Fur Felt vs Wool Felt Cowboy Hats: What the X Ratings Mean
If you are choosing your first good cowboy hat, two things decide almost everything: whether the felt is wool or fur, and how high up the X scale it sits. Everything else — crease, brim, colour — is preference. This is the part that determines how the hat wears, how it handles weather, and whether it still looks right in ten years.
The short version. Wool felt is the affordable entry point and does a fine job in dry weather. Fur felt is lighter for its stiffness, sheds water, and holds a crease properly — which is why it is the only felt worth having shaped to your head. On Stetson's scale, 4X is wool and 6X is where 100% fur felt begins. Beaver enters above that.
Wool felt and fur felt are not the same material
Both start as loose fibre matted together with heat, moisture and pressure. The difference is which animal the fibre comes from, and that changes the result completely.
Wool felt is sheep's wool. The fibres are relatively coarse and smooth, so they mat into a serviceable but comparatively open structure. A wool hat has to be made thicker to reach a given stiffness, which makes it heavier on your head. It soaks up water rather than shedding it, and once a wool brim has been wet and dried out of shape, it tends to stay that way.
Fur felt is made from the short underfur of rabbit and hare, with beaver in the top grades. Those fibres are far finer and their surface is covered in microscopic scales that hook into one another as the felt is worked. The mat comes out denser and thinner at the same stiffness — so a fur felt hat is lighter — and it is naturally water-repellent, because that underfur evolved to keep an animal dry.
Which one holds its shape?
Fur felt, and not by a small margin. That interlocked structure is exactly what lets a hatter steam a crown, set a crease and have it stay. It is also what lets the same hat be steamed back into shape years later, or reblocked into a different crease entirely. Wool felt will take a crease, but it relaxes out of it, and it will not survive being reworked many times.
This matters if you intend to have your hat shaped to you. At our Hat Bar we shape every hat bought in store at no extra charge, and fur felt is what makes that worth doing. On a wool hat the shaping is cosmetic; on fur felt it is permanent.
Which one for winter?
Fur felt, for one reason: water. Winter means rain, wet snow and damp air, and a fur felt hat sheds all three and dries holding its shape. A wool hat in the same weather takes the water in, gets heavy, and the brim goes soft. Higher grades handle it better still, because the denser the felt, the less there is for water to get into.
Straw is the other side of the year. It is vented and light and right for Arizona summers, and it cannot be reshaped — a straw crown has no wire in it, so the shape it arrives with is the shape it keeps. If you are weighing the two seasons against each other, we have a separate piece on straw hats and what to look for.
What the X rating actually tells you
The X on a felt hat indicates the quality of the fur used in it. More X's mean a higher proportion of fine fur. That is the whole of what it reliably tells you, and it is worth being precise about the two things it does not tell you.
It is not a percentage. You will find charts online claiming 10X means 10% beaver and 30X means 30%. Stetson has never published figures like that, and the numbers trace back to an unsourced forum post rather than any maker. We are not going to repeat them. What Stetson states is qualitative: a higher X means a higher proportion of fine fur.
It does not compare across brands. Each maker runs its own scale. A Resistol 20X and a Stetson 20X are not the same felt and are not meant to be read against each other. The scale has also drifted over the decades, so a vintage 10X can hold more fine fur than a modern hat with a bigger number on it.
Where beaver comes in
Stetson's 4X is wool. The 6X is where 100% fur felt starts, and there is no beaver in it — it is rabbit and hare. Beaver appears in the grades above that, and when it does, the hat is usually named for it.
So what does beaver actually do? Beaver underfur is the finest and most densely barbed of the felting furs, which is why the entire hat trade was built on it centuries before anyone put an X on a sweatband. In a finished hat it shows up in four ways you can feel:
- Less weight for the same stiffness. It felts tighter, so the maker needs less material to reach a given body. A high-beaver hat feels surprisingly light in the hand for how firm it is.
- Better water repellency. Beaver is a semi-aquatic animal and its underfur sheds water by design. That property carries into the felt.
- A harder-held crease. The denser the mat, the more sharply it takes a crease and the longer it holds it, wet or dry.
- Longer life and more reblocks. A dense beaver felt can be steamed and reshaped many more times before it gives up. This is the grade you buy if you want one hat for twenty years rather than three hats for seven.
