Club Obi Wan

Lately there has been some confusion regarding felt bodies from Europe made from beaver.

Here is what I have researched so far and I stand to be corrected if anyone knows better:

Basicly in most European countries it is forbidden to shot beaver. It is an endagered animal and therefore protected by laws. The only exeption I know of, is Norway, were beavers are legally shot due to the damage they cause on farmers land.

In the U.K. you cannot buy a hat that contain beaver hairs. This I was told by both Christies - London and Herbert Johnson. If it is due to the higher price or because it is not allowed, I don't know.

In Germany a pure beaver is in fact a pure rabbit (no, I'm not making fun of you). A pure beaver felt means that only the finest neck hairs from the rabbit were taken to create the body. This I was told by a prof. hatter in southern Germany.

Since beaver hairs are so hard to get within the European countries, you might wonder if any (real) beaver bodies come from Europe. They do. Beaver, rabbit, nutria and other hairs are imported from south America, the U.S. and other places and than made to bodies in for example Portugal.

99 per cent of all beaver bodies will go directly to the U.S., while the few bodies needed in Europe are mainly made of rabbit or wool & ). Basicly, if you want to buy a (real) beaver hat, you need to buy it in the U.S. as they have a much longer tradition there. I know of very few European Trademarks who offer a beaver hat now and then - Borsalino being one of them - for a price, that is far beyond a custom made beaver hat in the U.S..

This is what I could find out so far and as I wrote above, I stand to be corrected if anyone know better.

Regards,

Marc

Interesting. I have a 3x beaver hat, sold by HJ, and it was a Stetson, made in the UK. This was sold originally in 1971. I have the original box that it was shipped in. So, is the UK different? I am confused. regards Fedora

Beavers Endangered where???? It seems so strange to me that Beavers could be endangered. Where I live there are so many blasted beavers I can literally look out the window and see them riding their bikes down the main street! ...mind you I did stop taking my anti-delusional medication this week
But honestly folks....We've gottem everywhere! One of the guys in town had his whole front yard cleared clean by a family of these pesky rodents. They had decided to save some time by building their lodge right under and over his dock....And Big? Wow, the guys German Shepard didn't stand a chance against the Big Daddy Beaver. They couldn't even let their kids out in the yard because these were some mean beavers!!!
Finally after trying everything....he had to hire a Beaver Hitman (Another friend) to clean out the lot.

Beavers! Why'd it have to be Beavers!!!!

Warm Regards
Kilgour Trout

Kilgour Trout wrote:Beavers Endangered where???? It seems so strange to me that Beavers could be endangered. Where I live there are so many blasted beavers I can literally look out the window and see them riding their bikes down the main street! ...mind you I did stop taking my anti-delusional medication this week
But honestly folks....We've gottem everywhere! One of the guys in town had his whole front yard cleared clean by a family of these pesky rodents. They had decided to save some time by building their lodge right under and over his dock....And Big? Wow, the guys German Shepard didn't stand a chance against the Big Daddy Beaver. They couldn't even let their kids out in the yard because these were some mean beavers!!!
Finally after trying everything....he had to hire a Beaver Hitman (Another friend) to clean out the lot.

Beavers! Why'd it have to be Beavers!!!!

Warm Regards
Kilgour Trout

Actually, the Dutch government is pretty happy that we have a few beavers within our borders again (they're in a swamp, and if they don't like it, they leave and go to Belgium or something like that.).
I think there are only dozens of beavers in the Netherlands. Belgium should be about the same, but France and Germany would logically contain more beavers. Still, a few dozen beavers on a population of 16 million, you got to be glad, in a strange way, that there aren't a lot of people wearing beaver hats these days.

Marc, it's really nice that you compiled that info for us. I certainly hadn't expected that.

Mike

Interesting. I have a 3x beaver hat, sold by HJ, and it was a Stetson, made in the UK. This was sold originally in 1971. I have the original box that it was shipped in. So, is the UK different? I am confused. regards Fedora

I can only tell you, what I was told lately. Maybe 30 years ago you were able to buy beaver hats in U.K. as well. I really don't know, though it obviously seems so.

Regards,

Marc