suitedcboy
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,348
- Location
- Fort Worth Texas or thereabouts
I used to think opinions given by politicians were hard to pin down but I now know the X count on hats is by far the most difficult to evaluate.
About the only thing you can generalize about X count is that they used to mean a lot more than they do today.
For the earliest hatmakers to use X grading, a 3X hat was a fine hat with lots of beaver content and lots of time and craft invested in its construction and finish.
At some point each X stood for 10% of beaver content but for how many hatmakers and for how long that was true is really unknown. About the only thing that is true is that for a given season of hat production, higher X count means the maker thinks a hat marked nX is of lesser quality than a hat with (n+1)X.
Then we could talk for a long time about the amount of time and steps are used in finishing the felt. A 100% roadkill rabbit fur hat with careful felting and lots of hours of pouncing can feel and look many measures better than a 100% carefully nourished ideal climate raised pure beaver hat made of a shortcut felted fur and few finishing steps.
I guess the X count for staw hats reflects the fertilizer content of the grass???
About the only thing you can generalize about X count is that they used to mean a lot more than they do today.
For the earliest hatmakers to use X grading, a 3X hat was a fine hat with lots of beaver content and lots of time and craft invested in its construction and finish.
At some point each X stood for 10% of beaver content but for how many hatmakers and for how long that was true is really unknown. About the only thing that is true is that for a given season of hat production, higher X count means the maker thinks a hat marked nX is of lesser quality than a hat with (n+1)X.
Then we could talk for a long time about the amount of time and steps are used in finishing the felt. A 100% roadkill rabbit fur hat with careful felting and lots of hours of pouncing can feel and look many measures better than a 100% carefully nourished ideal climate raised pure beaver hat made of a shortcut felted fur and few finishing steps.
I guess the X count for staw hats reflects the fertilizer content of the grass???