Item Description
This review is for the Edwin Jagger Medium Traditional Silvertip. I point this out because there are a lot of brushes on The English Shaving Company website.
First, the review. You'll have to wait for the photos.
Quality: As soon as you take this brush out of the box, you know it's a quality shaving instrument. The fit and finish is fantastic. The handle feels of quality as the material is dense and the finish is superb.
Not a single hair loss in the 2.5 weeks of daily use and testing. That's fantastic and speaks of the exceptional build quality of this brush.
Density/Knot Style: This is an above average density knot. I don't have a Shavemac, but I'm guessing this is one step down in terms of density from the apparent density king. It feels even denser after bloom. Enough so that I don't feel the urge to get anything denser.
You'll notice the shape of the knot is not the traditional English style. It's not quite the German dome, but it's close. I really like this shape as the dome helps support the central hairs, but it still blooms out nicely. Really, this brush acts larger than it is. The size and shape also make it comfortable to work with soap as you don't make too big of a mess with shallow bowls.
The knot size is not found on the site, but I measured it to be around 22mm-23mm
Stiffness/Softness of Tips: This brush has the magic quality of being very soft at the tips but stiff enough to provide a mild scrubbing action. As for the softness, my wife used it and said, "I can't even feel it on my legs it's so soft." It really is a luxurious feeling to brush that badger around your face. And like I said, if you want some scrub, the knot is stiff enough to provide a mild scrubbing action. I'm not sure if it's because of the actual badger hair, or because of the dome shaped head, but it works.
Ergonomics: If I'm going to nitpick on anything, it would be the handle. It's a beautiful handle with class and style. As far as the holding area, I have large hands but average fingers and find it's comfortable for me. However, personally I prefer a longer handle. This preference may come from the fact that my lathering bowl has high sides. With this handle, I tend to get lather on my fingers as I whip.
The weight of the handle balances the brush well. I was expecting the brush to be head heavy due to the size of the handle, but the material is rather dense.
Latherability: As expected, outstanding. This thing makes lather with ease out of anything I own. I've done test latherings with most of what I own and it made quick work of the process with all. It's a very versitile brush in that it's soft enough at the tips to whip up creams quickly, but also stiff enough to pick up soap.
Price: As of 9/8/06 with a 1.865 USD / 1 GBP conversion, the price of this brush, with shipping, is $108. This puts in right in, what I consider, the sweet spot ($100-$150) of high end brushes. Considering the quality you get with this brush, I feel it's a great value.
Overall: I rate this brush as outstanding. It does everything it's supposed to do and does it well. I don't think this brush will ever leave my rotation, and it's seriously put a damper on the SBAD.
Now, on to what you really want to see...the photos.
Here it is in the included stand, a very nice touch I should add. You can also see the lettering is upside down from a "normal" brush, or right-side-up for viewing when in the stand. I like it.
Standing all alone. Here you can see the dome shape of the knot.
Here's the top view where you can see the knot density.
On to the lather. With any high-end brush, you'd expect mounds of lather with just about any quality soap or cream. So, instead of boring you with the norm, I thought I'd create lather with less soap/cream and aggitation than usuall. I do this so that you can see this brush whips up lather very quickly.
Lathering with Tabac.
Soaking.
10 very light swirls on the soap.
10 swirls in the bowl. Look at how quick that lather is forming.
About 10 seconds later.
I then whiped off all the outside lather and squeezed out what was left inside.
REPEAT: This was what was created in under 20 seconds total. The point was to show how much lather can be created with such little time. Under normal circumstances, I'd use a little more soap and take the time to whip it into a finer cream.
C&E Sweet Almond Oil cream.
Post-bloom photos.
It would nice if the holder was just a tad deaper to accomodate the large bloom.
To discuss this brush, see this thread.
Edit: I tried it with a more shallow bowl and it was much better. Therefore, I upped the ergonomics rating.
First, the review. You'll have to wait for the photos.
Quality: As soon as you take this brush out of the box, you know it's a quality shaving instrument. The fit and finish is fantastic. The handle feels of quality as the material is dense and the finish is superb.
Not a single hair loss in the 2.5 weeks of daily use and testing. That's fantastic and speaks of the exceptional build quality of this brush.
Density/Knot Style: This is an above average density knot. I don't have a Shavemac, but I'm guessing this is one step down in terms of density from the apparent density king. It feels even denser after bloom. Enough so that I don't feel the urge to get anything denser.
You'll notice the shape of the knot is not the traditional English style. It's not quite the German dome, but it's close. I really like this shape as the dome helps support the central hairs, but it still blooms out nicely. Really, this brush acts larger than it is. The size and shape also make it comfortable to work with soap as you don't make too big of a mess with shallow bowls.
The knot size is not found on the site, but I measured it to be around 22mm-23mm
Stiffness/Softness of Tips: This brush has the magic quality of being very soft at the tips but stiff enough to provide a mild scrubbing action. As for the softness, my wife used it and said, "I can't even feel it on my legs it's so soft." It really is a luxurious feeling to brush that badger around your face. And like I said, if you want some scrub, the knot is stiff enough to provide a mild scrubbing action. I'm not sure if it's because of the actual badger hair, or because of the dome shaped head, but it works.
Ergonomics: If I'm going to nitpick on anything, it would be the handle. It's a beautiful handle with class and style. As far as the holding area, I have large hands but average fingers and find it's comfortable for me. However, personally I prefer a longer handle. This preference may come from the fact that my lathering bowl has high sides. With this handle, I tend to get lather on my fingers as I whip.
The weight of the handle balances the brush well. I was expecting the brush to be head heavy due to the size of the handle, but the material is rather dense.
Latherability: As expected, outstanding. This thing makes lather with ease out of anything I own. I've done test latherings with most of what I own and it made quick work of the process with all. It's a very versitile brush in that it's soft enough at the tips to whip up creams quickly, but also stiff enough to pick up soap.
Price: As of 9/8/06 with a 1.865 USD / 1 GBP conversion, the price of this brush, with shipping, is $108. This puts in right in, what I consider, the sweet spot ($100-$150) of high end brushes. Considering the quality you get with this brush, I feel it's a great value.
Overall: I rate this brush as outstanding. It does everything it's supposed to do and does it well. I don't think this brush will ever leave my rotation, and it's seriously put a damper on the SBAD.
Now, on to what you really want to see...the photos.
Here it is in the included stand, a very nice touch I should add. You can also see the lettering is upside down from a "normal" brush, or right-side-up for viewing when in the stand. I like it.
Standing all alone. Here you can see the dome shape of the knot.
Here's the top view where you can see the knot density.
On to the lather. With any high-end brush, you'd expect mounds of lather with just about any quality soap or cream. So, instead of boring you with the norm, I thought I'd create lather with less soap/cream and aggitation than usuall. I do this so that you can see this brush whips up lather very quickly.
Lathering with Tabac.
Soaking.
10 very light swirls on the soap.
10 swirls in the bowl. Look at how quick that lather is forming.
About 10 seconds later.
I then whiped off all the outside lather and squeezed out what was left inside.
REPEAT: This was what was created in under 20 seconds total. The point was to show how much lather can be created with such little time. Under normal circumstances, I'd use a little more soap and take the time to whip it into a finer cream.
C&E Sweet Almond Oil cream.
Post-bloom photos.
It would nice if the holder was just a tad deaper to accomodate the large bloom.
To discuss this brush, see this thread.
Edit: I tried it with a more shallow bowl and it was much better. Therefore, I upped the ergonomics rating.
