Necessity is the mother of invention!

After finishing my first shave the other day, I realized I had no way of storing my brush. Panic quickly set in as I pictured the brush exploding with crazy classicshaving/AOS bacteria mutant hybrids. (I should also probably mention that I had suffered a lot of blood loss at this point, so I wasn't thinking too clearly).

I whipped out my trusty needle-nose and made a quick make-shift stand.

Here is my stand with my AOS starter brush
http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/5914/dscn0988db5.jpg

While I was in there, I figured I should snap a few more pics of my setup. I know its not much, but hey, we all have to start somewhere!

Brush, stand, bowl from target (I actually love this 1.99 thing) ClassicShaving soap jar with Sandalwood
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1306/dscn0989xi9.jpg

Finally, the rest. My Feather razor, lavender soap, life-saving pencil, and some other sample-size AOS product.
http://img309.imageshack.us/img309/6664/dscn0990zr7.jpg

Not a bad idea.

I may have to grab some pliers and get medieval on a coathanger, myself.

Do you find that the base on that thing is sturdy enough?

Surprisingly yes, I did have to tinker a bit to get the weight distribution right when the brush is sitting in it, but as of now (~12 days) it hasn't tipped over yet. I'll probably get a real stand when I get a real brush, but for now, I am fine with this.

Good going. It appears the brush stand
works and if so - what else could you ask
for? I like the idea of a $1.99 bowl as
well.


Terry

Great work on the brush stand idea. Too bad I already blew $8.50 on that Kent stand or I'd have copied your idea by now lol.

You paid HOW MUCH for the bowl? You wuz robbed.

I paid the UK equivalent of 92cents for my stainless steel cat food bowl!

Good idea for the stand though. Suits my Scrooge mentality...

Gareth

Ha,

I never thought you'd be the type to use a brush stand, Ilija :D

By the way, did you get your brush from Matt? I seem to remember ebony and silver inlay, which sounds very appealing!

Cheers
Ivo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Great work on the brush stand idea. Too bad I already blew $8.50 on that Kent stand or I'd have copied your idea by now lol.

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Ivo,
I'm all about maintaining the functionality of my gear. According to some opinions, a stand does that. As for my order with Matt, there are still some ahead of mine, so I have to be patient. However, the reward will be sweet :D

Yes, sounds great!

I am not advocating trashing your gear! I just thought that for all I know the best experts are divided on this, people have used brushes 40+ years without any stand w/o problems... And, for some reason, you seemed to me like a person who believes in capillary action :D

Cheers
Ivo

With my scientific background, I do believe in it, but since I took engineering, I also believe in redundancy (hedging my bets). In any case the cost was only 15% of the brush's price, so it seemed worth it.

OK, Ilija.

Here's a thought:

Whe the brush is in the stand, gravity pulls water to the tips. Doesn't capillary action then take it back to the base (in the stand)?

By the way I also wonder: I don'd use a stand, then gravity pulls water to the base, capillary action gets it up in the tips.

From this it seems the real question is: what is stronger - gravity or calillary action?

Eventually stand and no stand may turn out to be virtually the same...

Actually it depends on the amount of water saturation. The more saturated the brush is, the stronger the gravity is (relative to the capillary action). However, the more moisture there is, the more damaging it can be to the knot. Therefore, I prefer to start with the gravity being stonger. I.E. Brush stand.

Q.E.D. :y

Aha - and I snap around like crazy, gotta see it to believe it. when I'm done, my brush is virtually dry

Now, what may seem anal to others - I make sure that my snaps diminish in strength gradually, while turning the brush in my hand, so that the bloom is not crooked :roflmao

After the shake, I give it a gentle horizontal squeeze, making sure I don't exert any force parallel to the bristles, thus avoiding any disturbance of the knot. Then I just quickly spread'em out with my fingers and hang it up on the stand.

Ilija, are you training for the ladies? :roflmao

sorry, I just crack myself up today

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

After the shake, I give it a gentle horizontal squeeze, making sure I don't exert any force parallel to the bristles, thus avoiding any disturbance of the knot. Then I just quickly spread'em out with my fingers and hang it up on the stand.

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No Ivo, I don't like to squeeze parts where the bristles THAT long :eek:

aw, look at you

FHM or Style.com, or maybe Maxim had an article claiming that BUSH IS BACK ;)

I'm not certain it's an either/or case with gravity and capillary action. As long as gravity plays some part in the process, hanging the brush is a good idea.

X

They can have it. I'm following the way of the nice smooth shave of everything but the scalp, the eye-brows and the eye-lashes, on a female body.

I now officially feel dumb for buying a shaving brush stand....why didnt I think of this?!?:confused:

Josh, don't feel dumb. The verdict is still not in and in any case it's a nice decorative touch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Josh, don't feel dumb. The verdict is still not in and in any case it's a nice decorative touch.

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I truely believe that hanging is a good idea for no other reason than keeping excess water of the glue that helps to hold the knot together

And I tend to agree with you but I'd also like to see some lab testing lol.