Nice review. The brush looks lovely and it seems that it performs well. This is a potential in my den but I don't know if I have any more space left right now. Let me go through my rotation of boars and see if I need to add one more. hahaI thought I will post an update about this brush.
Had this in my regular boar rotation for almost 1 ½ month now and this is how it looks. The picture is taken after a shave and it is somewhat moist. I have to admit the Omegas have spoilt me with fast break-in period. This Mondial has thicker bristles and a very tight knot of 25mm with a tallish. I would say the knot is stout in spite being this tall, thanks to thick bristles. It was really taking time to open up and I took help of a hair dryer on couple of occasions to accelerate the splitting. I have to admit the hair dryer induced splits are not as soft as natural splits but that it easy fix. Just couple of 5 min swirling about 5-6 times on a speckled non-slip tile brought it around and it is well on way to be a brush where I want it.
Given the tall loft, splay is really BIG one but not in an ‘all over and your face’ kind of way. I feel very much in control about preciseness, owing to stiffer bristles. It creates and holds tons of lather in top knot; leather doesn’t slip down and mess your handle and make it slippery. I appreciate when I don’t have to get bothered with a slippery handle. The knot is dense but not dense enough to give you a cloggy feeling and lather flow through is good. In contrast my Zenith B28 copper has finer bristles and very dense bristles but it feels little clogged. To me this knot feels it has more backbone than an Omega Pro.
If you like your brush to be taller loft and still a little ‘firm’, it will not disappoint you. A longer break-in (but shorter than a Semogue), slightly prickly, thick bristles might be turn off for some. The handle material gets 10/10 from me. It feels quality and trumps cheap Omega handles any day. At 80 grams overall weight the brush feels well balanced without tiring your hand. I will continue to use this brush to its logical end. As usual YMMV.
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