LiJun & 1980 Finest Badger brush

I am still new at this and I this is the second badger brush I own. The first is a Herr and Man, but I can't find any reference to that brush at this site. My other brush is a Semogue 1520 Boar.

This brush has 24mm knot and it very dense (given my limited experience). I mostly use soaps so I was glad to find is has a good strong back bone but is not scritchy.

It so much more luxurious than my other brushes, now I understand why people can be so fixated on finding a great brush.

I could not wait so after just a couple hours and washing it I put it to the test with my standard for comparisons, Tabac soap. It created tons of thick, rich lather. Enough for 4 passes and then some. WOW

There was a little bit of animal funkiness to the brush at first. I will update this review after further use.

For just $20 delivered to Korea, what a deal, cheaper all in than my Semogue I had sent here from the UK.

In less than a week the badger funk is gone and it has not shead one hair. It is a bit of lather hog but with a little extra product and work it makes copious lather.

It is kind of odd, the brush does not seem to hold much lather in the very center. It seems to work best for 'face painting.' Even though I bowl lather I like to use the brush to work the lather in. This is the only disappointment, albeit a pretty big one.... I would prefer a larger handle because I bowl lather.

I purchased one of these off Ebay as well.

good weight, easy to use, definitely does the job.

This is not a "high-end" brush, but this is very good for the price (I think I won mine for about $6 off ebay, shipping was from China, I don't recall the price).

I bowl lathered and face lathered with mine.

Not great, but not bad either, and for less than $20, I can appreciate this brush.

I use two FS Finest badger brushes that I have been lathering with for about a month now. I am very pleased with their price and performance. I don't see how you can get a better Finest badger brush for the money.

When I heard about the LI Jun & 1980 finest badger for slightly less money, $18 delivered. I decided to order one. I got mine in last Wed. but did not get a chance to use it until this AM. I practiced lathered three times to clean and soften the bristles prior to my shaving with it. The brush produced good lather in the palm of my hand right from the start and was not floppy. It had enough backbone and worked well. The lather was as good as my more expensive Rooney, T & H, and TGN finest renotted brushes. I was hopeful.

I have been using a cake of vintage Colgate in a Green Marvy rubber mug for quite some time now, trying to use the Colgate up. The Colgate had some issues that I resolved by making a super lather with St Charles Shave cream, or Real Shaving company cream added. Both turned a poorly performing soap into a creamy, slippery and protective lather.

I used the Li Jun brush to coat the bristles. I face lather so I started to apply the loaded knot to my face. I immediately felt the scritchyness of the bristles. As I added water the scritchyness got worse. I was very disappointed because I was expecting performance akin to my FS finest brushes. I got a brush as scritchy as a TGN pure badger knot I bought several years ago to restore a brass handled shaving brush. The TGN pure knot never did soften and was scritchy until the day I reknotted it with a TGN nylon synthetic knot. I will continue to use the LI Jun for the next week. Hopefully it may soften some of the sharp bristle ends.

The handle appears to be as good a quality as the FS or any other more expensive brushes.

Either the manufacture accidently substituted a reduced grade pure knot in my brush or their grading is not what I think a Finest badger knot should be. I have 12 TGN Finest Badger knots installed in vintage handles and the LI Jun does not even come close to the TGN knot.

I would not consider the brush I received to be a best buy. Perhaps I just got a bad one.