Thread: Simpson Duke 3 Practically Malting

Hi everyone, I am sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I have been very busy at work and have also been travelling. I even got across to the States to the Atlanta Blade Show, great event but sadly very few razors.

Anyway back to the point. I got a Simpson Duke 3 for Christmas 2016. Primarily for its backbone and ability to lather soap. For the first five months it has been doing a sterling job. Now it sheds at least a dozen hairs every shave. I have done nothing different and I don't use it any differently to any other brush that I have owned. I find this alarming and am hoping there is a way to stop this from happening.

Sadly places in the UK that sell these things over the counter are few and far between, so this was an internet purchase which I always find makes it harder to return.

So I guess I have three questions really.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Is there a way to stop this from happening?

Are there any better brushes for building a lather from soap on the face?

Thank you in anticipation of your help. Also I will try to get back in to the habit of posting more often now that things have settled down a bit for me.

It sounds like you have a defective brush knot; try reaching out to Mark Watterson at Simpsons (enquiries@progress-vulfix.com) to see if the company can make it right--Mark has a good reputation in this regard.

Yes, I would contact Simpsons directly, explain the problem and ask what they can do for you to remedy the situation.

Bob

IME the best way to contact Mark is through the Simpson's Facebook page. Works faster/better than email. They are great people and I'm sure he will respond in a favorable manner.

Thank you all for the replies. I will try contacting Mark.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

IME the best way to contact Mark is through the Simpson's Facebook page. Works faster/better than email. They are great people and I'm sure he will respond in a favorable manner.

Well you were right about that. I messaged them on Facebook and they have responded already! Their response was to send an email to enquiries@progress-vulfix.com

I am quite confident that they will respond quickly though. The Facebook message took about 15 minutes which I thought was very encouraging.

Thank you all again for your input.

You were all quite right. Mark has responded already. He has suggested that it could still be loose hairs from the original process. He says that for a brush of this age it is unusual but I should try the shampoo, dry and gently comb process to see if the problem goes away.

If not then he has suggested sending it back to the vendor for a replacement. Thoroughly nice chap and he has put my mind at ease.

That's great Mark responded so quickly and offered viable solutions. Hopefully his recommendations work and you don't have to seek a return from the vendor. If you do have to seek a return and the vendor will not make things right (some vendors are touchy when it comes to brush returns), reach out to Mark again. From all I've seen, he has a sterling reputation for making things right for his customers.

Originally Posted by Porl

You were all quite right. Mark has responded already. He has suggested that it could still be loose hairs from the original process. He says that for a brush of this age it is unusual but I should try the shampoo, dry and gently comb process to see if the problem goes away.

If not then he has suggested sending it back to the vendor for a replacement. Thoroughly nice chap and he has put my mind at ease.

Since you appear to be based in the U.K., to put my mind at ease, I would have hoped that Mark would had agreed to shipping the brush straight to them.
With the current agreement, you still have to deal with the Internet vendor, something that you earlier had tried to avoid.

If it is your daily brush, I also find Mark's explanation not entirely credible.
A brush that behaves fine in daily use for five months and then starts shedding at least a dozen hairs is clearly deteriorating and I would not have too much hope that the situation reverses itself.
But then again, it cannot hurt to follow his suggestionns, if only to demonstrate that you complied with their request.

For the day when you return the brush, it might also help if you collect the hairs that this brush sheds over a week or so to and fix them with tape on a sheet of paper.
I had a similar issue once with two identical (Vulfix made?) Taylor of Old Bond Street (TOBS) brushes that I had bought together and showing them my "harvest" helped to convince them that something was clearly wrong with the two brushes.
At a magnitude of +12 hairs every shave, this should not be difficult as long as you follow best practices when using the brush.


Good luck....



B

Originally Posted by beluga

Since you appear to be based in the U.K., to put my mind at ease, I would have hoped that Mark would had agreed to shipping the brush straight to them.
With the current agreement, you still have to deal with the Internet vendor, something that you earlier had tried to avoid.

B

In fairness to Mark, I don't think that he would necessarily know that I am based in the UK.

I was also sceptical about the brush starting to misbehave after several months of use. I cannot tell if anything has worked yet as I have reverted to a different brush whilst I go through the cleaning and drying process on this one.

If the problem persists I will do as you suggest. The other problem that I might have is that the brush was a gift from my wife, so it is possible that she won't have kept the receipt and Mark did express that for any replacement brush I would need that.