About Beaver Fur Felt

About Beaver Fur Felt

About Beaver Fur Felt

Beaver Fur Felt is dense and virtually waterproof. It consists of beaver and/or rabbit/hare fur blended with felt to produce a material that lasts 5-10 times longer than wool-felt.

A fine Beaver and Beaver blend fur-felt hat can be re-worked and shaped numerous times, with just a steam iron and a bit of patience. And is one of the finest materials from which to manufacture quality hats.

In theory a higher beaver content should be denoted by a higher X factor – but unfortunately there is no standard within the hat making fraternity – and a lot of confusion. On the Internet few hat sellers tell you what their fur-felt is comprised of – not to mention that we have even seen straw hats promoted as 100X. As a general rule of thumb if a hat maker just describes their hat bodies as fur-felt, chances are it’s rabbit or Hare.

 Hat makers who use beaver fur-felt are proud of it and will state so. We sell 3 quality beaver blends for our fine western hats – 5X, 20X and 100X. 5X is a blend of about 5% beaver with rabbit and felt. Our 20X is 50% beaver and our 100X is pure 100% beaver fur-felt.

For an all weather hat you can’t beat a pure beaver cowboy hat. Light, stiff and fabulous looking it’ll shed what ever comes its way. And consider this if you want a water resistant material: Beavers live in the water, rabbits in the dirt.

About Our Hats

True Old West Hats

Order your hat in 100X undyed, pure beaver fur-felt, and be one of the first to hearken back to an era in hat making a hundred and fifty years ago.

Because it has no dye in the hat body, the sun will fade the hat over time, giving it character and making it just as unique as its owner.

The first cowboy hats were made from 100% beaver fur-felt, natural and undyed, and unless the cowboy lost it or had it stolen – the hat lasted a lifetime. For an all weather hat – nothing beats a traditional western hat made from pure beaver fur – it’s what old west cowboys wore.

Questions? E-mail us: [email protected]

Crown and Brim Measurements

Desperado cowboy hat

We make custom cowboy hats so the crown and brim measurements are pretty much redundant. The hats you see online are our standard hats, if you want a specific crown and brim height we will confirm that after your order is received.

The largest hat we can make has a six (6″) inch crown and a five (5″) brim.

Any hat with a brim width of more than 4 inches we must start with an oversized hat body, which adds a little to the cost. Most of our cowboy hats have a crown height between 5 and 6 inches and a brim width of 3 1/2 to 4 inches. The hat styles shown with a wider brim include the Wasey, Quigley, Everett Hitch, Little J, many of our Rodeo Cowboy Hats and all our B-Movie hats.

Re-enactors at work

Some Re-enactor friends of The Last Best West


  • Big Heat Handmade Fedora

    $355.00$770.00
    Big Heat Handmade Fedora Hat - our take on Glenn Ford's fedora from The Big Heat. {1953} The Big Heat features great fedoras in almost every scene, and this is our take on the Dave Bannion hat.
    • Crown: 5" inches
    • Brim 2 3/4"
    • Hatband: 2" Black grosgrain ribbon and bow.
    • Crown: Fedora
    • Brim: Hand shaped snap brim, with front dip. Bound
    • Color: Granite
    • Personalized with your name inside the crown
    • Hatband not sold separately
  • Cimarron Custom Movie Hat

    $355.00$770.00
    Cimarron Custom Movie Hat - Our version of the Yancey Cravat hat from the 1931 best picture winner. This is a very versatile hat style. The crown is a modified tycoon with a big kettle curl and roll to the brim. Musicians seem to favor our Cimarron Custom Movie Hat, and it looks great with a good suit of clothes. Performers hat, Dress Hat, or wear it on the range and impress the critters. What more do you need in a hat!
    • Crown: 4 1/2" inches Modified Tycoon
    • Brim: 3 1/2" Kettle Curl, hand rolled
    • Color Shown: bone
    • Hatband: 1" Grosgrain ribbon and bow.
    • Personalized with your name inside the crown
    • Musician Favorite

  • Samuel Jones Movie Hat

    $380.00$770.00
    Our version of the Samuel Jones Movie Hat - from The Missing The Samuel Jones Hat is the one worn by Tommy Lee Jones, as Samuel Jones, a  white man turned Apache, who returns to his estranged daughter in time to try and rescue his grand-daughter from slave traders. Like the character there is nothing fancy about this hat, a simple open crowned cowboy hat with a bit of a pencil roll.
    • CROWN HEIGHT: 5" INCHES Open
    • BRIM: 4" 1/2" Pencil roll, with a gentle hand roll - Bound.
    • Color: Pecan
    • Hatband: Satin Ribbon with bow, with matching bound edge.
    • Personalized with your name inside the crown
  • There Will Be Blood Hat

    $375.00$780.00
    Our version of the Daniel Plainview hat - There Will be Blood Hat We show our Daniel Plainview Hat with a contrasting hat band and bound edge; Movie Hat is a Pecan color with a matching Satin Ribbon and Bow  and bound edge. If you wish a different color hat band and bound edge please enter it in the PRODUCTION NOTES section as you build your hat below. Similar crown styles Wasey, Byron McCelroy, Conagher 250_white_filials
    • Crown 5 inches
    • Brim: 3"
    • Hatband: 1 1/2" grosgrain ribbon and bow.
    • Crown: modified Sagebrush
    • Brim: pencil rolled with a slight hand roll
    • Color Shown: natural with a chocolate brown ribbon, bow, and bound edge.
    • Musician Favorite

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