My latest shaving gear purchase

U

unky_gumbi

Joined
Aug 28, 2009
Messages
7,951
Nothing overly exciting, but I had borrowed a friends pure badger brush for a week, just to see if I would like it better then my cheap boars hair brush, what a mistake. I had to give it back yesterday and switch over to the boar again last night. The old Omega brush just felt dead and sloppy in comparison. So I headed over to the Fendrihan site when I finished up and went in search of a reasonably priced brush. What I settled on was their house brand Super Badger Hair Brush
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Then to round out for free shipping I ordered a small puck of Col. Ichabod Conk Bay-Rum Shaving Soap, and what I hope will be the answer to my winter shaving blues a bottle of Musgo Real After Shave Balm.

Now I am thinking of going over to The Golden Nib and ordering a 22mm silver hair knot to stick into the Omega handle, because once the new brush comes in I wont use the boars hair again, and hey its only $17 before shipping:p
 
Here is what the brush looked like after one use.
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It arrived looking just like the store picture, makes lather like crazy, and feels real good. I don't know why I waited till now to get one, It was like when I went for my first ride on an expensive bike after riding department store bikes all my life. Completely night and day between the Omega and the badger brush
 
That is a great-looking brush.

My only brush is a Merkur-brand Futur-style brush. When it arrived and I unpacked it, I was disappointed. It was not as big and fluffy as the picture looked, like the one you have. But, that's the way the internet is, huh, pictures aren't always entirely representative. I accepted that and I knew that the next thin I needed to do was soak it in hottest tap water for a half-hour or so to prepare it for its first use (subsequent uses require only a few minutes soaking). So, I drew a cup of very hot water and put the brush in it and walked away. About 15 minutes later, I returned and found that someone had snuck into my bathroom and replaced the defective brush they sent me with the one from the picture... even more. It was suddenly huge and fluffy. And it's never gone back; even when it dries out, it now remains the big, fluffy one from the picture.

So, if you ever do get a brush that looks kind of... well... wimpy, soak it in hot water for 15 minutes and see if it doesn't perk up and start to resemble something more like unky_gumbi has presented here.
 
Sitting there dry its about 3" across, but as soon as it hits the water it gains another inch. Its kind of strange how a brush that is so fluffy can also be so firm. It will stand in my hand on its bristles and not deflect, but once put in motion its like a little cloud
 
Cool! I'd love one of those. -It sounds great. I've always wondered how a good badger brush would compare to my VDH.
 
Its really not all that expensive to get a good brush, I am converting my old boars hair Omega #05 to a silvertip bader with a knot from the golden nib. Including shipping to Canada the knot is only costing me $22
 
I'll have to look into it again, I'm getting tired of hairs falling out in my soap dish and and discovering them in the lather on my face... that brush of yours looks to have 4x more volume than what I can get.
 
Badger has long been THE shaving brush material, and with good reason:it lathers better,not much has changed on that score over the centuries.

I don't like boar too much, it sheds, it's temperamental and it just doesn't perform with ease in my experience. However, the one synthetic brush I've had for a few years is a very good performer indeed,not far off Badger frankly. Dries out easier so it gets used for travelling.
 
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