Thread: Old brush, any clues as to what it is?

I was recently given an old brush once belonging to my great great granddad, I have to say it is brilliant to use. I have a new Wilkinson Sword brush bought cheaply from the local supermarket to get me started, I have to swirl it at least a dozen times in my soap and even then I have to work hard to get a decent lather on my face. With this old brush I swirl it about 5 times in the soap and the lather is literally falling off my face. I thought it was due to soft water at the inlaws but they have hard water the same as me. Amazing what a difference can be had just by the brush you use..

Anyways, what I'd like to know it what is this old brush made of (is it badger for eg?), who made it (if that is possible to work out from the pics) as there is no makers mark on it.

Thanks folks any comments appreciated.

Maybe its boar. Its definitely not badger. Horse is another possibilty. It actually looks kind of fine for boar hair. If its very soft to the touch then its horse.

The ends of the hairs are split like a broken in boar brush.

Thanks folks, it's not soft to the touch so I doubt it's horse. I'm leaning towards Boar - it is a bit stiff to start with when using it and is a bit prickly but in a nice way. It's not a big brush but does its job very well and I enjoy using it.

Originally Posted by cutter2001

The ends of the hairs are split like a broken in boar brush.

..very broken in lol

Originally Posted by Yorkie

Thanks folks, it's not soft to the touch so I doubt it's horse. I'm leaning towards Boar - it is a bit stiff to start with when using it and is a bit prickly but in a nice way. It's not a big brush but does its job very well and I enjoy using it.



..very broken in lol

Definitely boar then!

Hi there! That looks to be a boar and nice one at that. It's yellow so it's natural not dyed.

These are types of boar bristles:

Natural: undyed could be yellow, brown or gray
Bleached: natural bleached in white
Sketched: natural bleached in white and dyed with stripe to resemble badger
Clipped: instead of being formed it is clipped to form a bulb

Searching around for boar related threads I came upon this on SMF. Very good read if you've time:
Boar bristles