L'occitane travel boar. Re Knot?

I just received one. It's a 18mm knot with 46mm loft boar, my first btw. My questions for you boar brush guys are:

How will it break in? Will the backbone be a little less stiff, will the scritch lessen? If so about how much?

i have 3 shaves with the brush so far and they seem to be better for my preferences each shave, though that may just be my technique as this is my first boar brush and the smallest knot I've used.

Now a question for you gentlemen who re-knot:

I like some backbone but I like soft tips. I primarily enjoy hard soaps, so being able to lather those with efficiency is my primary concern with soft tips coming in a close second.

Any suggestions, experiences,and comments are appreciated.

Attachment 207310

Give the boar knot 2-3 weeks of every day use to really break in so the tips split/flag for more softness in the tips. It may even get slightly less backbone too.

You can load hard soaps with any boar, badger or synthetic knot with the right technique. If you reknot the travel brush with a badger or synthetic a loft to knot size ratio of about 2 to 1 might make it better for loading hard soaps than higher lofts. That helps with backbone while keeping the soft tips when face lathering.

Bob