Brush Uniform Metrics & Measurements System.

Or B.U.M.M.S., if you like ;).

For a little while now, I've had an idea knocking around my "think outside the box"head. I'm inspired by my lack of in-person learning opportunities for this wonderful hobby of ours. Because of all the e-learning involved for myself, and many others, I want to develop a universal system that can be used to quantify the various aspects of brushes. Because nobody has every brush, and not everyone frames things the same way in their mind. I'm on vacation this week, so I plan to spend the better part of a day tinkering with this idea, cause that's the best way to get crap like this out of my head & explainable :D.

I implore you folks to give your ideas on how different people can take measurements of brushes, and be able to convey definable differences/parameters. Kinda how PC gamers use programs to "benchmark" the rig they just built, so it can be graded against others. But in this case, a better example would be Product Q.A. labs & processes. Low tech is more universal. A great example would be how Q.A. labs test the stickiness of tape: see the last 30 seconds of this vid https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zuNjR2uPcZg

A BUMMS chart would be a nice addition to shaving brush product pages:deal:. ...I see spreadsheets in my future :aargh:

Time to sip some Apple Pucker & turn off this insomniac brain of mine. Catch y'all on the flip side. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Sincerely,
Crawler.

Simple. Measuring the knot in millimeters. Uninstalled, loft and diameter of plug. Installed, loft from top of handle, diameter of hole installed into, diameter of fan, before and after bloom. How it is done? JMO

There would need to be some system to show the softness of the bristle tips as well. Like the number of stroke required to mark a certain grade of paper. There is also the issue of different knots have different amounts of backbone. I am stumped on how you would measure that though.

Some things you can measure but others are things left up to individual opinions and are too variable. This isn't like some engineering problem with a mathematical solution.

However it will be interesting to see your responses here.

I agree that there will still be room for opinion. My goal is not to eliminate that, but reduce the amount of interpretation needed for someone completely uninitiated in certain aspects of a brush. For example: they want to try their first synthetic, or HMST, but are 300 miles from the nearest B&M store & lack the funds to simply try each on for size.

How many strokes to mark a specified grade of paper is a good idea. I just don't know what grade. I'm worried that it would cause undue wear & tear on the bristles by the time it would mark it.

For the backbone, I've already started formulating how to test that. Small rails that gradually get lower. You slide the brush down the rails & measure at what point the bristles reach a predetermined bend/angle. (Many things like this are easier to show than they are to describe, for me anyway.)

I also have an idea on how to, relatively speaking, measure the absorption capabilities of the bristles (or at least the knot as a whole). Since relative humidity & ambient temperature are major contributors for this measurement, they need to be measured, and if possible, controlled. The following ideas both involve putting the brush (after 10 min soak, firm squeeze of knot, and ten flicks to shed water) in an upside down dish predetermined amount of time to see how much water evaporates & condenses on the dish. Idea A: small room with dehumidifier & room thermometer. Idea B: Damprid instead of dehumidifier, large storage Tupperware (15 to 20 gallon capacity) instead of a closed off room.

To measure the "splay/spread" of a knot: a piece of wood, the size (or slightly larger) than a quarter. Flat on one side, slightly domed on the other. The domed side needs to be at least finely sanded, maybe even lacquered/sealed/polished/whatever. With the brush sitting bristles up: sit the bit of wood dome side down on the middle of the bristles. Add nickels or quarters until the weight makes a good plunge, or gets a fourth the height of the bristles down into the brush. Make sense? Probably not yet.

I will need to cobble together some mockups of these, to better demonstrate what I'm talking about lol.

post um when ready:)

I will also need community help determining the specific benchmarks for many, if not all of these tests. Like the bend angle for the backbone test. I will obviously post pics and/or vids of these tests so we can come to a consensus on these.

Either way, this tickles the same "precision" part of my brain that SR shaving does, and I expect this will be a fun adventure as well :tu.

Crawler, are you by any chance retired? :D

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Originally Posted by sharptonn

Crawler, are you by any chance retired? :D

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Hehehe! Nope. But my dyslexia means I have a brain geared more towards three dimensions, rather than well explaining sentences. And there is a flip side to A.D.D.: hyper focus. Things that interest us (ppl with ADD) draw an extreme amount of our brain's idle time.

Did I mention that I'm on vacation this week? Lol.

If you are trying to figure out how much water is held by the brush I would think it to be more simple to calculate it by weight rather than measuring evaporation. Weight the dry brush, soak the brush for a set time in a set temperature of water, invert the brush for a set period of time, then weigh the brush. The difference will be the weight of water retained by the brush.

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Originally Posted by RezDog

If you are trying to figure out how much water is held by the brush I would think it to be more simple to calculate it by weight rather than measuring evaporation. Weight the dry brush, soak the brush for a set time in a set temperature of water, invert the brush for a set period of time, then weigh the brush. The difference will be the weight of water retained by the brush.

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The problem is the humidity in the room and the altitude you are at and the temperature will affect the outcome. You should use distilled water to keep things honest too. (assuming you want to be precise)

Yes! Everything should be performed in a vacuum chamber to eliminate any discrepancies!

That's a good idea, as well. A non-heated take on how they measure moisture content by weight in powder/granulated things like flour, dirt, etc. There can be "Method 1" and "Method 2".

More than one method for some things is good because not everyone will have the same tools at their disposal. I do happen to have a kitchen scale at my disposal that can be switched between different units of measurement. But I don't know anyone else who does.

Also, the trapped evaporation gives a quantifiable means (so some degree) to SEE how much water those natural bristles actually hold on to. Anyone with a synthetic brush can tell you that (especially if it takes a bit longer to shave) you have to add a bit of water to the brush before each pass of lather. That was much less of a concern with my cheapo Chinese made pure badger. The reason: hair absorbs water, whereas plastics do not. Am I still making sense? Lol.

I am still with you......I think!