Thread: How much damage boiling water does to brush

It's been some time, years in fact.
To my disbelieve TGQ is gone, I got back just to order
from her......... sad days, not only from me, I'm sure.
Back to the subject.
How much damage will suffer a nice badger silver brush
(Merkel to be precise) will suffer when used/rinsed with
boiling water.
Here is what I do:
- I use an electric kettle to boil water
- I rinse in and out my scuttle with boiling water
- once out of the shower, I empty/rinse again the scuttle
- fill the insider in and rinse the brush with still hot water
- lather and transfer soap/foam to the scuttle
- shave (the best I can)
- rinse the brush with the water still very hot, twice
- rinse the scuttle clean
So how much damage I do the brush?????
Thanks.
RMV

Would you wash your own hair in extremely hot water? definitely not there's your answer.

It's natural hair and boiling water may not destroy it immediately but it weakens the structure and over time it will take it's toll.

RMV,

I am curious: Why boiling hot water?

Don't boil you shaving brush. If you're trying to clean or sterilize, instead every so often I take all my brushes, soak them in the sink with warm water and use regular hair shampoo to thoroughly and manually clean them. I then rinse them, dunk them for a minute each in a glass with diluted vinegar moving the brush up and down, rinse again, add some hair conditioner and after several minutes rinse every off, pat dry with a towel and hang upside down to dry. They look like new again. All the mineral deposits, scum and other what not is gone. Been doing this for as long as I can remember with no ill effect on any of my brushes.

Rinse thoroughly with warm water. Shake out excess, hang up to dry for a couple days. Never needed anything else. My first brush (about 35 years old) still is working just fine after the aforementioned service procedure being administered more often than I can remember

If you take the boiling water approach to the extreme http://straightrazorpalace.com/brush...ible-task.html it becomes a way to remove the knot. Even in smaller doses over time it can't be doing the brush a loot of good. Personally I would not place a brush in boiling water at any time.

Bob

Make sense............... but also.......... I'm not a badger

Why Boiling Water?:
After almost 5 year traveling in South America, hot water is only available
in the shower and more like warm water. None in the kitchen sink.
So I got an electric kettle, and found a new use for it beside heating water
for tea, herbal tea and mate de coca.
So I fill up the scuttle twice before starting a lather, and enjoy the warmth
of such a beautiful sensation on my skin.
It just happen that I just wet the brush when I start and especially clear
the brush up with such hot water.
What trigger such question was the reading of brushes loosing their attributes
after being used with soap/cream with high content of Karite.
If such thing could happen .............. what could happen to my brush under
the potential "harsh" use I put it thru?
I thank you for all the feedback, maybe someone "burnt" their brushes this
way, or maybe it just never happen as such water temp does not affect
badger hair. After all, badgers are known to be one of the toughest animal
in the kingdom.

Originally Posted by RMV

Make sense............... but also.......... I'm not a badger

I think if the badger had a choice, he would skip the boiling water dunk,,,