10X Hats

10X Hats

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
I've had my share of good cowboy hats in my life. But I never really understood what went into the quality. And what it meant when you heard the term felt, or 10 X or 50 X. Perk Perkins, owner of the Pendleton Hat Company filled me in. "All the hats that we do are for felt hats. Most are made out of beaver and rabbit. If it's pure rabbit, that is introductory level. As you progress into your beaver blends, 10 X, 20 X, 50 X or 100 X hats, the higher the X's, the better beaver hat you're going to get. 100 is pure beaver, 50 is 50% beaver, 50% rabbit and so on. I heard you were looking at the possibility of using nutria and you are working with one of the past directors of the Pendleton Roundup. He brought a hat in that was actually made by JD Stetson in 1911. It was made out of nutria which is actually a river rat. It was made for handlers in Pendleton, Oregon. He brought it in and I resurrected that old hat and through this, we got to talking. In 1917 they gave away a black nutria hat to the winners at the Pendleton Roundup. So the quality of the fur on a nutria is good obviously. Very good. Anytime you use the for of an animal that lives in the water, you are going to have a real good hat.
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