Thread: Moving away from badger

Originally Posted by BobH

For me, there is a difference between the various knot materials in how they feel on the face when face lathering and how they produce a good lather. They will all produce a good lather though.

Synthetic knots do not hold water well but they do take it on only to let it run out of the knot and down your hand and arm. The trick is to stop trying to use them like a badger brush and forget about soaking them. Just wet the tips and load the brush adding a little water as you go to let the proto lather already in the brush hold the water. Then go and start face lathering with the proto lather again adding a little water as you go till you get the type of lather you want.


Bob

As usual, BobH has nailed it on synthetics. I have two that I like lot, but as Bob said, they need to be used differently. I use mine with the tips barely wet to load from the soap and then generally face lather, adding just a little water at a time to the tips, to build a great lather and feel very good on the face doing it.

I also second what he said about comparing brushes. I have very good badger brushes and boar brushes, most of which were very modestly priced and they all work great if I do my part. I do have some favorites of each type, and the badgers in my list of favorites were not cheap, but they were not bank account busters either.

Like women and fast cars, they each like to be treated differently.

If price has has been a deterrent for you in trying a good 2-Band badger brush, then Maseto Shaving, The Golden Nib, and Sterling have some good ones at a very decent price.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Badger has always been the brush of choice for the well heeled and that's probably 100 years plus of history talking.

It seems like an unfair comparison: of course badger has history on it's side as synthetics have only really come into their own quite recently. No doubt a huge part of the badger brushes' appeal lies precisely in their historical place as king of brushes, best of the best -- all the more the for the straight razor crowd who are here for reasons very fair from efficiency and ease-of-use. As BobH has pointed out, one really needs to take each on their own merits; if one judges a synthetic by the criteria laid on by a good badger it'll fall short every time but, likewise, if one judges a badger based on what makes a good synthetic then they too will be found lacking. Just my two cents.

I have a few badgers, a few boars, a horsehair, and several synthetics. Now I'll admit I don't own any top-of-the-line naturals but in the bracket I would spend in for brushes the synthetics lather the best for me and by far are the best value for my taste. As always that might not be true for everyone.

I have always preferred the scrub of boar brushes. I have tried badger brushes, the cheaper ones with cut ends feel prickly and the more expensive ones feel too feeble. The one exception to this is the Thater brush (the SRP 2011 one) that I have, but even then I only use it with creams.

My friends daughter is studying in the states and is returning to Qatar for the holidays. She is bringing a number of goodies that are difficult to get here, including two synthetic brushes, the Atomic Rocket and the Green Ray. I am really looking forward to trying these.

Originally Posted by ppetresen

It seems like an unfair comparison: of course badger has history on it's side as synthetics have only really come into their own quite recently. No doubt a huge part of the badger brushes' appeal lies precisely in their historical place as king of brushes, best of the best -- all the more the for the straight razor crowd who are here for reasons very fair from efficiency and ease-of-use. As BobH has pointed out, one really needs to take each on their own merits; if one judges a synthetic by the criteria laid on by a good badger it'll fall short every time but, likewise, if one judges a badger based on what makes a good synthetic then they too will be found lacking. Just my two cents.

Seems kind of like saying in many ways a Yugo is better than a BMW. After All it's cheaper to buy and cheaper to maintain and gets better gas mileage and cheaper to repair if damaged. I guess you can find positives and advantage in just about any comparison.

It's not history that makes badger better it's performance. If some other hair was better it would be in the top spot instead.

Synthetics have been around since the 1950s as well as synthetic blends and they have languished all these years. Only relatively recently have they made real inroads.

In the end we buy what we like and if you're happy with your decision that's all that matters. My original point is for me a top of the line badger is my preference. Yes they both create and apply lather equally well but it all stops there.

I have top of line silver tip badgers, some boars and a synthetic.

Since using the synthetic I haven't looked back for years and stuck exclusively to my synthetic.

I'm gonna revisit my silvertips and boars and see how they stack up now
my synthetic is just super effective, doesn't clog up by accumulated soap and cream residue, is the softest of them all has no need to soak, it works flawlessly but differently than the naturals.

I don't have cream or soap dripping down my arm from my synthetic.


I'm a traditional guy and would normally prefer the non-synthetics, bur for brushes the synthetics cannot be beat so far for me.

To each their own

Well it seems I really stirred up some stuff with my original post. I have to emphasize that I was speaking for myself with no experience using a high quality badger brush.

I am very happy with my synthetics and boar brushes and would easily recommend them to a newbie getting started wet shaving who wanted keep startup costs down.

That doesn’t mean I am advocating everyone stop using badger. The simple fact is that there are many wet shavers who love them. I’m just saying that for me, I am happy using what I have and very happy with the price point.

Well said, DZEC. Everyone takes a different path for whatever reason. I happened to land a Thater 4125/2 2-band silvertip on clearance from BullGoose about 3 months into wet shaving. That's the only brush I really need.

I also have a cheapy, no-name boar brush that I'm starting to use more (mainly for MWF). If the sucker continues shedding, I may look into an Omega or whatever the guys are recommending these days.

Indeed, everybody likes what they like, nothing wrong with anybody's preferences

I had a Thater that I didn't care much for, I know I'm one of the fewer people in that regard, shaving is a highly personal and subjective matter