get in touch with any of the custom makers - or if I do it first I'll let you know!

jb: thanks for the info!

 

[gtdean48]

....
gtdean48: a wool/fur blend kind of defeats the reason why some of us want a wool hat in the first place, though.
...

Not sure I get this statement. The reason is cheaper than fur felt & Dynafelt is cheaper than fur felt. True not as cheap as all wool.....

 

[Hercule]

Not sure I get this statement. The reason is cheaper than fur felt & Dynafelt is cheaper than fur felt. True not as cheap as all wool.....

I believe he is referring to the issue of ethical harvesting the of fur.

 

[Bad Co]

I wore an old Wool Dreby while hiking the AT in 2007
By the time I hit Virginia after brazing the elements it became a bit soggy and out of shape .
First town I came into I purchased a can of spray shellac,
ripped out the liner and sprayed the crap out of it shaped it back to original.
Nothing could hurt that hat after that you could drink from it.

 

[AdamW]

So the 'wool homburg' showed up, it turns out to be Bailey's 'Godfather' hat, which is on their website but not in their 2011 'collection'.

It's an interesting hat. It looks pretty good from the outside, I think. The felt feels a little odd to the touch - very fuzzy, not really like any other wool or fur felt I've come across. Quite different from my other wool felts. It's very thin and seems to be very heavily stiffened - like tiptop said of his, it doesn't feel like you could play around with the brim shape at all. The edging on the brim is made to look like the band but it's not the same material, it's something much shinier. Not sure if the band is real silk or synthetic, but it looks fine. Sweatband is fabric, nothing special about the lining. Sizes are S/M/L, I'm a 7 and the M size fits me okay, very slightly large but nothing to write home about.

Overall the hat feels just a little bit like it's an imitation of something rather than comfortable 'in its own skin', but it's not bad, and I think it looks pretty decent. I'll certainly wear it. I'll post a picture in a bit.

 

[gtdean48]

I believe he is referring to the issue of ethical harvesting the of fur.

I truly don't get it then....never will....

 

[AdamW]

hercule: right, that's what I meant. If you don't have a problem with fur but you *do* have a problem with the price, then sure, I guess a wool/fur blend is an option.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Overall the hat feels just a little bit like it's an imitation of something rather than comfortable 'in its own skin', but it's not bad,

This is the basic defining issue with wool hats.
Wish it was not so but it is. A wool hat will never be
A 1941 Mallory fedora in materials or construction.
Just the way it is.

 

[AdamW]

Overall the hat feels just a little bit like it's an imitation of something rather than comfortable 'in its own skin', but it's not bad,

This is the basic defining issue with wool hats.
Wish it was not so but it is. A wool hat will never be
A 1941 Mallory fedora in materials or construction.
Just the way it is.

maybe I didn't do a great job of the description, but I wouldn't apply it to any other wool hat I have - the light brown one I mentioned, for instance. it's not really to do with the wooliness but more a feeling that they wanted to make a wool hat that 'appears' like a high-end felt one and doesn't cost much; so they used very thin material but stiffened it very heavily. by comparison, the light brown wool fedora I have just feels like it's happy being what it is. The felt is thicker and it doesn't feel like it's heavily stiffened at all - but it feels kind of natural, you know? Like that's what the material wants to be. You can fiddle around with the brim and it responds naturally - with the Godfather hat it kind of resists until you force it, where it 'snaps' and feels very wrong.

 

[TipTop]

Nothing surprising about it, really. That's definitely a wool hat.

Two things surprised me: That a Churchill fedora would be made of wool, and second, that the grommets on the side were not visible in the pitiful ePrey description. But still, it strikes me as more dignified than a bucket rain hat. Someday, I may try a little steam and see what happens...or stays.

 

[Undertow]

AdamW - have you tried the Stetson Cashmere hats?

The Fedora Store

The only place I can find them on the web is the Fedora Store, however I've encountered them at two hat shops in Des Moines. They aren't bad hats, honestly. They're a little more luxurious than plain wool and yet much less expensive than fur. You might look into it. [huh]