on the subject of hats

[Alpo]

Did anyone else think like this?

 

Now you must realize, I was in junior high school when I first heard of this.

 

Mountain Men. They go up in the mountains and they trap beaver. They sell the beaver pelts, and the beaver pelts are used to make gentlemen's hats. Until one day fashions change, and people no longer wear beaver hats. They wear silk hats. And the beaver plew trade died overnight.

 

Did you think they were making the hats out of the fur? The hair still attached to the hide.  Like they make a fur coat out of mink fur or out of fox fur?

 

I had no idea until I was somewhere in my 20s that they saved(what a difference it would have made in this sentence if otto had left the letter H in the word shaved) the hide and used the hair to make felt. That was probably about the same time I was reading about the Germans shaving the dead Jews' heads and using the hair to make felt for winter socks for the troops.

 

So I will admit my stupidity when I was 13. Did anybody else think they made fur hats from beaver pelts?

Edited April 9 by Alpo

[Eyesa Horg]

I've always thought of a FUR hat as being made from the pelt. A friend has a beaver hat and it's amazing how hot it is to wear.

[watab kid]

5 hours ago, Alpo said:

Did anyone else think like this?

 

Now you must realize, I was in junior high school when I first heard of this.

 

Mountain Men. They go up in the mountains and they trap beaver. They sell the beaver pelts, and the beaver pelts are used to make gentlemen's hats. Until one day fashions change, and people no longer wear beaver hats. They wear silk hats. And the beaver plew trade died overnight.

 

Did you think they were making the hats out of the fur? The hair still attached to the hide.  Like they make a fur coat out of mink fur or out of fox fur?

 

I had no idea until I was somewhere in my 20s that they saved(what a difference it would have made in this sentence if otto had left the letter H in the word shaved) the hide and used the hair to make felt. That was probably about the same time I was reading about the Germans shaving the dead Jews' heads and using the hair to make felt for winter socks for the troops.

 

So I will admit my stupidity when I was 13. Did anybody else think they made fur hats from beaver pelts?

no , i knew from a young age they processed the hair only with mercury to make hats - its why those that did it got mad hatters disease - mercury poisoning 

 

now i did know for a fact that davy crockets coon skin cap was the whole pelt 

Edited April 9 by watab kid

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

16 hours ago, Eyesa Horg said:

I've always thought of a FUR hat as being made from the pelt. A friend has a beaver hat and it's amazing how hot it is to wear.

I have a beaver "free trapper style" hat with fold down ear covers that is very useful......about four days a year in North Central Arizona.  It goes well with an elk hide fringed jacket with two coyote tails fitted together at the roots (that can be  taken off or put on at my choosing) for a fur collar, some wool gloves and an old red and black scarf that my kids gave me when we lived in Illinois  in 1971.

 

"Hot" can sometimes be an understatement

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Add some elk hide "botas" (half-leggings with decorations) and wool socks, and you can be comfortable almost anywhere that it  gets cold. 

[watab kid]

12 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I have a beaver "free trapper style" hat with fold down ear covers that is very useful......about four days a year in North Central Arizona.  It goes well with an elk hide fringed jacket with two coyote tails fitted together at the roots (that can be  taken off or put on at my choosing) for a fur collar, some wool gloves and an old red and black scarf that my kids gave me when we lived in Illinois  in 1971.

 

"Hot" can sometimes be an understatement

i have one of those hats but its rabbit - seldom wear it its too hot unless the temps are very low 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

7 hours ago, watab kid said:

i have one of those hats but its rabbit - seldom wear it its too hot unless the temps are very low 

Like I  said, about four days a year.....

 

..... but it sure looks great hanging on the wall with a Hawken rifle, my shooting bag, tomahawk, a few knives, various belt bags, and all the rest of my collection of mountain man, frontier, and primitive outdoors gear...capotes, gun cases, powder horns, etcottonpickingcetera.

[watab kid]

On 4/10/2026 at 7:07 AM, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Like I  said, about four days a year.....

 

..... but it sure looks great hanging on the wall with a Hawken rifle, my shooting bag, tomahawk, a few knives, various belt bags, and all the rest of my collection of mountain man, frontier, and primitive outdoors gear...capotes, gun cases, powder horns, etcottonpickingcetera.

i can visualize that word picture , i have such a section of wall here too ,