Thread: First Brush: Recommend a good Silvertip?

Hello,

I have yet to begin purchasing anything and so am brand new to the straight world. Everything I have read thus far all says that for the best quality in a brush Silvertip is the way to go, however I am seeing a range in Silvertip brushes from 70.00-500.00. That is a huge range, I'm not looking to break the bank on my first brush but am ok with spending in the 100.00 range, obviously under that would be great.

So, can anyone here recommend a brush they have personally used and or a place for me to look?

Also what I see they com in various sizes from 20-30mm... what is the pros and cons of the sizes? Is bigger better?

Lastly is there a big difference between normal or "Best Badger" compared to teh Silvertip?

Thanks,

Josh

Personally I would go for one of the brush'es from Stephens Woodworking at Straight Razor Design.

It's widely recommended as a great starter (and I just got one) but the Best Badger Crabtree and Evelyn brush is being discontinued in favor of a Pure at the same price (cost-cutting? or maybe they'll reintroduce it at a higher price point, as they did in the UK). Anyway if you can find it it's worth the money b/c you are getting an Edwin Jagger Best Badger for $35. I found mine by giving the salesperson the model number and she called several stores to find it for me so I could pick it up. It's 130291. Good luck finding it if you do decide to go with that one. Cheers!

More details:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/brush...wer-grade.html

There is a huge difference in best to silvertip (in my oppinion), I find that best tends to be stiff and sometimes rather prickly, a good silvertip is soft yet firm and no spikes (spikes being stiff pointy hairs). If you have the opportunity to feel the brush in a store first then do that as some "silvertip" aren't all that great I remember buying one a year or two ago that was so prickly that I may as well have used my old badge hair brush (I promptly returned that brush with a complaint).

As for price I wouldnt say you need to spend $500 but if you want a quality silvertip for the most part I would suggest buying a brush from a reputable brand for around $90-$130, though I have only baught a few brushes so maybe someone with more experience in this field would be better at suggesting a brand/price range.

The problem about suggesting brushes is that no matter what other people say or recomend its all down to prefference, I think there are a few members who baught silvertips but found that they preffered a stiffer bristle so they switched back to super or best. Size is the same way, I personaly like a mid ranged brush, of around 24mm with a medium length, as it produces a good quantity of lather yet leaves room to manuver on my face, unlike the larger brushes where I find its like painting a model car's detail with a 4" brush, in other words just blob it on and hope it worked, and small brushes have lots of control but I find producing lather more time consuming. Its realy all down to what you want, sometimes you just have to try out a few before you find one you like.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Kevin8888

As for price I wouldnt say you need to spend $500 but if you want a quality silvertip for the most part I would suggest buying a brush from a reputable brand for around $90-$130, though I have only baught a few brushes so maybe someone with more experience in this field would be better at suggesting a brand/price range.

+1 Kevin. You can get a very nice silvertip for as little as $75, or you can pay obscene prices. SRD has a good selection, http://tamwoodworks.runtrails.com/ will custom make a brush for you that is beautiful, and many, many other sources.

My recommendation is to decide what your budget can afford then look at our many wonderful vendors. You can also look in the classifieds. You will get tons of recommendations here, but it really boils down to personal taste and budget.

I was where you are just one month ago. I got a wonderful silver tip from Bob's Razor Works for $85 - it is absolutely first rate. Gives me a wonderful rich lather instantly. From what Bob tells me, there is only one source for silver tip beaver knots - so I suspect that the ones recommended here from tamwoodworks are the same quality - they look beautiful too. I'd go with them or with Bobs. https://sites.google.com/site/bobsrazorworks/

Silvertip is something I don't pay much attention to. Everybody wants to call their brush silvertip so that they can charge high prices yet there's a rather big difference between various brushes.
I have fairly limited experience but I'd take one of the vintage 'best badger' that I used to have to a lot of modern day silvertip. Or Simpson's duke 3 in best badger for example.
From the brushes I've tried I didn't care for vulfix, and i liked rooney, simpson and shavemac.
A 100 budget should get you a good brush.
A lot of knots come from the same places, if you are getting a non-major brand brush I'd talk to the vendor and find out more about the knots since there could be rather large differences in them. All the reputable vendors have plenty of experience with different brushes and would steer you right.
My brushes are 22-23mm knot - that's what I like and I'd take smaller rather than larger.

Eventually it's a matter of preference and you wont know yours until you try a few in the spectrum. If you don't mind a brush that somebody else has used (often just once or twice) you can check the classifieds for used ones. I personally don't have problem with this - at one time the hair belonged to an animal and had seen a lot more nasty things than a bit of soap and somebody else's face.

The thing with the Silvertips is until you own a good one you will always be wondering if there is a difference...
So save up and buy the absolute best you can possibly afford, that way you have that one excellent brush which will last you... Trust me here in the long run you will save money and won't have 5 brushes sitting around that you no longer use because down the road you finally splurged and bought the good one (Ya think somebody might have done it this way)

Glen brings up a good point about silvertip brushes. I have 3 brushes: the Crabtree and Evelyn small best badger, which I absolutely love, but it is unfortunately no longer available from C&E in the US anymore, reviewed here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/brush...i-brushes.html

A Muhle Silvertip similar to this one that I got VERY! cheap:

Muehle Buffalo Horn/Nickel Shave Brush at Smallflower.com

And a Van der Hagen similar to this one:

Buy Van Der Hagen Natural Shave Brush, 100% Boar Bristle Online at drugstore.com

People say that Edwin Jagger (a.k.a C&E) and Muhle (and Shavemac and Thater for that matter) brushes are made by the same company. Both are very soft brushes. They work great on creams and they hold a lot of lather but they fail to produce a good lather from harder soaps, at least in my hands. They are both very nice on your skin. The C&E being the best of the two overall. The base of the Muhle is so heavy that makes the brush to collapse when it is sitting on the bowl wet. I definitely do not like that. The boar brush, is by far, the best I have found to produce good quality lather but it is less than optimal to apply it on our face... It does not hold so much lather in it and it a bit stiff but the more I use it, the softer it gets. I look forward to find a brush that combines the good qualities of both classes. Ah, and I also would prefer not to spend a fortune on the brush... I could use some suggestions here as well.

In terms of sizes, I find that a smaller brush is better for my face, which is small. I posted a "poll" and these were the results:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/brush...big-brush.html

Unless you have a face like Barry Bonds or Don Zimmer, you may be better off with a smaller brush, which soaks up less soap too ;-). I am not sure but I believe that best badger, super badger and silvertip are arbitrary designations.

Al raz.

Everyone has their own opinion on what a good brush is. My .02 cents, go to classic shaving and buy a good Vulfix badger brush. They are quality handmade brushes that are very well made in my opinion. I just got my new one in last night and I think it is wonderful. Well under 100 bucks and it's a great buy. Jeremy-