Why the X

[Brad Bowers]

I, for one, am glad that the X-factors aren't used on dress hats.

HATCO, I bought a 2007 Cavanagh Park Avenue for review here last year, and was suitably impressed with the Genuine Beaver felt. Very nice, indeed, though the brim could have used a touch more stiffener.

The big disappointment for me is that the Park Avenue styling didn't seem to fit the Cavanagh name, as it's a very casual-looking hat, and a Cavanagh hat should be fairly formal. I haven't seen much about Cavanagh this year, so I hope the brand isn't languishing. I'd like to see it make a proper comeback.

Thanks for all you do,

Brad

 

[Bud-n-Texas]

Bud,

Did you get a comfort sweat? I have feeling that is what you purchased. As you said those hat sweats were specifically designed for working cowboys and rodeo cowboys like team ropers, calf ropers, and bulldoggers etc. It will stick to your head, especially when you sweat and is marketed as such. Their should have been a brim tag on the hat denoting what it had a comfort sweat. My theory is that someone took it off, when they tried it on previous to you. PRCA rules require a contestant to wear a hat. If they can buy one that is less likely to fall off in the ring when they are competing they will. Hence the comfort sweat.

This is the first hat that I got to start with. It is packed away, so I can not tell you exactly how the sweat is tagged. Like you said, it was made for a specific purpose. My days in the saddle are over for the most part. I have not worked cattle for several years now.

These are the two hats that I use most now for my western straw use. The first is a 10X PRCA Resistol that is my daily wear. The second is my prize. It is a 200X Resistol Black Gold straw and is reserved for special occasions. Both are fantastic hats and highly recommended to anyone.

 

[Bud-n-Texas]

Bud,
I'm glad you got the answer you were looking for, and it's great that you got to talk to someone at the company who could set the record straight. However, should I need to talk to vice-president in charge of mystical information at Hatco to find out whether my sweatband is made of plastic?

No, but like most things, you need someone who knows what they are talking about. Sadly very few retailers even attempt to train their employees. That is where our forum can be a real advantage, so long as we confine ourselves to facts and do not state opinions as fact. Having HATCO here is a big plus for us. Imagine how nice it would be to have a Borso rep.

 

[SGT Rocket]

I'm not sure why you're so upset about the use of X's. They're simply a way to designate the different quality levels within a given brand. You can't compare a Stetson 4X to a Bailey 4X but you can see and feel the difference between a Stetson 4X, 10X, 20X, etc. The X ratings have never been and never will be an industry standard for everyone to follow and it's naive to think it ever could be.

Aaron

+10

This is true in shaving brushes as well. Where different companies will have "pure" or "genuine" or "better" or "best", "badger," or "silver tip" or whatever.

I kind of like the "X" factor. It's kind-of-cool. The truth is out there......... lol

... sorry, I couldn't resist the X-Files reference to the X....

 

[KY Gentleman]

I've always liked my Stetson and Resistol hats, too.
I've found over time the Open Road loosened up and felt more pliable, the Chatham is Soveriegn Quality and was great right out of the box.
I have several Stetson and Resistol Western hats I think feel great as well.
(I'm watching the mail for a new Resistol Western right now).
I've always felt that I got my moneys worth with these brands.
Thank you Hatco for the info shared on this thread.
I can safely say I'll be buying more of your hats in the near future!

 

[HATCO]

Vacation

I don't think this deserves it's own thread so I'm posting it only in threads that I'm active in. I'll be on vacation starting Friday. I'm travelling overseas spending time with my kids. I'm not going to have a lot of internet access, so I apologize in advance. I will be back on the 22nd. I'm clearing my PM. So if you have a question I suggest you send it there.

 

[gandydancer]

Maybe I can clarify a few things.

First in comparing vintage felts with modern felts there are two really important factors that make them different that the manufactures have no control over.

1. Weather, as everyone knows it has been getting generally warmer for the past 150 years. Unfortunately the best felt is made from fur, and fur quality is better the colder it gets as the animals develop longer and denser fur in cold weather. You just can not get the quality fur you could when minus 20 degree weather was common. Also most of the fur used is from domesticated animals while in the old days most of it was from wild ones.

