In the Rooney Out of Business thread, there was some discussion pertaining to the current status of Rooney hair grading. One point of confusion was that 2 vendors currently carry similar brushes listing them with different terminology for the hair grade. Vintage Blades lists their Rooneys as "Super Silvertip", while Classic Shaving list similar brushes as just "Silvertip". So what is the deal, do these brushes contain different grades of hair? I reached out to Vintage Blades and Classic Shaving and got some useful feedback.
The two vendors are carrying Rooneys with the same knot grade. When Rooney switched their logo from block letters to script a few years ago, they also trimmed their lineup down to one grade of silvertip. There is no longer both a Silvertip grade and Super silvertip grade.
The next issue is what to call these brushes, Silvertip or Super Silvertip? The current handles with script logos just say Silvertip, and apparently Rooney labels their shipments of these brushes to the vendors as just "Silvertip".
If these brushes are called Silvertip, does that mean they are the equivalent of the older era "Silvertip" grade? Or is it possible they are a continuation of the higher-end "Super Silvertip" grade? (Updated since original post..) Here the two vendors that I reached out to have different impressions.
Vintage blades believes, to the best of their knowledge, that when Rooney trimmed their lineup, they discontinued the Super Silvertip grade in name only. That the current Silvertip grade is actually the equivalent of the Super Silvertip grade from the block letter era. They got this impression based on information directly from Lee a few years ago. Classic Shaving on the other hand believes that the current Silvertip grade is equivalent to the old Silvertip grade. In their words - "...with the high labor costs and non-exact description of benefits the high-end brush has been discontinued". High labor costs refers to the extra hand sorting by Rooney workers that was performed for the Super Silvertip grade. CS didn't explain why they think this (and I didn't push it).
I have gone and reexamined my two Rooney Silvertip brushes with the script logo - a 3/1 from 2013 and and 1/2 from 2014. Unfortunately I do not have a block letter super grade brush to make a comparison. But I think I can make my own judgement based on the description of the grade on the B&B wiki and other vendor sites:
My 1/2 has a fair amount of "twisted" hairs that I believe would have been removed if this was the Super of old. I'll try to post a close-up pic soon. So just based on this observation, I am thinking that the current Rooney Silvertip grade is equivalent to the old Silvertip grade of the block letter era, not the Super Silvertip grade.
One last issue. Heritage 3-band brushes sold by other vendors still have "Super" on their handles, not "Silvertip" (see pic). Why is that, if Rooney discontinued that grade name? Could there possibly still be a difference in the hair between the current style 1/2/3 brushes and the Heritage 3-bands? From my own hands on comparison, I could not tell the difference between the hair in a Style 1/2/3 Silvertip brush and the hair in a Heritage 3-band brush. And 2 vendors stated to me that they believe the hair is the same, and that Rooney puts their best 3-band hair in both the Heritage and standard handles. (Updated
But based on the description of the Super grade, I'm not really sure that someone could tell the difference between these two grades by "feel". Could removing short/bent hairs really result in a softer brush with better lathering capabilities? Well either way....I do think it is possible that Rooney only discontinued the Super grade for the Style X line of brushes, but still uses it for their pricier 3-band Heritage brushes. This makes the most sense to me.
The two vendors are carrying Rooneys with the same knot grade. When Rooney switched their logo from block letters to script a few years ago, they also trimmed their lineup down to one grade of silvertip. There is no longer both a Silvertip grade and Super silvertip grade.
The next issue is what to call these brushes, Silvertip or Super Silvertip? The current handles with script logos just say Silvertip, and apparently Rooney labels their shipments of these brushes to the vendors as just "Silvertip".
Modern script logo brush with "Silvertip Badger" label
So if you are buying a current Rooney Style 1, 2 or 3, the official name for the knot grade is apparently "Silvertip". Vintage blades still lists their brushes using the older terminology Super Silvertip, and they kindly admit this is outdated. But I can understand why they haven’t made the change…read on.
If these brushes are called Silvertip, does that mean they are the equivalent of the older era "Silvertip" grade? Or is it possible they are a continuation of the higher-end "Super Silvertip" grade? (Updated since original post..) Here the two vendors that I reached out to have different impressions.
Vintage blades believes, to the best of their knowledge, that when Rooney trimmed their lineup, they discontinued the Super Silvertip grade in name only. That the current Silvertip grade is actually the equivalent of the Super Silvertip grade from the block letter era. They got this impression based on information directly from Lee a few years ago. Classic Shaving on the other hand believes that the current Silvertip grade is equivalent to the old Silvertip grade. In their words - "...with the high labor costs and non-exact description of benefits the high-end brush has been discontinued". High labor costs refers to the extra hand sorting by Rooney workers that was performed for the Super Silvertip grade. CS didn't explain why they think this (and I didn't push it).
I have gone and reexamined my two Rooney Silvertip brushes with the script logo - a 3/1 from 2013 and and 1/2 from 2014. Unfortunately I do not have a block letter super grade brush to make a comparison. But I think I can make my own judgement based on the description of the grade on the B&B wiki and other vendor sites:
Super Badger Hair: The hair is Silvertip then re-dressed and re-graded in England. This means the bundle of badger hair is sorted, the short and twisted hairs are removed from the bundle. This leaves the hair feeling softer and whiter. Also by doing this it gives the brush better lathering and water holding capability
My 1/2 has a fair amount of "twisted" hairs that I believe would have been removed if this was the Super of old. I'll try to post a close-up pic soon. So just based on this observation, I am thinking that the current Rooney Silvertip grade is equivalent to the old Silvertip grade of the block letter era, not the Super Silvertip grade.
Block logo era brush with "Super Badger" label
One last issue. Heritage 3-band brushes sold by other vendors still have "Super" on their handles, not "Silvertip" (see pic). Why is that, if Rooney discontinued that grade name? Could there possibly still be a difference in the hair between the current style 1/2/3 brushes and the Heritage 3-bands? From my own hands on comparison, I could not tell the difference between the hair in a Style 1/2/3 Silvertip brush and the hair in a Heritage 3-band brush. And 2 vendors stated to me that they believe the hair is the same, and that Rooney puts their best 3-band hair in both the Heritage and standard handles. (Updated
But based on the description of the Super grade, I'm not really sure that someone could tell the difference between these two grades by "feel". Could removing short/bent hairs really result in a softer brush with better lathering capabilities? Well either way....I do think it is possible that Rooney only discontinued the Super grade for the Style X line of brushes, but still uses it for their pricier 3-band Heritage brushes. This makes the most sense to me.Modern Heritage 3-band with "Super Badger" label
Of course some murkiness must remain. That should be expected, we are talking about Rooney here, right?
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