Parker Pure Badger with Black Deluxe Handle

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

Quality: Not a real shedder. Been using it about a month and after the first couple of days, I have only a an occasional stray hair. The base is crome at the bottom and some sort of heavy material, possibly ceramic or painted metal for the black bulb. With some weight to it. And the brush looks great.

Density: The knot is thickly and evenly packed. I wish I had more to compare it to than my VDH Boar.

Stiffness: It is dense and has some backbone to it. Nothing like the boar brushes I was used to. It is a different stiffness where everything comes back to where is should be when you are loading it. But when you put pressure down on it, it gives and feels on the floppy side on the face. So the stiffness of the brush seems to come more from density than the stiffness of the hairs themselves.

Softness: Compared to the VDH Boar, this is like a pillow. You feel the tips, but not scratchy. More like a light tickling feeling. And as stated, this is not a trimmed brush like some of the other "Pure" brushes . The hairs all have soft white tips. Judging from my reading of the wiki and the Badger Grading Sticky Post, this is at least a Best grade. I feel like there is a good balance of softness and backbone.

Ergonomic: I like the weight of it. But it is so heavy you feel like you are going to crack open your mug and makes for some clanging. It is also very smooth and can be a little slick.

Latherablility: I have used it with Tabac, VDH & Conk Bay Rum with great results. It holds pleanty of water. I just give it a couple of shakes for the excess water, run it on the top of the soap for a few second and it picks up enough for a good 4 pass shave with lather to spare. With creams I have had the same results with both TRSC & Bigelow. I would say it works equally well with both. I have only bowl lathered to this point but have no touble filling the bowl up with rich lather.

To sum up...I think this is a good "All-a-Rounder" brush. It seems to work well with soaps and creams, is soft and dense. Granted, I am a newbie. 15 years ago I probably would have said Macanudo is a good cigar and Sutter Home is a good wine. Now my tastes have evolved. I am sure they will do the same with wet shaving. I have not even tried face lathering yet. I will try to revisit this review in the near future. I think I will probably get another brush once my tax refund comes through and will have more to go by. But I think this will always be part of the rotation.

Coming from a basic board brush (Shaving Factory XS Boar Brush), this Parker is a huge step up. Handle size and weight are both excellent, fitting my average size hand perfectly with a confidence inspiring heft. The resin used for the black portion of the handle also feels firm and does not seem scratch-prone like softer/cheaper plastics. The Parker logo did start to wear during just the first lather, but a bit of rubbing alcohol on a wash cloth took it off completely and gave the brush a clean logo free look.

The hair of this brush is extremely soft. The tips are untrimmed and have a natural white tip. Based on Badger & Blade grading, this brush seems MUCH closer to a "Best" rating than the lower "Pure" rating it is marketed under. You won't find a "Best" brush on Amazon for less than $45, and you won't find a "Best" with a handle as nice as this Parker for less than $60. The Parker may seem floppy to those, like me, coming from stiff inexpensive boar brushes. The knot is large, fairly dense, and blooms nicely right out of the packaging. After the first night of break-in the bloom opened up maybe another 5%, but I don't expect much more. The brush is soft on the face, not prickly at all, but does lose its shape a bit and could possibly use a bit more backbone (if we're being picky).

I'm a cream guy more than a soap guy, and this thing demolishes creams. It whipped Proraso Cream into a fluffy whipped cream like lather that my boar never could approach, and did so in record time. I usually lathered for 30-45 seconds or more with the boar, but I can get a far superior lather in 15-30 seconds with the Parker. It can do just as well with soft soaps, like Proraso Shaving Soap, but hard soaps (especially Tallow based) seem to require a bit more effort. I don't have a shave stick on hand and I've never face-lathered, so I can't comment directly on those.

The brush lost 3-4 hairs during the first break-in lather, and another 2 during the first morning's shave. It has not shed beyond that in roughly a month of daily use. In comparisson, my Shaving Factory XS Boar is still shedding a hair or two every shave. Also, "badger funk" was minimal but present out of the box, but eliminated by the overnight break-in process. By contrast, my boar took 3 nights of break-in just to minimize the funk and another 2 weeks of use to eliminate it (though even then still present with a deep close whiff).

The one minor low-point of this brush was the free included stand. It's a universal stand and not custom-made to match this brush. It's tall enough but not really deep enough to let the brush dry with a full, unhindered, bloom. The weight of the handle does, however, lend to a solution. By tilting the handle towards the back of the stand it settles at a roughly 30 degree angle from vertical, allowing the brush to dry in full bloom. I haven't used this stand since receiving a chrome stand from eBay/China, but it may see use with another brush and/or in a gym locker on down the road.

Overall, I don't think you'll do much better than this brush for around $30. You'll have to spend close to $45 to match it in knot quality and around $60 to match it in overall quality. This is indeed an excellent value for those looking to move from a boar to a badger inexpensively, especially those who mainly use creams.

Though I do not have experience with many brushes, I can say this one is great for the price. I have owned it for over a month and have not noticed a single hair falling out. It is of excellent quality. The only reason it got a 9/10 on quality was becuase the front logo is coming off and the stand is cheap.

Right out of the box, this brush smelled horrible. It was absolutely awful. Fortunetly, the smell diminished very quickly.

The tips of this brush are very soft. It works quite well with soft creams but is not optimal for hard soaps, though I do use it for both.

Perhaps one of the best attributes of this brush is the handle. It is very solid and comfortable to grip. It is also very nice looking.

Overall, this is a great brush. I am happy with the purchase. It does what it is supposed to and is very affordable.