2006 Badger & Blade EJ Brush - Horn Handle in Finest Badger

Well, I promised myself I wouldn't speak to the rating of this brush till I had 5-7 shaves with it and here I am.

Price: Slam dunk. No brainer. Value all out of proportion to materials

Quality: To my eye, superb. I love the understated tulip type handle. It feels solid, has NOT SHED SO MUCH AS ONE HAIR, and just looks bulletproof.

Density: I gave it a 9 but who knows? This is my first really high end type of brush and I've never handled one of the vaunted Simpson's or Plissons. This could probably be higher. I'm just hedging my bets.

Stiffness of tips: Okay, this was a tough call. I mean, are tips really stiff or is this a function of overall hair shaft density? I don't know but looking at Tinzien's description, yeah, perfect.

Softness of tips: Another category that is hard for me to describe. I wouldn't say these are pure silk but you do have to scrub pretty hard to make them feel scratchy.

Ergonomic: Again, what's not to like? The tulip shape is probably darned near perfect. The handle does feel a bit smallish to my hands but this is purely personal. The handle/knot/loft ratios are perfect. A more flowing design I couldn't imagine.

Latherability: 10+ It's just that good. I used the following lathers for six days.

T&H Luxury hard soap: Incredible. It made this already super soap even better. The lather was almost like a heavy whipped cream but definately not airy. It was like using a different product!

Trumper violet cream: Another lather explosion. A simple 1/4 tsp. would have been sufficient.

L'occitane hard soap: I got more than the normal amount of lather vs. how much I scrubbed off the cake. Superlather.

Castle Forbes lavender: Scotto, you didn't think I was going to pass over my fave cream did you? It takes very little cream to make CF bloom. This brush makes it a monster lather. Literally a 1/4tsp. amount would have been entirely sufficient.

Pre de Provence soap: The biggest surprise and maybe the sleeper of the bunch. I love the scent of the PdP but have always had to work at the lather. Guess what happened, again? You bet your life. This brush made lather with the PdP that I've NEVER experienced before. I srcubbed it up and went to work in the lather bowl. Good gravy what a lather explosion! The rich, fresh scent of PdP filled my nostrils, the bathroom, and this super brush. The lather was better than I'd ever experienced with PdP. Wow.

QEDman MochaJava: I sure wasn't going to let the trial run go without using my favourite shave stick from that old fox Charles. I did my normal face paint thing with a dry brush and then went to work in the lather bowl. I was able to add water much faster than any other brush I've ever used with this mixing routine. Usually it's add about a tsp. lather like crazy in the bowl, mix with the face paint base, repeat three or four times. I like this because it makes a super creamy lather and really works the old beard over. This brush just drank up the water and literlly made Coolwhip out of the MJ stick! It mixed it so well that the enitre lather had this little sandy/tan look to it from the cacao and coffee oils. My usuall lather from this is pretty white with a bit of the darker liquids gathering at the edges of the lather. This one stay homogenised througout the lather. No breakdown at all.

Overall fellas I could not be more satisfied. This brush is flat out going to be a classic. I'm not kidding. Once you get your hands on it, feel the heft and quality, use it a few times, and get the feel for using this shape of handle, you'll be sold. Lock, stock, and barrel. I'm telling you, ten years from now people will be asking and offering goodly sums of money to buy this brush from you. Don't do it. I am not lying. This brush has not lost a single hair in the first six shaves. And I'm hear to tell you I didn't take it easy on it either. I scrubbed the crap out of those cakes thinking that I needed to really give a going over like my soft Vulfix. Perish the thought. I finally decided to back off the amount of soap I was loading up after the PdP shave yesterday. I was washing a fist sized dollop of lather down the drain.

Some final notes. This brush definately had the badger stink to it. After six shaves it's about gone. It also seemed to discolour the lather the first two shaves. Just a dingy colour to the lather. I assume from the unbleached hairs. None of this affected the lather one whit. Personally I like the unbleached hair. It's classy looking and no mistake. I could care less about the stank or the bit of off colour lather for only TWO shaves. This brush is a keeper. I don't have sons but do have a couple of nephews who may have to fight it out for this when I'm gone. I'll wager it will last that long easily!

Regards, Todd

This brush is the real deal-if you did not order it, don't cry after today. Money well spent.


Marty

Price: At the limited time offering of $110 USD, this brush is a perfect guiltless steal in relation to what you are getting for the price. This brush is designed to last for years of use and the overall cost of ownership for each year is amazingly low!

Quality: Joel and John must be Type-A personalities because neither were satisfied with the offering until it met their specs and survived their testing regime. This is a very good thing in the case of this brush because both made sure that the brush not only spoke perfectly of their commitment to wet-shaving and Badger & Blade, but would also serve as a luxury brush for the widest range of users on this forum. The horn handle is exquisite, the colors blending from color band to color band without being jarring. The light reflecting off a dry or wet handle has to be seen to be properly appreciated. The knot is tight, dense and the badger hair clearly went through some sort of anti-stink treatment because it is not all that bad when first immersed in hot water.

Density: It's so dense that I'm afraid a large mound of lather will increase the density to the point that the brush collapses into a black hole and sucks away my precious tub of Coates Tea Tree cream into another dimension.

Stiffness of Tips: This category gets a 10 because the hairs are perfectly stiff enough to be scrubby yet work in harmony with the softness of the hairs. I did Joel's shaving cream pot support test on my brush and the brush stood up just fine without being floppy.

Softness of Tips: Super soft yet not wishy washy in any way against my face. I feel the individuality of each line of lather as it is applied like the finest of detailing cloths on my face. Think silk pajamas then quadruple the feeling of them against your skin then square that amount. Yes, it is that soft.

Ergonomic: The brush is very well balanced and I do not have to fight either the handle of the badger when either making lather or applying the lather. Even though the handle is smooth I have no concerns about it slipping out of my wet fingers. The brush feels like a perfect extension of my hand.

Latherability: Elvis may be dead or just in New Jersey masquerading as Lee from Lee's Razors... but with this brush "The King Has Entered the Building!" I have found that I can use a smaller amount of cream in my Moss Scuttle and still get more lather out than I could with my old, trusty (previously) daily-use Vulfix brush. I have lather all over the place when I make lather. I have enough lather to donate to charity if need be!

This brush speaks perfectly to the pride that Joel, John, the other mods and the participants of Badger & Blade have to the art of wet shaving. Pictures do not do it justice nor do 3rd hand accounts and descriptions (such as this review). If you want a special brush for an absolute steal that will last you for years and pamper your face, then this is the brush.

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Please use the discussion thread listed below if you want to make a non-review comment about this brush. Thanks!

Discussion Thread: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?p=170871#post170871