If your noggin is a bit cold these mornings, you might need a good winter hat. As I said before a cap is not a hat. A felt hat can protect you from the
winter sun. Your hat will protect you from the elements. The right hat can
make you look cool. A hatter can help you select that special felt. In the
south, western style hats are popular. In the north, gentlemen prefer
fedoras and an occasional derby.
Hat stores have a variety of types, sizes, and colors. They have trained
hatters to fit you and shape the hat for your face and size. The hatter has the
equipment and tools to steam and trim the brim. A custom hat band can be
added for that special look.
You can spend several hundred dollars for a good felt hat, that will last you
a lifetime. You can tell the quality of a hat by the inside hat band. It should
be leather and well sewn. A quality beaver felt will sometimes have three or
more X on the label. Quality hats have the manufacturer and hat store logo
embossed on the leather sweat band. A beaver felt made by Stetson and
most American made manufacturers will mark the hats with X’s referring to
the quality. The more X’s the better quality of the beaver’s pelt. The X was
the mark used by the early fur trappers to grade the quality of their pelts.
Learn more about beaver pelt grading in Adam’s Daughters book 3 of the
Westward Sagas series.