![]() The quality of felt and finish is, in a word, superlative. ![]() But, I would imagine that part of this feel may also have to do with a higher grade of beaver fur being used. What accounts for this? Finishing techniques, certainly. But, the incredibly striking feature is the nature of the finish - it is smooth as a baby's bottom. Compared to the "25", the felt is more dense. You can't help yourself - the felt feels that good. The 7X Clear Beaver introduces the "ahhhh" factor. But, once again, in terms of perception - I find the "25" to be in that general ballpark. Does the "25" fall a hare short (pun intended ) of pure beaver? Maybe. The "25" compares very favorably to the Winchester beaver felt. In order to assist me, I compared it to a couple of custom lids I have that are made of Winchester 100% beaver felt. Is the "25" a 100% beaver lid? After this morning's experiment, I'm not willing to rule that out. Like the Sovereign, the felt is dense, but it is smoother and more substantial. The Stetson "25" represents a discernible step up in felt quality from the Sovereign. Whether it is or not, who knows? But in terms of perception of the felt, it certainly has this feel for me. But, I would completely buy the proposition that the Sovereign is at least 50% beaver (and may well be a higher percentage). I wouldn't even begin to suggest that I am knowledgeable in terms of accurately assessing fur content and blends - I'll leave that to our pros. Of course, there were higher designations available, but the Sovereign was no slouch. My own sense is that, back in the day, this quality designation was pretty much the top of the heap in terms of everyday retail sales of Stetsons. The felt takes on much more of the feel of a beaver lid - it is dense and smooth. Here is where, IMHO, there really is a quantum leap in terms of felt quality. But, in terms of this project, I would say that the 3X represents a discernible, but still subtle, increase in felt quality. Once again, I have absolutely no way of knowing. Another possibility is that the fur blend changed in other ways - in terms of different grades of rabbit or hare. Given the increased density and smoothness, however, I would have no trouble believing that beaver had been introduced into the mix, if even in just a small percentage. Was there beaver fur in a 3X Beaver Quality? The answer is that none of us really know. ![]() Moving on to the 3X - the felt feels discernibly more dense and a bit smoother in terms of finish. Perhaps there was a slight change to the fur blend, or perhaps the finishing was just a tad smoother - but who knows? From my perspective, as a practical matter, I can't really discern a particularly meaningful difference. It has always been a bit of a mystery as to what actually justified the additional $2.50 in terms of pricing over the Royal Stetson. The next step up is the Royal DeLuxe - and, honestly, I cannot discern any meaningful difference in terms of felt quality. The Royal Stetson, while being at the bottom of the marketing/quality designation heap, is actually a very nice piece of felt. I am reasonably confident that all of these lids date to circa 1950. With the exception of the Stetson 25, which is a western, all of the lids are Open Roads. So, my control group this morning consists of a Royal Stetson, a Royal Deluxe Stetson, a 3X Beaver Quality, a Sovereign/Stetson 20, a Stetson 25, a 7X Clear Beaver and a Stetson 100. It goes without saying that, over time, the "quality" of lids sharing the exact same marketing/quality designation will differ - for example, one would expect that a mid-60's 3X OR selling for $15 would be of a lesser quality than a similar lid from the early 50's selling for the same price. In order for any kind of felt comparison to be meaningful, it seems to me that it's critical to be comparing lids that are very close together in time. So, it's a difficult exercise - and, obviously, a highly subjective one. Some of these factors may, in fact, be related to the actual composition of the felt itself (rabbit, hare, beaver) - but that's not always true. I think that our perception of the felt is colored by a number of factors, such as the quality of the finish, the weight of the felt, the stiffness of the felt, etc. Let me start by saying that comparing felt qualities is not necessarily an easy thing to do. Over coffee, I have assembled Stetson Open Roads (and one western) in every quality designation for a head-to-head comparison. Well, since it's Super Sunday, I decided to engage in a little project this morning.
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