Buffalo Felt, The Equivalent of Wool?

[theinterchange]

I was looking at a western shop the other day, and naturally gravitated toward the hat section. While looking, I noticed the buffalo felt Stetsons, and found one I rather liked the style of but had some reservations about the felts durability. The felt is rather rough, and reminded me of wool..

I wondered if any of the hat experts around here could add more to the subject. Is it prone to the same problems as wool, shrinkage and taper? I'm sure the felts quality isn't near rabbit, let alone beaver, but would it be a mistake purchase. Guess that's what I'm wondering.

My search only turned up a few unhelpful results from old threads, and even then only in passing remarks.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, or knowledge shared!

Randy

[WalkingEye]

my assumption would be that it's fairly close to wool felt.

found this on the web:

In the last 18-24 months the price of the raw rabbit fur has gone through the roof due to the Chinese clothing manufacturers using more real fur. For this reason, RHE Hatco who makes hats for Stetson, Resistol, Dobbs, Charlie 1 Horse and Cavanagh has experimented with different kinds of fur. A couple years ago they started using Buffalo fur and continue to make select styles using Buffalo. The Buffalo fur is better than wool but still not quite as nice as the beaver and rabbit fur hats. This actually turned out to be good because it created a price point in retail that was missing. Previously you could spend $50 on a wool felt hat or $150+ for a rabbit fur felt hat. Buffalo fits right in the middle of that floating right around $100.

from this link:
http://aaronhats.com/blog/2008/01/13/ka ... felt-hats/

[theinterchange]

That was my impression of the felt, better than wool, but not in the same class as rabbit.. and leagues below beaver. I'm curious as to it's properties over time. I'm assuming it fares moderately better than wool, but not enough to warrant buying. Though, the temptation is there to buy it and "just see" what happens, to satisfy my curiosity.

Oh, and my brushes with working in retail make me shudder at the term "price point". haha [Nothing wrong with working retail, my experiences were just not very good.. at all. ]

Randy

[Indiana Jeff]

If buffalo is coming in at around $100, there's plenty of choices of rabbit at that range.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

[WalkingEye]

i found this:

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/6822 ... r-Men.html

not into western hats myself but this ones on sale. 40 bucks aint bad.

never mind didn't notice it was sold out.

[theinterchange]

If buffalo is coming in at around $100, there's plenty of choices of rabbit at that range.

Regards,

Indiana Jeff

That was my hang up on buying the hat, I was thinking about rabbit choices in the same range.. including some I was looking at, but none were in the same style as I was interested in. As in, not the typical stovepipe atop a pizza platter cowboy hat.

Randy

Oh, also, there were some 4 and 6 X buffalo felts that were more akin to the smoothness of rabbit, and their price tags reflected that fact. Though, past $100-110, I wouldn't want anything other than rabbit.

[Fedora]

I guess the next move is to the Norway Rat. We have tons of them. Doubt they would advertise it as such though. Buffalo, yeah, I can see that being ok, for advertising. But rat?

Fur prices, I hear are going up again in the near future, mainly because China is using more and more furs. I just hope they don't create a shortage. Fedora