Thread: Synthetics

Originally Posted by rtaylor61

The great thing about a quality synthetic brush is that is allows those who don't want to use animal products the opportunity to participate in this wonderful hobby we call shaving. With very few exceptions, I imagine everyone here is using a brush of some type. I have badger and boar brushes and have never considered buying a synthetic brush, but it is a viable option.

RT

How pompous is this? Quoting myself? I want to make one point here. My post was simply to state that there are options for all of us. Some may not want to use a badger or boar brush. They have options. My post is not about a "save the whales" kind of thing. Just pointing out an option. We can all believe and live as we choose.

For now, I choose to go have a cheeseburger.

RT

Originally Posted by rtaylor61

For now, I choose to go have a cheeseburger.

Lol, that made me spit coffee on my keyboard, I was expecting something far different

Oh, and I have a cheap synthetic brush somewhere in my dopp kit (which I can't find and probably need to replace soon). If I remember correctly, it's a piece of crap and even my boar brush is better. Guess I must have bought a really bad one.

-- Gary F.

Great question.
It makes me think of a couple of things.
1) the buffalo-burger has been better for the buffalo population in America than any legislation drafted.
2) whenever I hear synthetic I think of landfills full of non-biodegradable materials.

I knew a guy once who spent a lot of time worrying about how we are locking up H2O in the production of plastics. Apparently its an ingredient of plastic and isn't released back into the environment until the plastic has degraded.
I'm babbling now. Plus, the guy was completely bat-sh*t so I'm not really helping my point either.

Mike

First off, I own one of the Men-u synthetic brushes. It's an okay brush, holds alot of water, drys immediately--which is the only reason I still own it, it works well as a travel brush. However, in comparison to every badger brush I've ever tried (and 50% of the boar brushes) it is a pitiful alternative from the perspective of 'face feel'. Although this brush will lather a brick, in a pinch I've used it in a hotel room with the bath soap...tons of lather. However, it is beyond prickly on the face. The bristles will splay out, but do not bend so you are either being poked by this brush or are painting on the lather. Given the fact that it costs as much as a good badger brush (more than some), I'd have a hard time recommending it to anyone unless synthetic was their only option (ethical or allergy).

Now, those of you who don't want to hear a rant can stop reading. Can anyone explain to me how it is more environmentally friendly/conscious to use a non-renewable resource rather than a renewable resource to produce a product? I'll go further...how can one justify not using a natural/renewable resource that is freely available as a waste product and will have to be disposed of if not used for some other purpose? Sounds like a poster child for any recycling program, no? How about this, your alternative is to make the same product out of oil. This is environmentally conscious?

I can understand individuals who will not use leather products (but only if they do not/will not eat beef). However, given the amount of beef consumed, many/most of the hides end up in the waste stream or rendered for fat/gelatin. At the same time we produce untold amounts of fake leather, again, most of it from petroleum products. How is this good for the environment? Now, back to badgers...a wonderful animal by the way; a very efficient predator and quite viscious. Where do our badger brushes come from? Well, I can assure you that contrary to one propaganda page for badger brushes that suggests badgers are humanely treated and shorn like sheep to produce brushes, the badger hair comes predominantly from pelts of badgers killed in China as vermin. They are killed as vermin because they routinely prey on farm animals and for many farmers the choice is to control the local badger population or starve themselves. Now, the farmers/trappers can either use or waste the pelt. I for one would greatly prefer that it be used given the fact that the animal is dead regardless. Especially if the alternative is additional mining of oil and manufacturing of a synthetic alternative product to the natural one that is now lying/roting on the ground.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. I personally believe that this is one of the many advantages to straight razor shaving. I've only purchased one 'new' razor while I've been at this hobby (and I traded that for a pen/pencil set). All of my razors have been rescued/recycled. I continue to restore razors and have given or sold several to new converts to this hobby. Hopefully, none of them will continue to contribute disposable razors to the waste stream in the future. Using a brush and cream contributes much less material to the landfill than does aresol shaving cream. Rather than appologetic, I'm proud to use a badger brush because I do believe it is more environmentally friendly than a synthetic brush.

[rant mode off]

Just another data point,
Ed

Great, now I almost feel guilty for not upgrading from a boar to a badger brush yet.

</tongueincheek>

Hey, everyone has their own beliefs as far as whats proper or not proper for them and everyone can exercise his or her own beliefs as long as they don't try and force theirs on someone else.

