Kent BK4 "Silvertip"

Absolutely the best brush I've had so far.
Knot could be denser but it works wonderfully well all the same.
I put ten on the stiffness of tips so as not to mark the brush down as stiffness there seems like a negative to me and there is no negatives really to this brush.

Go get one if you like soft brushes.

Going from an Omega 80005 to this Kent bk4 and WOW what a difference in lather amount and quality (same routine) using creams. It is a very soft on the face brush and although I though the handle would be hard to use (I thought I would have trouble with the pinch grip end) it actually fits well and is very sturdy to hold, even when wet. No hairs falling out yet, but I've only used it once. As for size, it fits my face pretty well, even when splayed out.

Gripes: it is a very floppy brush, it's like a hamsters hair, when wet, it sags, but after a shake or too to dry off, it puffs back. If you are looking for your brush to give you a bit of a face scrub, look else where as the tips are cotton soft. And although the packaging/box is nice... it adds to the cost of the product, and once I take my brush out of the box, the box goes to the side anyways. On the subject of cost.... I know looking at the world of brushes $80 isn't extreme.... but step back for a sec... $80 for a small brush? It does it job well however and caresses my face.

Verdict: Its performance, handle and feel out weigh any cost concerns. A buy in my books.

I use the BK4 daily. I was going to recommend it to someone but I don't know where I bought it on line. I do know it was a great deal. I thought it was from the Bayside Brush Co but the have it for $180 and Amazon has it for $92. I could do without the fancy box. I hate throwing it out but it just takes up room.

The OP review is a bit dated (2 1/2 years old). For one, I think the loft is a bit shorter now than in posted pictures. I got mine LNIB from another shave geek who lathered with it once and said it was not for him .
His loss, my gain, considering what I paid versus what USA distributor dares to ask. This gentleman is the hallmark for soft tips (close your eyes and imagine Marilyn Monroe giving you a facial ). You want 'scritchy' and stiff?, ye gads, get a scrubbie dish pad. Very,very nice for bowl and face lathering with a fine English cream. Treat this brush right and I think it will be a long time shaving favorite for you. The cylindrical trademark Kent box is truly classy. A best buy in the $50->60 range.

I zero'd the "stiffness" box since I consider irrelevant for this brush.

The Kent BK4 is one heck of a luxury item that not only looks great but also performs like a champ.

The BK4 is the first proper brush I had purchased after using a lesser brush for months (the lowly AoS basic badger). Was able to get a good deal on the brush through Auravita, though shipping took longer than expected. It was definitely worth the wait.

I've used the BK4 daily for over four months now, with excellent results from TOBS avocado cream, Proraso in a tube, Col Conk soap, D.R. Harris Arlington soap, Tabac soap, P.160 soap, Mama Bears soap, Nancy Boy cream, and AoS shave cream. Often making a superlather of sorts with mostly soap and a "tetch" of cream, face lathering after the brush has had a good soak in warm water. To date, the BK4 has never let me down in the lathering department, it manifests a quality lather each and every shave. Furthermore, the softness of the silvertip badger bristles is quite a nice sensation on the face. The phrase "essence of luxury" springs to mind. Not at all floppy in my opinion, since the bristles do not become moplike during face lathering. The shape of the handle looks quite streamlined and works great, even with soapy fingers in the shower. The banded silvertip bristles also look very nice when on display on the shelf, especially with the huge luscious bloom.

I've not had any issues with shedding, all the hairs are present and accounted for as far as I've seen. And for all its refined splendor, the BK4 is no pansy. I shake mine like a redheaded stepchild after every shave to get most of the water out and there's never been any complaints.
Another point that often comes up with Kent brushes is the high caliber packaging which the brush arrives in: The red traveling case looks downright regal.

To sum up, the Kent BK4 is so classy that I may have to start shaving while wearing a top hat and monocle. A high end brush with great value for the price and it wont let you down.

Highly recommended

This brush a foam manufacturer machine, from less cream there will be bigger foam with his help. I like his soft touch very much while I spread the foam on my face. The brush is sufficient for it from himself the foam what I can pull thickly in this manner. I love to shave with this! His handle at the first try with an odd and old-world glance, but his benefit, an one with a very comfortable and firm catch appears during the usage.
View attachment 45359

I really like Kent BK8 "Silvertip" much more. Stiffness of Tips on this one is not sufficient for me.

This is really a great brush. It is with no comparison the easiest lathering brush I have for both soaps and creams.

Price
This brush is the greatest value for money in a brush I have experienced yet.