2. Mercury. The government banned the use of mercury. That was very good for the workers in the felt industry, but it was not good for the quality of the felt. As far as I know nothing has been developed that truly replaces mercury in the making of felt. Without it the quality of the best felt is down something like 20% (really just a guess on my part, it may only be 10 or 15%) compared to felt made with mercury.

And just because it is interesting: way, way back fur was graded from 1x to 10x with 1x fur being crap, and 10x being the very best fur. Originally the hat makers used those gradings to specify the quality of the fur they used in their hats. A cheap hat would be 3x rabbit fur felt. The very best hats would be made of 10x beaver fur felt. How it came to be that they lost any real meaning is not clear, but I imagine we can blame advertising copy writers.

Also it may have had something to do with fur blends as you can hardly use the grading accurately across different types of fur. For example, if you have 20% 7x beaver and 80% 10x hare, what do you grade the felt? In that case 7x might be accurate but I'll bet that they would have called it 10x, wouldn't you if you were selling the hats? But then what does the guy making 100% 10x beaver hats do? He knows his hat is better than the other guys, and honestly so. Well, he labels it 20x. And so it goes. This paragraph is pure speculation on my part but it does seem highly likely that is how it happened. As HATCO said, they are not going to tell you what they mean by 15x today except that it is better than their 10x hat.

 

[Bamaboots]

This is a revival of an old thread and I'm sure many have read it. I just couldn't resist after I read this line this morning in an actual listing for a vintage hat. I didn't get the sense they were joking.

"It's a "7X" on the felt, meaning they had to kill seven beavers to make the hat."

 

[hatophile]

This is a revival of an old thread and I'm sure many have read it. I just couldn't resist after I read this line this morning in an actual listing for a vintage hat. I didn't get the sense they were joking.

"It's a "7X" on the felt, meaning they had to kill seven beavers to make the hat."

Must have been a d--m big hat!

 

[Bamaboots]

Must have been a d--m big hat!

Yeah, I fall over every time I put my Bailey 50X on.

 

[RJR]

Yeah, I fall over every time I put my Bailey 50X on.

 

[Frunobulax]

Yeah, I fall over every time I put my Bailey 50X on.

HAHAHAHA!


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[suitedcboy]

I always like the ads stating the hat is beaver hide..............
I guess wool hats are sheep hide.
I did get a hat once with a knotty place in the felt. I suppose that was beaver anus.

 

[Bob Roberts]

I always like the ads stating the hat is beaver hide..............
I guess wool hats are sheep hide.
I did get a hat once with a knotty place in the felt. I suppose that was beaver anus.

Feces

 

[Bob Roberts]

This is a revival of an old thread and I'm sure many have read it. I just couldn't resist after I read this line this morning in an actual listing for a vintage hat. I didn't get the sense they were joking.

"It's a "7X" on the felt, meaning they had to kill seven beavers to make the hat."

Pictures or it didn't happen...

 

[Hurricane Jack]

I guess wool hats are sheep hide.

That's baaaad!

 

[Frunobulax]

It's simple. In their foresight in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, our forebears had the good sense to use the "X" designations.

Because they knew way back then that, in the 21st century, we'd have to explain our internet search history including "XXX Beaver" to our spouses.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Because they knew way back then that, in the 21st century, we'd have to explain our internet search history including "XXX Beaver" to our spouses.

Reminds me of this:

 

[Bob Roberts]

It's simple. In their foresight in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, our forebears had the good sense to use the "X" designations.

Because they knew way back then that, in the 21st century, we'd have to explain our internet search history including "XXX Beaver" to our spouses.

Yeh and half the population was illiterate and could only sign their name with an "X"

 

[Redfokker]

It's simple. In their foresight in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, our forebears had the good sense to use the "X" designations.

Because they knew way back then that, in the 21st century, we'd have to explain our internet search history including "XXX Beaver" to our spouses.

+1