If anyone feels sorry for the poor badger just try cornering one out in the woods some day and when you bring whats left of you back to civilization you'll not feel sorry for them anymore. Even a bear won't mess with them.

While I tend to agree with most of the points in the rant from Ed's last post, I do have to point out one thing. The hides from cattle, even the sorry old milk cows that go to slaughter because they can't meet quota anymore, are kept and used for leather.

Just out of highschool I worked on the kill floor of a slaughterhouse. This was a huge operation turning out hundreds of cows every 8 hour shift. The entire process was designed like a car assembly line, except it was more of a cow-dessembly line. I stood across the isle from the cow peelers. It literally peeled each cow's hide off like a banana. It was absolutely amazing to watch. Sometimes if a new guy was on shift, they would slit the cow's neck at a strategic point (the cow would be long dead by now) and instead of peeling the skin off when it got to the head, it would tear the head clean off and shower the new guy in gallons of blood.

Anyways, point is, I asked if I could steal a hide. They said "no way!" Too valuable. They don't get tossed. Every piece of the hide gets processed. Tony the strop maker might have some idea, as he is in the leather trade, but hides are graded and priced by the quality, so even the old battle scarred bull's hide is worth something.

Working in there seemed like a prison sentence. I vacuumed dead cows armpits with a steam cleaner for 8 hours at a time. This was after they had been peeled, but before they'd been split. My last day was a friday. I had said I might not come in monday and an old guy heard me. Still in his underwear, he came over and grabbed me by the collar. "Get out, get out while you can! I've been here twenty years!" I thought he was going to cry. Needless to say, I took his advice.

And yes, I still eat steak, rare. Blue if I'm in a nice restaurant.

Originally Posted by ForestryProf

Reduce, reuse, recycle. I personally believe that this is one of the many advantages to straight razor shaving. ...

That's why he's got a PhD. I'm with Ed 110% and I'm a vegetarian (ok, I eat sushi ), but I also wear leather. People have difficulty seeing a killing (the badger) as a natural or even humane act and it's understandable because it is a killing, but like I said in my recent blog entry, "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so". Ok, so maybe it was Shakespeare who said that.

A recent ultra vegan friend of mine recently said to me, "Micarta's great, it never degrades. You just eventually get micarta pebbles which turn into micarta granules." She was visibly enlightened when I pointed out that the earth wasn't supposed to have micarta in the ecosphere forever. Rigid thinking comes in many forms.

But to answer your question, Ilija ... They might get it right some day.

X

I'm personally using a BB brush and planning on getting a ST as well. My question was more out of scientific curiosity. If it was possible to design a brush that will dry quickly, whip up a good lather and feel good on the face with artificial materials. Even though I eat at least a pound of meat a day, I have some friends who are vegan and won't have anything to do with animal products/by-products. As for non-renewable... Here we have stellar recycling rates so it's a non factor.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

I'm personally using a BB brush and planning on getting a ST as well. My question was more out of scientific curiosity. If it was possible to design a brush that will dry quickly, whip up a good lather and feel good on the face with artificial materials. Even though I eat at least a pound of meat a day, I have some friends who are vegan and won't have anything to do with animal products/by-products. As for non-renewable... Here we have stellar recycling rates so it's a non factor.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but recycling still uses a ton of non-renewables unless the plant (highly unlikely) is powered by a renewable energy source. Take paper for instance. The carbon budget of new production vs. recycling is actually tilted in favor of new production. When you consider the transportation of the used newspaper (very bulky--much more so than raw wood), the digestion, the bleaching (uses quite a bit of chlorine-toxic by the way), the screening (can only make paper from fibers above a certain length and the yield of such fiber degrades with each time the material is processed) etc... Then, you need to realize that recycled paper pulp is of much lower quality than raw paper (this goes back to the fact that the fibers degrade with use), so fine white paper is rarely made with much (if any) recycled content. Recycled paper is less strong...same reason. I've seen it suggested that the reason recycled paper costs more in the store is because of the low demand. Although that may be partially true, the main reason is due to the greater energy costs associated with production.

Oh, and by the way, I do recycle almost everything and I routinely pay a premium to use recycled products (even though many of them are of lesser quality). Primarily because I find wanton waste inexcusable.

Just another data point,
Ed