Gentlemen,

Thank you for your attention. I'm working on finishing up my "test brush" (for the marble handle I would like to make...whether or not that will work is another story), and have a couple of quick questions about setting the knot.

1) How do you measure the "loft" of a brush? It is the height of the entire brush, or is it the height of the exposed bristles? I believe that it is the latter but I just wanted to double check.

2) What is the "optimum" loft for a face and bowl latherer? In the short time I've been shaving with a straight, I have found I prefer face lathering with soft creams and bowl lathering with hard soaps.

In a previous post, pixelfixed suggested 47-52mm for face latherers, and 56-58mm for bowl latherers. Is there a general consensus on these measurements? I know everyone has their personal preferences and those can vary greatly but I'm just looking for a ballpark. So, would I be fair in assuming 52-56mm (54mm?) would be a good height for me?

Thank you in advance

-AspiringPolymath