Thread: Simpson brush grade comparrison

Originally Posted by Lumberjack55

I'm not religious but that picture makes me believe in God.

Well I think I'm down to two, duke 3 best badger which is 23 mm knot 46mm loft which is the big side for duke. The other side of the coin is the chubby 1 super badger which is 23 and 47 but I see in reviews people calling it a midget. Not sure how the duke 3 would be similar in size but chubby 1 is considered small. Is the handle just that much bigger on the chubby to make it feel small?

Would kill to have a local store to actually look at shaving gear!

At your service sir. Both brushes lightly bloomed. The Chubby 1 on the left is Super Badger and blooms less than the Duke 3 Best Badger on the right.

The Chubby 1 feels much smaller than the Duke 3 because of the short handle and the knot blooms less. The C1 in Super Badger feels more like a Duke 2 overall. The Duke 3 has a taller handle than the Duke 2. BTW, the Chubby knot looks shorter than the Duke 3 in the photo partly because the handle is much shorter, but there isn't that much difference in the loft.

Cheers, Steve

Originally Posted by Lumberjack55

I'm not religious but that picture makes me believe in God.

I may not have made it clear, but those are mostly Simpson brushes from back when Simpson was located in England. The Simpson brand was sold to Vulfix on the Isle Of Man, so to some, Simpson is no longer Simpson. My small sampling came from both companies and I saw little difference other than the lamp black print on the old brushes was replaced with either laser engraving or heat impression which is far more durable. I do recall hearing something about the grades of hair being not quite the same as it used to be, but this is several years ago... I have no idea about today, and it was never a quality issue, just that it seemed different from what you would expect from the old Simpson.

What I do know is that them Tulip handles keep calling me.....<sigh>.

The Chubby is a higher cost brush so the knot will be of a higher caliber (density and grade) and the Duke is more of a working man's brush. Both are excellent quality, but the Chubby is one of the highly spoken of models from Simpson. As I do not like short handles, I've never bought one... but the #2 seems to be the most popular. I'd pick the Duke 3, but honestly... it's your brush, so choose the one YOU want.... Or.... like drP, you can buy one of each and not worry about it!

See, this is what I was talking about.. @prodigy [emoji16]

I tried the Shavemac D01 in 26mm 2-band and didn't care for it. The backbone is there, the density is certainly there, but it was too scritchy for me and believe it, or not, I would compare that brush to my ex Simpsons Colonel X2L Best. The difference is the density and backbone, the Shavemac is far superior, but the feel is the same. Again, that's just about the batches of hair and this cannot be used to draw a conclusion.

Name one Simpson? For me, Chubby 2 Manchurian.

Originally Posted by Srdjan

See, this is what I was talking about.. @prodigy [emoji16]

I tried the Shavemac D01 in 26mm 2-band and didn't care for it. The backbone is there, the density is certainly there, but it was too scritchy for me and believe it, or not, I would compare that brush to my ex Simpsons Colonel X2L Best. The difference is the density and backbone, the Shavemac is far superior, but the feel is the same. Again, that's just about the batches of hair and this cannot be used to draw a conclusion.

Name one Simpson? For me, Chubby 2 Manchurian.

That is apparently the difference between the Shavemac DO1 2 band silvertip and the Shavemac 2 band silvertip. The first has scratch/scratch and the latter does not.

Bob

The Shavemac D01 2 band needs to be set higher to reduce or eliminate the scritch, it isn't that the hair is inherently scritchy. I was given one at 26mm that the owner had an identical brush with the knot set at 54mm made. The original was supposed to be a 52mm loft but when I measured it, it was 50mm. Another 4mm of loft will do wonders for such a D01.

I know for some time, extremely short loft (under 2x) dense 2-band knots were all the rage, and after a while you could buy them by the rafts on the BSTs because you could scrub the paint off a battleship with them.

Cheers, Steve

Yes, the loft setting has a big effect on how a knot feels and behaves.

Bob

Just when I think I have too much shaving gear I come on here and you all make me feel better. I put a couple brush ideas down and voila steve has a picture lined up. Love it.

Ok shavemac looks pretty sweet, been playing on the brush configure tool for awhile. Leaning towards Silvertip 2band, not d01, think i'll get a little more softness with some good density. Been looking at the sizes of my current brushes but loft i'm not so great at. Thinking for this 25mm knot with a loft of 52mm. Any idea how quick they take to make and ship stateside?

Nothing wrong with a Thater. It's available, it's inside the USA, so you eliminate a lot of "what ifs". Both are considered top notch manufacturers of quality shaving brushes. As badger hair varies from pelt to pelt, you could examine one brush from Thater and one from Shavemac and decide one is more desirable than the other. Then you examine the next two brushes from both manufacturers and your decision might be opposite. Badger hair brushes are made from a natural material that WILL vary, from pelt to pelt, no matter how carefully it is graded. Imagine if you will... two tomatoes... perhaps from the same plant, never mind the same farm, will never be exactly the same.

I would not hesitate in getting a brush from Shavemac, they are top notch. I would also not hesitate in getting a brush from Thater, and seeing you have found a nice Thater that can be purchased inside the USA, from a reputable dealer such as SRD... I'd say it's great choice. Choosing a Shavemac *may* entail in it getting hung up in customs, due to the need to verify the origin of the brush hair (what animal it came from). It's not insurmountable, others in the USA over the years, have run into that issue with it's delays. An SRD Thater is a fine brush (every bit as good by reputation as a Shavemac) and it should arrive with zero hassles in a short period of time.

Regards

Christian

Amazing.... apparently I really AM capable of mind control! Well partly at least, I'm pretty sure that while you picked my favourite brush in my favourite handle colour and shape, you probably didn't have SRD ship the brush directly to me......<sob>.

I would like to congratulate you on an excellent choice.

The bulb vs fan thing is very much a personal preference... I have and use both... in fact my most used brush is somewhere in between, shape wise. I like them all and have never let the shape stop me from buying a brush, but when offered a choice, I tend to prefer the fan shape.

Regards

Kaptain "Hmm.... maybe I DO need one more brush..." Zero

I was going to recommend a Thater early on in this thread but didn't want to distract you from the apparent Simpsons quest. I went with a 4125/2 2-band bulb and love it. If I get a second brush, it will be the same model but in a fan shape just for kicks (except for maybe the ivory handle instead of black). Hope you get your brush ASAP!