First Brush re-do with Silvertip Badger

Well, I bought a new Silvertip Badger brush knot from The Golden Nib. Came the other day and I decided to exchange it with a brush that I absolutely hated. My old brush, circa. 1949, was my Great Uncle Herman's and altohgh it has worked great, I don't want to litereally wear it out. I wanted to replace it with something that would save a little wear and tear on it.
I first got a VDH brush at Walgreen's Drug and first few times I used it I thought that it was made of porcupine or hedgehog hair instlead of boar. It's still not in the contention of soft and smooth. Then I got one at Meijer's Dept. store and it was made by a know shave supply maker, but I actually hated it! I don't know what hair was used, but must of been from a bear going into springtime, because all it ever did was shed. Well, I "shed" it permanently in the trash and hollowed out the left over with a Dremmel and a rotary file.
I got done and was wondering what other "things" might work for brush handles. I saw nice wooden candlesticks and egg holders (silver) and I think some of those things could be re-fashioned into a brush handle. I tried the jade pepper grinder I have and it is heavy and could work, but I stuck with the actual brush handle I had reamed out. I thought I'd include a pic of the brush in the Jade (stone) handle just for thoughts.
http://vernsdidj.com/pictures/misc/r...es/brushes.jpg
The brush sort of "stuck" in the Jade handle. I could re-fashion something to actually make it fit, but it would be rather heavy. Would work though and be kind of unique.
http://vernsdidj.com/pictures/misc/r...sh_in_jade.jpg
....and what I finally stuck with, showing the new handles with new Silverhair Badger knot next to my old vintage Ever Ready 100 brush.
http://vernsdidj.com/pictures/misc/r...sh_old_new.jpg

The Silvertip Badger I got feels really nice on the face (haven't wet it up yet) and the color seems rather grayish, but looks like it should do nicely.

Looks good there Gibbs! Let us know how she feels when full of lather.

Nice job.

If you want to see my jade handled boar brush, check out my post in SOTD here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shave...tml#post785355

I got reminded...that's a new Burma Shave brush handle. It was around 10.00 and 9.50 overpriced...maybe more. It would put up lather,but by the time you picked out all the shed hairs, the lather had dried and you had to repeat the process all over. I thought that with a name of Burm Shave it might have some redeming value. I guessed wrong.. and this is just my opinion. Perhaps someone else has bought one and had great success with it, but I certainly did not. Handle is nice, though.. *S*

Some nice experimenting going on here Gibbs, nice to see. That final brush looks great. I'm sure it will perform as it looks, seems like everyone love their TGN knots.

Shaved with a "Gold Bug" made by A. Witte, Solingen, Germany tonight (Sun 5/15) and used the brush. I re-honed the razor today after noticing it needed a bit of touch up with edge inconsistencies. Worked on a system I have had excellent luck with and worked great. Got the razor to pop hairs on my belly 1/2 inch out by merely pushing the blade against them. Pop right away. I bought the Gold Bug initially to practice with, dulled down the edge and practiced shaving for several days. I only paid 3.50 for it and then I bought a broken blade razor, a W&B for another 3.00 just for the handle and I put the handle on the Gold Bug. It has a full to extra hollow blade, at least sounds like it from the "scritch" sound it makes on my beard. I have noticed that only the full and extra hollow blades seem to make that "scrittchy" sound when I use them.

Brush stood up well. Ended up quite bushy in the end. Pic of the brush after the initial shave.....
http://vernsdidj.com/pictures/misc/r...rtip_bloom.jpg

Nice work, both of the brushes I use have knots from TGN. I love being able to use the brush that I made myself, it just seems to feel better. I really like the look of that jade handle.

-dan-