Quality
The brush has shed a few hairs, but nothing out of the ordinary/acceptable. If the hairs had been set more even in the knot I would have given this brush a 10. Aside from that the quality is top-shelf. The legendary red Kent box adds a lot to the feeling of quality when you first unwrap the brush, I wish more brushes came in nice boxes like that.

Density
It is the densest brush in my collection, but from pics. I can see that it is not the densest brush out there. It is, though, quite dense.

Stiffness of Tips
This brush is quite floppy, but it still does a remarkable job with soaps.

Softness of Tips
Nice and luxurious.

Ergonomic
The handle is nice to hold, but I actually wouldn't have minded a simpler handle design, maybe a persian jar.

Latherability
Whips up nice foamy lather fast and efficiently. My best lathering brush.

IMHO this is a brush everyone should try out - and if your plan is to buy only one brush ever, the BK4 is the way to go.


Regards.

Jakob

I've got the BLK4.

At first I thought it looked small (mostly because of the short handle I think), but once it's full of lather, it seems huge - and a little floppy maybe?

All I can compare it to is an omega boar brush, and since the hairs on that don't fan out in the same way as the BLK4 does when full of lather, it covers a smaller area of my face.

Price is alright, around 38 pounds from shaving shack.

Whips up a lather in absolutely no time at all! takes around 1/3 of the time it takes with my boar brush. Tried it with the proraso cream and omega soap, works fine for both.

My BLK (Black Version) 4 was purchased from The Gentlemen's Shop(£40). A business I highly recommend for their customer service and extremely rapid despatch times (UK anyway).

Right, well, the BLK 4 was my very first shaving brush and when I opened the outstanding red box it comes in, I was extremely pleased and excited.
However, when I felt the bristles I was initially quite dissapointed with its density.....but ofcourse this is in no way a "density brush", unlike its obese bigger brother the BLK 12.

After soaking the brush it plumped up beautifully and looked like it was ready for business.

The feeling of the bristles on ones face is gorgeous, like being gently kissed by a voluptuous naked women, with every stroke!

Extremely soft.

The one thing I was very dissapointed with was the stiffness of the bristles. Well, there is no stiffness.
When applying the lather its more like painting it on, rather than scrubbing or massaging it into your face.
The brush splays very easily even with the slightest pressure.

However, having said that I always knew that this was a very "floppy" brush that had a reputation, going by previous reviews, not to be renowned for its stiffness of bristles.

Ergonomically this brush is fine, although there are many other brushes out there which feel better in ones hand, although, this is my own subjective viewpoint. (Shavemac brush 173 is really comfortable! knot size 30mm)

For such a dinky little brush, it produces more lather than you know what to do with, without much effort at all.
Its ability to produce copious amounts of lather from tiny dimples of cream is this little brush's best quality. Its natural knack for producing fluffy lather can put other much larger denser brush's to shame!

The overall quality of this brush and indeed the Kent BLK and BK line of brush's is, quite simply put, excellent and very few brushes are finished off with such solid and impeccable detail.

In conclusion this is certainly a brush for entry level wet shavers or for those who want a inexpensive silver tip, but you will eventually tire of it and require something a bit stiffer and denser, although you may not necessarily want a brush with a bigger knot (22mm).

I bought the BK4 as my first "real" brush, purchased from shavingshack.com in the U.K.

The silver tip hair is exceptionally soft on the face and holds a great amount of lather. For use with creams, the brush also generates lather very quickly.

I have not had as much success with soaps, however, as the brush is very floppy.

Overall, I think the BK4 is a great value at $70-$80.

My Kent BK4 turned up today, I bought it from the Gentlemansshop.co.uk, it said it made a useful travel brush due to it's size.

The box is wonderful and very well presented, and when I opened the box I was very surprised by the sheer size of the bloom. This is the smaller BK4 and if I'd have got the BK12 I probably would have to get the windows taken out to get this thing in the house, it's huge! Very nice softness to the tips and although they aren't very stiff, they are far from floppy. I can see why this brush has the royal crest on it, it is simply superb. And for the money you'd be hard pushed to find better.

I did a lot of research and asking around before finally getting a BLK4 as my first "high-class" brush and I'm glad I did. I love it. It's super soft on the face but whips up crazy good lather and doesn't seem 'floppy' to me. And it looks great on the shelf! For the price I feel like I got a great value and it seems like it will last me quite a while. It hasn't lost any hairs at all in the first month.

