I wasn't looking for (yet) another brush when I perused the offerings at the St. Sue Auction, but when I saw that there was a Duke 3 Synthetic offered, I couldn't resist. I have owned and sold both a Chubby 2 Synthetic and a Trafalgar 2. Neither of those two suited me; the Chubby was too hard to splay and the T2 too prickly. But I have a fondness for Simpsons brushes and the opportunity to try the Duke 3 Synthetic was too hard to pass up.
The brush arrived today, and I couldn't tell if it had been previously used or not. It was packed in all of the original wrappings and to all appearances was brand new. The first surprise was its size - it is quite a bit smaller than I expected. I have owned Duke best badger brushes in both 2 and 3 sizes, but this appeared to be smaller than both. I put it next to my old Duke 2 handle that now holds a Full Moon synthetic knot and the Duke 3 is noticeably smaller. But that's OK for me as I enjoy small brushes as well as somewhat larger brushes up to about 26 mm. After that they're bigger than I prefer.
Not being an overly patient person, I decided to do a quick one pass shave with my new brush, even though I had shaved early this morning. Using Mike's Natural Orange, Cedarwood and Black Pepper soap I started loading the Duke 3. It built lather in no time at all, and I began to face lather. Splaying the brush was relatively easy but not as easy as with some of my other synthetic brushes, most notably my RazoRock Hive Mokasoft and my PAA Grey Hybrid (in a Yaqi Segrada Familia handle). On the other hand, it seems to have a bit more backbone and scrub than those two. I will do some comparison shaves over the next week or so to see if that first impression is accurate. All in all it was a very satisfying first outing.
This brush is definitely a keeper for me. Is it worth $80 - $100? Probably not, but since I was sending the money to fund breast cancer research, it wasn't an issue for me. If you want a Simpsons synthetic brush, it's the best I've tried. @Owen Bawn has stated that the M7 is the class of the Simpsons synthetic lineup, and he's probably correct, but now you're looking at a brush that is both expensive and hard to find.
The brush arrived today, and I couldn't tell if it had been previously used or not. It was packed in all of the original wrappings and to all appearances was brand new. The first surprise was its size - it is quite a bit smaller than I expected. I have owned Duke best badger brushes in both 2 and 3 sizes, but this appeared to be smaller than both. I put it next to my old Duke 2 handle that now holds a Full Moon synthetic knot and the Duke 3 is noticeably smaller. But that's OK for me as I enjoy small brushes as well as somewhat larger brushes up to about 26 mm. After that they're bigger than I prefer.
Not being an overly patient person, I decided to do a quick one pass shave with my new brush, even though I had shaved early this morning. Using Mike's Natural Orange, Cedarwood and Black Pepper soap I started loading the Duke 3. It built lather in no time at all, and I began to face lather. Splaying the brush was relatively easy but not as easy as with some of my other synthetic brushes, most notably my RazoRock Hive Mokasoft and my PAA Grey Hybrid (in a Yaqi Segrada Familia handle). On the other hand, it seems to have a bit more backbone and scrub than those two. I will do some comparison shaves over the next week or so to see if that first impression is accurate. All in all it was a very satisfying first outing.
This brush is definitely a keeper for me. Is it worth $80 - $100? Probably not, but since I was sending the money to fund breast cancer research, it wasn't an issue for me. If you want a Simpsons synthetic brush, it's the best I've tried. @Owen Bawn has stated that the M7 is the class of the Simpsons synthetic lineup, and he's probably correct, but now you're looking at a brush that is both expensive and hard to find.
