Thread: First REAL brush.

Ive been using a van der haagen, or something like that, for a month now and i want to make an upgrade. Im into wet shaving and straight razors for cost, not hobby. I dont have money to get the "best" kent or rooney brushes. Ive been looking at some of the cheaper brushes. I want a badger. Which of these is the best: Country Cousin, Vulfix, Col. Conk, or Tweezerman. I was going to get the tweezerman, is it ok?

A lot of guys here have it and have great results. For the same price you can get a quality Omega boar, and there is nothing wrong with boar. I have one that I love, cost me $8 brand new over at B&B. I think it retails about $13 new, so about the same as a tweezerman. If you are looking at Amazon, I have heard a lot of good things about the Jaguar Boar Brushes too, although supposedly they smell a little more at the beginning.

I have the tweezerman badger brush from amazon ( got it for $12) and I love it. Does a good job at creating a rich lather, especially if you soak it in hot water for a few mins before you shave. Has a wet badger smell at the beginning but it goes away. For the price it cant be beat. Does have some shedding.

-Huizar

what's your budget?
there are also some custom options that might be in your budget

Bout 30 to 40 dollars. I saw you can get the knots. I thought about making my own with just a wood rod and a drill.

The only problem with that is you need a way to seal the rod so it doesn't split and crack. Advice: Troll the B/S/T forum over at B&B for a while and see what pops up. There have been a lot of best badger brushes up lately around the $30-$35 range. Or if you want new the Edwin Jagger pure badger is about $25. Just some options.

That helps alot guys. I think im gunna go after the Tweezer man. at cvs.

If you want to make your own cheap brush I would recommend buying an old brush and replacing the knot.

Visit Vintage Scent and pick out a Semogue boar brush, easily within your specified budget (1305 for example). For ~ five bucks more than that scratchy Tweezerman, treat yourself to reasonably priced luxury.

I agree with the two previous posts. I paid 20 bucks extra for a kinda crapy badger brush with a DE set when I first started. I was completely in the dark about straight razor communities such as this by the way. Then later down the road considering a budget, I bought an old brush for 7 bucks on ebay. I dug out the old knot with a flat head and razor blade and bought a silvertip knot for around 20 on goldennib.com. I got a top quality brush for about 35 bucks. Well worth the effort.

There are several threads about restoring old brushes on here and badger and blade you can check out. Oh and there are some old brushes (brands) that replacing a knot is easier to do with than others.

I haven't tried a semogue but I am about to pull the trigger, they sound like a good deal to me. Let us know what you end up doing.