Thread: Silver tip or Two Band Silver tip

I apologize if this is a stupid newbie question, but so far I have not seen a good explanation of hte difference between the silver tip and two band silver tip badgers. Can someone enlighten me, please?
Thanks!

A few years ago when they sold the true two banders there was a world of difference. The two band were dense and had loads of backbone yet were soft on the face with just a tad of scratch to them. Most silvertip unless short loft are like marshmallows. The current crop of two banders are a different animal. I'm not sure myself what the difference is. if you look at some of the new Thaters and Simpson Manchurian they have some of the qualities of the old two banders but are still quite different.

I am going to exclude "the old true two banders" because I don't have any experience using them. I do have a modern Semogue Owners Club (SOC) 2 band badger as well as a modern Simpsons Manchurian and they both have more backbone(stiffness?) than the two 3 band badgers I have/had used. The SOC has a bit more backbone than the Manchurian but both have soft tips and broken in are easy on the face. Both 3 banders had less backbone with the Vulfix the least and the Muhle Retro a surprising amount of backbone but it is a very dense knot in comparison. Both 3 banders are very soft on the face. Really from what I can see it is just a matter of how you want the brush to feel on your face, some backbone making it a little scrubby vs less backbone and more pillowy on the face. I don't know if that makes sense or even if others will agree.

Bob

I like the silvertips for softer creams and soaps. Works nice! I prefer the 2 bands for the hard soaps and vigorous lathering.
I suppose, the 2 bands are best for me. They get softer with time, not too soft yet. Great overall in Thater and TGN and a few others I have tried. JMO

Not much to add to what has been said except ..... I went through a period of SBAD about 5 years ago. I had a few Rooney Finest 2 bands and a few Simpsons (made in Somerset) 2 band Supers. Regardless of loft ..... long or short ..... they had backbone and to me more importantly they were scritchy. Call it scrubby, slightly abrasive ..... a feeling I really liked.

Time past and I decided to thin the herd and sold a few Rooney Finests and a couple of Somerset Simpsons. Now these were scritchy brushes and I described them as such. After I sold them I inquired of the buyers, separate individuals, if the brushes felt scritchy to them ...... and they said NO !

Now that just blew my mind. So all I'm saying is the old YMMV is alive and well when it comes to shaving brushes. BTW, I've since learned to like soft tips with no scritch too .... as long as there is backbone. I'll never learn to like floppy.

Yea, that sure is the thing with brushes, people react to the same brush in different ways. You just have to bite the bullet and try one out to see if it is for you. All I can say is that if you want to dip your toes into the what passes for 2 band waters today is to take a serious look at the SOC for bang for buck.

Bob