From what I've gathered on tman is that the main use for NA mrats are fur hats for folks in ROK, maybe northern China, and the Russians. Do both side of the rat fur go into such hats, the belly plate inside and the back fur on the outside? Any other real global commercial use of muskrat right now...? I see old full and half length mrat coats in thrift stores once and while but I think those days are decades gone. Thanks!

P.S. Where do most of the "hatter" beavs end up, actually making hats for the same folks or is there a different market for those...?

Hatter beaver I always thought felt hats.????

I remember reading the Canadian mounted police all have rat hats

I just got back last night from a 2 week trip to China. We spent about half the trip within about 2-3 hours from Shanghai and the remainder of the trip a bit further out to the northwest and west. I can't say I saw any fur hats at all but fur coats, vests, and trimmed coats were probably worn by 1 out of every 10-20 people I encountered. Most of it was coyote trim on Canada Goose jackets and quite a few coats and vests were various fox, especially in the Yellow Mountains where it was a bit cooler. I could only imagine the northern and western China probably have a much higher proportion of people wearing these items. It was good to see where much of this fur is being used as I probably don't see a handful of fur garments per year back here in the states.

Not Asia, but I was told by someone at Stormy Kromer that they've experimented with muskrat for their hats with fur, but they didn't have the manufacturing process quite right. That said, they currently use faux fur, which is why I contacted them initially.

Hey Wiz, thanks for the report. I remember how heartened I was back in winter of 1978 I had traveled to Bordeaux France and it seemed like one out of 20 women was wearing a nutria skin jacket. I kept wondering if any of those nutria were ones I had trapped.

Hatter Beaver means the underfur is used to make felt for hats like Stetsons. Hide and guard hair is not used. Just the underfur.

Like others have said, muskrats are not used for hats. Many are sewn into plates, which are like a muskrat blanket that they can cut larger pieces for garments out of. A lot used to be made to look like ranch mink. Then used to line the inside of jackets.