Thread: Badger or Boar

Badger is and has been considered the premium brush throughout history. Boar has been considered the common mans brush. Of course that's just history.

Plenty of folks have their own opinions. Unfortunately brushes are one of those things that are very personal and the only way to know is try them all. Boars are pretty inexpensive so why not just pick one up and use. Down the road you can invest in a pricier badger and then compare. of course there are many grades of badger and all are quite different.

read the primer at the top of this thread if you haven't already.

I have several brushes, 3 badger 1 boar 1 synthetic. They all do the job for me. Some days I want a brush with more backbone other days I want a small soft brush. I have noticed that my favorite brushes are not my most expensive ones.
I would recommend getting a small inexpensive brush and use it for several months than you may decide you want a bigger, stiffer or softer brush. It is a personal thing and will probably change over time.

Brush selection is a personal choice. I have badgers and boars, both have their merits.

Semouge and Omega make great, affordable boar brushes. You will hear guys say that they take a while to come into their own...to break in. This time can be vastly reduced by making a lather in the palm of your hand several times a day. Within a couple of weeks, it will be 90% broken in. Boar brushes will really exfoliate your skin.

Badger brushes usually come in larger knots, so they will make lather quicker, and usually make more of it. They come in varying degrees of stiffness(as do boar brushes), but tend to have less backbone than boars.

You will have to experiment to find out which you prefer. I am currently a boar guy, but that is subject to change!

I used boar for a while and was happy. I had a few badgers and they always seamed to get floppy after some time. Then i bought a top of the line badger crossing my fingers (thanks TC and Bob) and now i have a hard time picking up any other brush. The D01 i have is my best brush and i love how well it works. Thinking i might try a fan shape some day in the same D01 but thats another 200 bucks.

Lately I've been using a Semogue boar a little more than my badger brushes. Granted, I haven't experienced any really expensive badger brushes, but I do have a small collection of decent ones that work just fine. It's fun to have a few kinds to choose from, it's usually a game-time decision along with which soap or cream. I also have a Vie-Long horsehair brush that I enjoy very much. I think for me, the boar has the best performance-to-cost ratio.

I'm like Benz, it depends in which soap I'm going to use.
But I'm quite partial to Black Badger, brushes.
I have a variety of different types, sizes, and lofts of brushes, and all work equally well with any soap or cream.

A cheap way to try different brushes (as I did ) is look for them at antique stores and flea markets. If their in good condition, you can clean them up and use them, if not, you can buy replacement knots ( of your choice ) and put new knots in them. Or make your own, as many have done here, as well as myself.

Personal preference. Some like the softness and tradition of badger, others like the scritch and low cost of a boar. Personally, Im of the latter.

There are four types of shaving brushes in common use: boar, badger, horse hair and synthetic. If you get a good one (and by good, I am not talking about quality, not price), either one of the four can do a great job. I have and use several brushes of each type.

Boar brushes are generally inexpensive and can do a great job --- once they are broken in. I like the backbone of a boar brush when lathering hard soaps.

Badger brushes, especially silvertips, have a soft face feel. However, unless the knot is densely packed, the brush may be floppy. Of course, dense brushes require more hair for a given size knot, so they tend to be more expensive. You can compensate for a floppy brush by holding the brush by the knot rather than by the handle. This is an old barber's trick. I love using badger brushes when lathering creams. Creams do not require the backbone of a boar and I love the soft face feel.

Horsehair brushes generally are not as soft as a badger and do not have the back bone of a boar. If you are interested in one, I suggest you avoid the cheaper ones that tend to be 65% tail hair and 35% mane hair. The moderately priced ones are usually 50% mane/50% tail and are a little softer. Horse hair brushes offer a good compromise of the characteristics of the two main competitors.

A few years ago, synthetic brushes were designed to be cheap brushes. Technology has improved and there are some great brushes available for very reasonable prices. I have a acrylic handle brush with a gamechanger/boss style knot that is nearly as soft as a badger, yet has the backbone of a boar. Thus, it combines the best of both major competitors It will produce a great lather with with any cream, croap, or hard soap I use. It may be the most versatile brush I have. If I was on a tight budget and could only own a single inexpensive brush, I would be satisfied with that one.

Yeah, buy them both and see what you like. That’s what I did and use boar brushes almost exclusively today. They just keep getting better and better with use. On the other hand, if I didn’t have a selection of badger brushes in my past I would always wonder.

I have two simpson brushes that my grandfather gave to me, he's got quite a few things and loved seeing my interest in wet shaving. The first brush I started on and bought myself was boar, although because as stated here that I didn't give it time to break in I am not going to attempt a critique of it. I feel like Simpson makes exquisite badger brushes,however. I personally wouldn't pay what he did for them, at least not yet, but the quality does seem to merit the price.