Thread: Poll brush

WRT loft height, I always just went with what the brush manufactures supplied with a particular knot size. On the basis that they have been making brushes for a good long while and should know what works best with what size. Seems to have worked so far.

Bob

I guess I am going through a shaving "awkward stage."... I have a super-badger brush that used to be my favorite until I bought a scraggly turn-of-the-century horsehair brush. The knot is about 2 1/2" high and less than 1" wide. It gives me, bar none, the best lather I've ever had--never too foamy, never too dry, just right, and it lifts my beard wonderfully while transferring all the lather to my face rather than retaining 1/2 of it.



I know, I'll get over it, but for now I'm loving it. :-)

Originally Posted by BobH

WRT loft height, I always just went with what the brush manufactures supplied with a particular knot size. On the basis that they have been making brushes for a good long while and should know what works best with what size. Seems to have worked so far.

Bob

So true,the mass producers make brushes best suited for the masses.for the followers,not the leaders.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

So true,the mass producers make brushes best suited for the masses.for the followers,not the leaders.

It is also written that there is no need to break trail when others have already done that for you. OTH if you feel the need why not but it is not like you are pioneering anything you just might wind up at the same place anyway.

Bob

I use a 23mm Vie long horse hair brush. I also have badger hair brushes, but the horse hair is my favorite.

An amendment to my previous post:

What I like best about my horsehair brush is that thanks to its stiffer bristles, it lifts ALL of the cream from the bottom and sides of the bowl and whips it into a lather. With softer brushes I sometimes get clumps of cream that keep sticking to the bowl, even after my regular 3 minutes of whisking. The Art of Shaving cream I mostly use is rather firm and sticky, to be sure, but I do find this annoying when it happens--sometimes even after I soak the cream in the bowl with hot water for a minute or so.

I thought horsehair would feel much rougher on my face than soft badger, but I found out that its firmer feel does nothing to irritate my skin or give me any less of a great shave.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

So true,the mass producers make brushes best suited for the masses.for the followers,not the leaders.

You know that old Johnny Cash song about the guy who works in an auto assembly plant and over the years smuggles home every part needed to assemble a car (in his lunch box) and finds none of the parts go together but makes them fit.

A wise man once told me.: "The masses are Asses." You can move forward from there.

I like my brush a little on the scrubby side. The loft is only important in relation to the size of the knot and how densely packed the hairs are. Increasing density and shortening the loft have similar effects so those are variable for me. But I like best badger for soaps and silver tips for some soaps and creams.

No bodger (boar/badger mix)?