TGN Knots

Hey y'all, I am going to have 4 brushes made for me with differing purposes. My current brush is a Stephens Woodworking 26mm Silvertip with a 55mm loft. My dislikes, the brush is huge and its a little scritchy. But, that being said it is nice for a luxurious lather and plush/floppy. I also have ordered a 22mm brush that will be on its way. I am looking to get soft brushes that will serve different purposes so here goes....

Travel Brush (shave stick)
TGN Finest or Silvertip Grade A 18mm. This will be my travel brush. I will be face lathering only so I think it will need to be a shorter loft and more dense. I was thinking about a 40-44mm loft. The price is almost a wash between the two brush types so which would you reccomend for this purpose?

Cream/Soap Bowl/mug latherer
I can't decide between TGN 24mm UK Silvertip or Silvertip Grade A (I am trying to get info on whether or not the UK is worth the extra $20, what do you think?). This is going to be my luxury brush so if its a noticeable difference or worth the $ I am ok with it. My only concern with a 24mm brush is that I will still find it very large. However, my assumption is that if it is set with a 50-52mm loft it will be more dense thus not splay out as much on my face and not feel so huge. What do you think?

Everything Brush (soap, cream, face and bowl)
TGN Silvertip Grade A 22mm. Like I said this will be used for everything. I am thinking about a 48-50mm loft to accomodate all of that. Your thoughts?

Face Latherer (Mainly soaps)
TGN Super Badger Fan 20mm. I will be using this for face lathering. I am thinking about a 44-46mm loft. Once again, your thoughts?

If you have any input or suggestions outside my thoughts (whether it be loft, knot size, hair type etc) I would love to hear it. I am still trying to decide on handle shapes at the moment. I have been wetshaving for about 2 months now and have already gone through SRAD, Soap AD, and now its brush AD and its all been great :rock: Thanks again!

Chris

I like TGN knots. If you want to shorten the loft just set it deeper in the handle.

I have a TGN 24MM UK Grade A Silvertip. This is one dense brush and it was set a little too deep in the handle, but I used my band saw to skillfully remove a 1/4 inch of the handle and this helped the brush loft expand and spread out more, which improved its performance a little.

I call it my Hog Brush because it wants to take up a lot of everything and although it applies a nice thick coat of lather, it doesn't whip it up the lather like my superbadger brush. Soaps, it does a decent job. Creams, well it wants a lot of cream to whip and more than I want to allocate to one brush during a shave.

It is a little softer than my superbadger, but a little too dense to be as practical as I want. My Vulfix superbadger whips up creams and soaps quickly in comparison.

An A grade should be 1/2 the density of the UK A grade and that is more likely the right balance to be a good all around brush that you will find to be very practical.

Good Luck,

Pabster

This would be a "luxury brush" if I got the UK Silvertip. I am going to have a wide range of hairs and if I get that in silvertip or silvertip A that would make my fourth brush with that hair. I like the idea of the UK silvertip, but am still a little unsure. Approximately what loft is yours set at? Do you know how big the hole in your handle is? Perhaps if the hole in the handle was slightly larger it would splay out more and be less dense.

Also, it looks like it is a more fan shaped brush, am I correct in this observation?

Chris

It is more fan shape. The hole isn't the issue and the setting was a little too deep for this type of brush, but I adjusted that when I removed some of the handle with my band saw. The UK A Silver tip is just a very densly packed brush. It is certainly a little different.

I tried it with the creams several times and it just absorbed it and wanted more and more. I estimated that it has 2 - 2.5 times the hairs of my vulfix superbadger.

Good Luck,

Pabster