Oumo Emperor Knot - Any Experience or Advice?

[V12Stu]

My experience of shaving brushes is limited but I'd like to start exploring the genre of Badger brushes as my next step down the rabbit hole....

When I started DE shaving just under 18 months ago, I bought a badger brush from Amazon, knowing no better and before I discovered B&B. It had horribly sharp tips that I found extremely uncomfortable to use - it was like using a handful of needles on my face. I didn't use this brush for long.

Since then, and after finding this wonderful community called B&B, I've used 2 Boar brushes full time (except a couple of weeks) - a Zenith bleached boar in a 502 handle and a Zenith unbleached boar in a 506 handle.

I love both brushes although they're different to each other - but both have strong backbone, good scrub but soft tips with absolutely no scritch - both brushes are now well broken in with >100 lather/dry cycles each and nicely split tips. Absolutely no handful of needles with either.

Most recently, I picked up a 25 mm Mule STF synthetic for travel. I have never experienced such a soft brush - I really like it, but it's not the end-game for me - I'm not sure I like how it manages water and I think I'd like a little more backbone and scrub - but I love the softness and zero scritch.

So, from my extensive reading on B&B, I think my next brush might be a Badger Silvertip - which I hope would be between the Zenith boars and the wonderful softness of the STF knot.

And then we get to the choices - which seem endless and quite bewildering!

Amongst the many options, I'm curious about Oumo brushes and from what I can tell (which is hard to gather), the Emperor knot seems like it might be in the right ball park.

But I can't find much information about what it's really like. I don't want artificially gelled tips and want Muhle STF softness without scrtitcy tips but with a bit more backbone and a little more scrub.

Does anyone know whether the Emperor E3 knot would fit what I think I'm after? I hope this all makes sense so far.....

Very grateful for any experience and advice - many thanks.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I have an E2. I believe the tips are pretty natural. It is quite dense, and they set the loft pretty low on these, so it has a fair amount of backbone and scrub because of that. The tips aren't scritchy or pokey but there's definitely a "presence"if that makes sense.

It has a lot more backbone than a STF. And it won't release lather like an STF, or even a normal density and lofted silvertip. It has zero flop. Feels like a terrycloth washcloth on my face. Quite unlike my other brushes. Hope that helps.

 

[V12Stu]

I have an E2. I believe the tips are pretty natural. It is quite dense, and they set the loft pretty low on these, so it has a fair amount of backbone and scrub because of that. The tips aren't scritchy or pokey but there's definitely a "presence"if that makes sense.

It has a lot more backbone than a STF. And it won't release lather like an STF, or even a normal density and lofted silvertip. It has zero flop. Feels like a terrycloth washcloth on my face. Quite unlike my other brushes. Hope that helps.

Very helpful - thank you.

 

[FABarbuto]

I have a couple of E2s and can echo @Darth Scandalous ' observations. High-density--you can feel the presence of the knot and it's luxurious.

On the left is a 25MM E2 and the right is a 29MM E2 both lofted around 45MM or 47MM.

I know you're asking about E3s but you can't go wrong with an Emperor knot in my honest opinion if you're looking for a luxurious 3-band badger knot. Hope this helps.