Thread: Moving away from badger

Originally Posted by Speedster

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.

I haven’t experienced much shedding with my smaller Omega boar or the larger Fendrihan boar, which looks very much like a rebranded Omega. For the price, I don’t think you can go wrong with either.

In my experience, the larger synths have lathered MWF quite well. I start by hydrating the puck with some water and then swirl a damp synth to gather some soap. From that point on I face lather, adding water to the brush tip as needed. Builds a good lather fairly quickly. I do have fairly soft water.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

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 think the last is a point lost on most beginners. It is easy to get the impression that unless you use a top of the line badger brush you are just spinning your wheels as far as being able to produce an excellent lather is concerned. That is simply not the case as it all boils down to knowing how to make an excellent lather with the tool you have in hand. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound right so make it the "brush you have in your hand". Constant references to the comparison of a Yugo to insert expensive car of choice really does not help that impression either.

There is not a thing wrong with trying the various knot materials to see which suits you best either but not totally necessary as far as making an excellent lather is concerned.

Bob

I think it is hard to "move away from badger" if one has only tried one, and a cheap one at that. Of course, one can easily get by without ever using one, but at least one needs to be familiar with what a badger knot is like compared to the other options. Softness is only one aspect of things, and a relative quality at that, a synth's softness being different from a broken-in boar knot, and with edge type of badger knot having it's own type of softness. The way a badger knot absorbs water and creates lather within the knot itself is perhaps it's most characteristic feature. Synth knots shed lather in comparison to badger knots, as do horse and boar knots.

Not that I am saying that badger knots are necessarily the "best," but that they can vary and that it is impossible to criticize them on a qualitative level without better-knowing what that variance is.

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

Not that I am saying that badger knots are necessarily the "best," but that they can vary and that it is impossible to criticize them on a qualitative level without better-knowing what that variance is.

That is a very good point. There are so many different grades of badger, some with different names but still similar, different densities, and different loft to knot size ratios that all make a difference to how a badger knot feels and performs. Then there is the batch to batch differences from the same manufacturer of their same grade badger.

You really have to go through a fair number of badger brushes to do a reasonable assessment of badger knots let alone find one that you really like. I think most of the members here have found that out. At least I went through a few to find a knot that I liked.

Bob

Originally Posted by easyace

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.

I am not certain what you define as expensive, but if you are, at all, interested, you may want to contemplate Shavemac's D01 2-Band hair, or any good 2-Band badger brush like Paladin, Maseto Shaving, Simpsons, if you have found the more expensive brushes too feeble or lacking in backbone. You won't find any boar brush that has similar backbone to the D01 2-Band hair.

Yep, What he said. I got one and I don't know how they managed to get all that hair in the knot. It's so dense that backbone is not an issue.

Obviously some passionate thoughts on the matter, which is great and also to be expected when it's about something so dear and personal to all of us. I just feel no matter whether you prefer badger, synthetic, or boar hair brushes it's really important to keep in mind that... horse hair brushes beat them all hands down anyway

Originally Posted by celestino

I am not certain what you define as expensive, but if you are, at all, interested, you may want to contemplate Shavemac's D01 2-Band hair, or any good 2-Band badger brush like Paladin, Maseto Shaving, Simpsons, if you have found the more expensive brushes too feeble or lacking in backbone. You won't find any boar brush that has similar backbone to the D01 2-Band hair.

Thank you, my most expensive brush is an Aqua De Parma, Wenge Wood affair, so I guess my definition of expensive is that brush and I'm sure part of the price is the name. In my defence, it was a gift . I just looked up the Shavemac, I saw the Americana, nice looking handle.

I tried my first Synthetic brush this morning, the Atomic Rocket. I was very pleasantly suprised. I am happy that at my age I can still get excited about a 15 dollar brush.

I currently use a number of different brushes including badger, boar, horse, and synthetic. For me, each has a different function. I like my horse hair brushes when I am using a harder soap where the synthetics and badgers work well with the softer soaps and creams. Great thing about this hobby is that there are a lot of options.

I will second the one of the other comments and that is you can get some great badger brushes at the Golden Nib. I bought several badger knots from them and made my own handles and they are fantastic and very reasonable. Try this if you want to try badger, they also have the option to pick a handle, knot and then the will assemble it for you.

Shavemac should also be introducing a synthetic shortly, I'm currently testing it out and am finding it very hard to find negative attributes; when in relation to 2 band Shavemac silvertips. In particular 26/50