How to judge a felt by hand
You do not need the label. Three checks tell you most of what you need, and they are the checks we run with customers at the counter.
The Stetson scale, with hats you can actually hold
These are the grades as Stetson runs them, each shown with a hat we carry. Remember that this ladder is Stetson's own and does not transfer to other makers.
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4X
Wool felt. The entry grade. Dry weather, first hats, hard wear you do not mind.
4X Wool Felt Desert Sand
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6X
100% fur felt begins here — rabbit and hare, no beaver. The grade most people should buy.
Stetson Skyline 6X, Silverbelly
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10X
Beaver in the blend. Lighter, firmer, sheds weather. A hat to keep.
Stetson Shasta 10X Premier, Black Beaver Felt
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30X
A higher proportion of fine fur again. Noticeably light for its firmness.
Stetson El Patron Premier 30X
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100X
The top of the Stetson line. Dress hats and hats bought once.
Stetson El Presidente 100X
Which grade should you actually buy?
| If this is you | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First felt hat, or a hat for dry weather and occasional wear | 4X wool | Looks right, costs least, and you will not mind if it gets knocked about. Shaping is cosmetic at this grade. |
| You want it shaped to your head and worn most of the year | 6X fur felt | The value sweet spot. Real fur felt, takes a permanent crease, sheds light rain. This is what we put most people in. |
| Winter, weather, outdoor work, a hat for a decade or more | 10X and up | Beaver in the blend. Lighter for its firmness, sheds water properly, can be reblocked repeatedly. |
| Dress hat, a wedding, or one hat bought once | 30X–100X | The finish and the hand are the point. These hold a crease hard and age well. |
| Arizona summer, rodeos, outdoor events in heat | Straw, not felt | Vented and light. Note that a straw crown cannot be reshaped later. |
Our honest recommendation. If you are spending real money once, spend it at 6X rather than buying 4X twice. The jump from wool to fur felt changes more about how a hat wears than any step above it does. Going from 6X to 10X is a genuine improvement; going from wool to 6X is a different hat.
Looking after a felt hat
- Brush it with the nap. Use a soft hat brush and work counter-clockwise around the crown. Dust comes off far more easily than it comes out once it is worked in.
- Store it upside down on its crown, or on a hook. Resting a hat on its brim is what flattens and splays the brim over time.
- Let it dry on its own. If it gets soaked, set it crown-down somewhere cool and leave it. Heat — a car dashboard, a radiator, a hairdryer — shrinks and hardens felt permanently.
- Steam, do not force. Felt moves when it is warm and damp and cracks when it is dry. If a crease has relaxed, bring it to us and we will steam it back rather than you bending it cold.
- Handle it by the brim, front and back. Picking a hat up by the crown is how crowns get dented.
Common questions
Does 6X have beaver in it?
No. Stetson's 6X is 100% fur felt made from rabbit and hare. It is a genuine fur felt and a very good hat, but beaver sits in the grades above it.
Is a higher X always a better hat for me?
Better felt, yes. Better hat for your purpose, not necessarily. A 100X dress felt on a ranch in July is the wrong tool. Match the grade to the wearing.
Can I compare a Stetson 20X to a Resistol 20X?
No. Each maker grades on its own scale and the numbers are not interchangeable. Judge the two hats in your hands instead — the three checks above work on any brand.
Can a felt hat be reshaped after I buy it?
Yes, and fur felt can be reshaped many times. That is the practical advantage of buying fur over wool. Bring it into Old Town Scottsdale or Tempe and we will steam and set it.
What size do I need?
Measure around your head just above the ears and check the size guide. Most heads are an oval rather than a circle, which is why a hat can measure correctly and still pinch — a fur felt hat can be blocked and stretched to your head shape, and a wool one mostly cannot.
Shop by what you have just read
- Felt cowboy hats — everything in wool and fur felt, 4X upward
- Women's cowboy hats — felt and straw, including custom Hat Bar builds
- Straw cowboy hats — the summer side of the year
- Custom cowboy hats — start from a blank and build it at the Hat Bar
- All cowboy hats — the full range
Related reading: Stetson X ratings compared, 4X to 30X · Cowboy hat creases and styles
Still deciding? Come and handle a few. We are in Old Town Scottsdale and Tempe, and every hat bought in store is shaped to your head at no extra charge. Ordering from elsewhere, see worldwide shipping.