Thread: rakowski

was looking at rakowski hand made products i looked at a silver tip badger palmwood brush for 75.00 and matching 5/8 thiers issard palmwood straight for 225.00 how are they and how the price

I've never seen one in person but the posts I have seen here have not been favorable.

The problem with handmade brushes (and I know many here have them and love them, I have a couple myself) is that what you are really buying is a custom handle. The badger that goes into the brush is generic silvertip badger. I have never seen a "custom" brush where the business end even came close to the hair on a Rooney best or Simpson super. Now I'm not saying they are bad in any way its just if I'm going to spend the money on a brush I'd rather spend it towards the extra quality on the business end. Of course thats a personal thing. If you want that gorgeous wood handle then go for it. An alternative is to buy just a handle and see if one of the stores like shavemac will fill it for you. That's the best of both worlds but it would not be cheap.

My very first and only brush is a Rakowski. The first one he sent me got lost in the mail, and he quickly shipped out another one. It was a Kingwood handled silvertip. I bought it on Ebay for $20 plush shipping. The brushed seemed very nice. Then in about 3 weeks the finish started to peel off of the handle. After about 2 months the brush knot fell out of the brush, then started loosing hairs in chunks. Since then I used the handle to practice a CA finish, and then scrapped out the old glue he used in the handle. I put the brush knot back into the brush with some decent marine apoxy. The brush is working fine and not loosing any more hairs. Personaly I think when the first one got lost in the mail he hastily slapped a replacment together, and it was not sealed up properly. It was a really good first brush for what I paid for it, and I am still using it. I am saving up for a shavemac though. Personaly I would not buy a Rakowski again, as there are many other custom handle makers with more experience with shaving equipment. Rakowski is a fine woodworker, but I think he needs to learn more about shaving gear.