Dave

My BK4 is actually the second brush I bought. I was so happy with it that I retired my first brush (bought a few years ago in a "supermarket" perfumery, which now seems to tickle my face)...
It is a very good brush, well made. It has not the best density I have ever seen, but it is enough to hold all the water you need. The tips are very soft (I like that) and I find that it works better with cream than soap (maybe I have a bad technique, or the tips are not stiff enough...) After the first week of a nearly everyday use, it just lost ONE hair. The handle is also well made and ergonomic (sadly a little to small for my "big" hands). And, at last (the most important), the latherability (with creams) is just wonderful, given the size of the brush.
And I am not going to say a word about the quite astonishing packaging...

Surely one of the best of its league!

I got my BK4 used from another member. I really enjoy the appearance of this brush, and it produces a very good lather. However, if you try to use it with soaps, you'll be pretty disappointed. This brush is meant to be a cream brush....in regards to this, it does the job superbly.

Overall, the handle is very nice. The quality of packaging is top notch, and the bruch would make an excellent addition to the shave den of any cream aficianado!

I truly love my BK4, especially its ability to whip up lather with a minimum of effort. The price/performance ratio is a bit low, but I got a wonderful price (minus VAT, and with what amounted to almost free shipping) that I'm rating the price an 8. The deluxe packaging is just icing.

After three months of nearly daily use, I've only lost a few hairs. I'd hope this brush will last a lifetime. My only gripe -- and it's minor -- is that it splays out a bit too much; it's almost as floppy as my Vulfix. If only the knot were a bit smaller, I'd have to give this brush a perfect '10'.

Excellent brush, my first badger. I thought I had no use for a badger, but I bought this out of curiosity, and now I understand why. The silky softness of the tips is a voluptuous sin on his own, and lather is created in no time from negligible amounts of cream or soap. The saving in products and time alone is enough to justify the purchase. Soft italians and milled british soaps are easily defeated and lathered when approached by this BK4. The red box is another outstanding part of the deal, reminds me the quality of my Omega Speedmaster Pro box, to offer an example of the level of the little red beauty. The brush used to shed some hairs, and it's so good I was ashamed by this, but now everything appear to be back under control.

I just got this brush 2nd hand from a fellow fourm member.

Overall...After experiencing different brushes I knew what I was looking for. YMMV with this, but for me this kent is an amazing brush.

Bizz End
The tips are very soft with flexible shafts. The knot is dense enough to hold enough water, but not like a Shavemac where is will act as a spounge. The knot size is small. The brush covers a good area of the face and it very controlable. This is much less floppy than my Vulfix, but spreads the lather around the face better than my shavemac. The lather ends up on your face.

Handle-Simple, very comfortable. Nice to look at.

Lather-Makes a great lather with no trouble at all. The lather doesnt hide on you either.

I am impressed. Kent brushes arent hyped up around the boards very much. And I am wondering why. This would cost the same as a shavemac best. Let alone silver tip. Ive learned that bigger and denser isnt always better. My BK4 is a happy medium!

Ahhh…. The regal Kent BK4. When you think “British” and “shaving brush” – think Kent! This wonderful brush has the finest packaging I have ever seen on a shaving brush… regardless of price. You buy a painfully expensive Plisson HMW with a Horn handle and you get a pathetic looking flimsy/cheap box… you buy a Kent, and you feel like you are receiving a product made for a king! Ok, ok – enough about the packaging – so how does the brush perform? Quite well actually, and although I don’t reach for it often, whenever I do, I am always surprised at the level of enjoyment this brush brings me, and I always think to myself “I should use this sucker more often!” Sure – it isn’t a super dense brush, and sure – some may call it “floppy” however I really enjoy the silky soft feel of this brush against ones face, and wouldn’t call it floppy, but more so a brush that easily and readily “splays” upon your face... Vulfix brushes to me are “floppy.” All in all, I am quite impressed with this brush, and feel it is both a superb soap brush, as well as cream brush – but tends to work best with shaving creams – the softer the better. In it’s price range, you’d be hard pressed to find a more luxurious brush – and I would buy another BK4 in a heartbeat, although I wouldn’t call it a “must have” shaving brush. Overall, a fine entry!

Bristle – Very flexible shafts with incredibly soft tips. Packed decently, although not nearly as tightly packed as its bigger brother the BK12. This brush has an “honest” feeling against ones face, it isn’t going to “wow” you, but it will provide you with gobs of lather.

Handle – The BK series of handles is in my opinion, the most gorgeous shape on the market. It is comfortable, gorgeous and classy. Plane? Yes… but a brilliant “plain”

Quality – Hands down superb. No bristle loss after the initial use, and is built exceptionally well. One of the highest “quality” brushes I own.

Overall – Really a superb shaving brush – best suited for gentlemen wanting to buy their first “top quality’ shaving brush around the century mark.

To discuss this review please see THIS thread!