Thread: Why is boar so much cheaper?!

I thought I read somewhere that badgers were raised in captivity in China and that the badger hair that you see in shaving brushes does not come from shooting and killing a badger but rather from shaving the hair off a live badger (as unpleasant as that task may be).

Still, I have to admit that the post above about badger hair just being rarer to find than boar hair makes sense.

If you haven't tried boar, by the way, you are really missing something. My boar brush makes MUCH better lather than my badger brush ever did, and yes, the boar feels a little scratchy on the face, but to me it's a good kind of scratchy and probably helps to exfoliate the skin.

Originally Posted by JeffE

I thought I read somewhere that badgers were raised in captivity in China and that the badger hair that you see in shaving brushes does not come from shooting and killing a badger but rather from shaving the hair off a live badger (as unpleasant as that task may be).
n.

Well, to my mind there just *have* to be badgers being raised somewhere. But shaving them? Yowzah. They must have to give the badgers Haldol or something.

I once saw this nature video about wolverines ( alot like a badger) and even the scientists who study wolverines have usually never seen them. This one scientist had seen them, but only a couple of times:he traps them - but even then, it's a wooden trap and usually the wolverine manages to chew through the 18 inches of solid wood (timber) the trap is made out of by morning, so by the time the scientists gets to the the traps, usually even if one had a wolverine its long gone. AND in the instances where there is one, he had to invent this special long pole-sort-of device which both lifts open the trap and simultaneously inserts a tranq. dart, otherwise at the slightest crack of the trap opening the wolverine busts open the trap and is gone.

Wolverines have been known to kill moose. Moose. 8 feet tall. And they regularly kill deer.

But I digress. So, I'm excited about this new hone I ordered......

Originally Posted by Mijbil

Wolverines have been known to kill moose. Moose. 8 feet tall. And they regularly kill deer.

But I digress. So, I'm excited about this new hone I ordered......

.... Now I'm more scared of my brush than my razor...

Originally Posted by timmy

protected species in North America and most of Europe. Badger hunting is not completely outlawed in a handful of European countries. So there is still a source of badger hair in Europe

I'm not at all sure but .... I think the finest quality badger hair comes from China. I've read, IIRC, that they also eat badger over there so it is not just a source for hair. I've never tried a boar brush but now I guess I will have to give one a go.

There is no argument at all that badgers are bad motherf******s. Aggressive meat-eating machines with sharp teeth and claws and an attitude to match. It's like they decided that shaving brushes had to be made out of hyena hair or something like that.

But I always thought that a badger was not being killed for the specific purpose of allowing me to have a fluffy badger hair shaving brush. Now, if this is true, it leads to two possibilities. Either they are killing the badgers for other reasons, like meat, and they harvest the hair at the same time as the rest of the animal. (Don't really have any problem with that, and it's better than letting the rest of the animal go to waste.) Or they are not killing the badgers at all but are . . . um . . . shaving them? How would you do this, given the badger's well known temper? And another thing, what kind of brush do you use for shaving a badger?! Just kidding!

To answer your question about HOW to shave them, JeffE. Large amounts of BUFFALO TRANQUILIZER.

That's my guess.

All right, now the next time I have an hour to waste on YouTube, I've got to look for a video of somebody shaving a badger. Or trying to.

~Rich

Whoa, check this out -- answers to all of your burning badger shaving questions!

Source for Badger Hair - The Shave Den

Bottom line -- yes, most of the badger hair seems to come from China, but some does get produced in Europe. No, the badgers are not killed just for their fur. But yes, the badgers are killed for their meat and then the furs are sold to other people who clean it, sort it and turn it into badger hair knots.

hmmm,, some interseting stuff there, but mostly just back and forth, and claims for both sources....it *seems* that the bulk comes from hunted badgers in China, because they are considered a pest there and they have a government organized enough to gather up all the pelts from individual badger murders (j/k) BUT at least one company, Semogue, uses farmed, sheared badger hair from Europe. And Plisson's website says quite clearly that their most expensive brushes ($250+) are European badger hair and the cheaper brushes ($100-$200) are Chinese. But what we really want to know is, what about the brushes from the companies we all use - Rooney, Simpsons, Vulfix, Kent, Omega, etc? Someone who runs a shop and sources these brushes direct from these companies could maybe ask the rep when they have a chance?

Well, if you compare the cost of boar knots vs. badger knots on for example the thegoldennib, you'll notice only $10-$20 difference.
So the difference in price of the finished product comes primarily from differences in the profit margins.
Remember these are somewhat niche and luxury items.
Perhaps it's not unlike the comparison between a charles shaw and ch. petrus, both are made from merlot grapes.