Picked this up on amazon for first badger brush. Wow. Nice dense knot, and no smell out of the package. Coming from a vdh boar brush, I felt like a king the first time I used it. So soft compared to the boar, and the badger is not broken in yet. I bowl lather, and the forest time I used it, the bowl was overflowing in less than a minute. Very impressed by this brush. If it holds up, it is a bargain that everyone should pick up