I got home today to find a rather large box. Inside, in their own indivdual hat boxes, were two pure belly beaver hats. A small fortune. One hat belongs to our good friend and fellow gearhead, Marc. His hat is completely finished, while mine is just a pounced hat body. I like finishing my own hats. I will let Marc give you his evaluation of his hat once he gets it. (If it never shows up Marc, just remember, the old American saw, " the check is in the mail"
) OK, on to my first impressions of my hat body. I can't address the liner, the sweatband, the ribbon issues, because mine is just a piece of beaver felt shaped like a hat. But, I can tell you about the color, and the felt. The color is different than our other offerings, or rather the shade of brown is a little different. It is lighter than the Deluxe, a shade or two I would say. The Deluxe looks blackish sitting next to it. It is a brownish brown. Very nice, and it looks as if it would have golden highlights under the sun. Beaver and Nutria felt have this strange property. It is hard to describe, you really have to visually experience it up close, and in person. I will try. When the light hits beaver and nutria felt, it almost looks as if the felt has a colored frosting. I don't know how else to describe what I see. It is just a nuance of these types of felt. My nutria has the same quality. All in all, this is a very good Indy brown, leaning toward the Raiders color.(Or what I perceive it to be) Now some observations regarding the felt. This is a lightweight felt, but as dense as they come. I don't see how a felt could be any denser. The felt is soft and very pliable. If you thump the crown with a finger, it dents easily, and the dent stays. No springiness at all to the felt. I like this quality. It is more robust than the Optimo felt, and won't change shapes when a brisk breeze is blowing. This is certainly in the same league as the finest vintage felt. I have no qualms about stating that observation. In fact, if someone had of handed me this hat a few days ago and wanted a comment, I would have said it is obviously a vintage hat. I would have been wrong of course. When you handle this felt, only one thing comes to mind. Velvet. It feels like velvet. When I first felt it, I had to get it into the light to see if I had got one of those pimp daddy hats by mistake. It just felt too soft. My eyes reassured me because all that I saw was a very, super fine felt with no fuzz at all. This felt is so fine that you almost need a magnifying glass to see the beaver under fur. If you look inside the hat, where it has not been pounced, you see no guard hairs. Nothing but superfine beaver fur, as soft a cotton on the underside of the crown. I honestly did not know what I would get when I ordered this hat body about a month ago. I was hoping it would be as good as the vintage Stetson Nutria. I just knew that I wanted a pure beaver hat, since I did not own one. I had someone tell me that all beaver hats were stiff and unsuitable for fedoras. While I knew that this just wasn't the case in times past, I was worried that what I would get for a beaver body would be a thick stiff beaver hat, better suited for Roy than Fedora. I was so relieved when I first picked the hat up, or perhaps snatched up would be a better term. So, now I finally own one. There is no where to go from here. You can't move up. I see now why pure beaver has always been the ultimate felt for a hat, any kind of hat. And why some hats were given the "x" system on percentage of beaver. And also why this felt has always been so expensive. There is nothing like a pure soft beaver fedora. It don't get any better than this. So, now it is time for me to put this baby on my new vintage block, style 52, and seen how she responds. I will post pics as I go along, for those interested in this sort of thing. And Marc, you ever heard of the word "ransom" A nice english word. You and I wear the same size.
How many of those Cuban cigars is this thing worth to ya.
Fedora
) Just kidding. Price?
.. I now wonder what my $12.98 Burlington is actually made of? Fedora said 
It's like getting a Harley vs. a Honda, a Gibson vs. an Epiphone. and congradulations on reverse engineering the block!
Well, I guess I'll just have to see if I can stretch it when you mail it up to me.