A New Horse for the Stable?

[mistercitizen]

Well, the Vie-Long 13061 has caught my eye. The only thing is, I have never used a horse hair brush before.... so I don't know what is to be expected of it. The specs are as follows:

Vie-Long 13061
Loft: 57mm (although could be customized)
Handle: 48mm
Knot: 24mm
Overall: 108mm
50% mane and 50% tail hair

I love the handle. It's beautiful IMO. The price is definitely right at around $35 to $40 shipped. So, my question is what brush do I already have that would be most comparable to the Vie-Long? I'm looking to keep 10 brushes in my collection, so if I got the Vie-Long, I would need to sell one I already have:

No.	Use	Brush	Loft	Handle	Knot	Shape
1	Bowl Lathering Creams	Savile Row 3824 Three-band Silvertip Badger	54	51	24	Bulb
2	Bowl Lathering Soft Soaps (Croaps)	Simpson Emperor 3 Two-band Super Badger	52	61	23	Bulb
3	Bowl Lathering Hard Soaps	Semogue SOC w/ Cherry Handle Boar	57	57	24	Fan
4	Face Lathering Creams	Edwin Jagger Chrome Bulbous Three-band Super Badger	53	49	21	Fan
5	Face Lathering Soft Soaps (Croaps)	Rooney Heritage Stubby 1XL Two-band Super Badger	46	40	25	Fan
6	Face Lathering Hard Soaps	Semogue 620 Boar	50	43	21	Fan
7	All Around Badger	Morris & Forndran Two-band "Blonde Badger"	53	49	24	Fan
8	All Around Boar	Semogue 830 Boar	55	44	22	Fan
9	Luxury Brush for Creams	Kent BK8 Three-band Silvertip Badger	57	55	26	Fan
10	Luxury Brush for Soaps	Shavemac D01 Three-band Silvertip Badger	50	51	27	Bulb

Does the Vie-Long even offer anything over what I already have?..... or am I even looking at the right horse hair brush? I like variety in my brush collection and I just think it would be neat to have a horse in the stable.... something Spanish too since I use so many Spanish creams, splashes and balms too.

What do you guys think?

Ben

 

[mistercitizen]

What a beauty.

Ben

 

[mistercitizen]

My thought is that the Vie-Long would be somewhere between the Semogue 830 and SOC boar brushes.... but is the hair of the Vie-Long going to be softer? Softer tips with similar backbone? Maybe it would be best for face lathering soaps. I don't know, I just love the handle and I notice that this handle or similar variations exist on a few Vie-Long brushes.

Ben

 

[mftoms59]

The 13061 would be very similar in Backbone to the Semogue 830, with a hair more scritch out of the box, the tips will soften noticeably with ~12-15 lathers and the scritch will relax a bit. I'd recommend a lighter touch/pressure than with Badgers & Boars, too much pressure will result in a bit of a gap in the middle of your knot, and/or some tangling of the Hairs. I own/owned ~20 V-L Horse Hairs, mostly Natural Brown (35/65) with a few 50/50's and have had one knot that had this problem, after gently combing it out, base to tips, and using less pressure the problem never returned.

You can use circular motions when face lathering, though some have found this to tangle the knot, I face lather and use circular motions, with light pressure and my knots are fine. Personally I prefer my lofts no higher than 50-52mm, this provides a bit more backbone & spring to the knot IME, I would advise against a 20 or 21mm knot, which aren't as densely packed, unless you set the loft no higher than 45-46mm.

I think you might like the 13061B, which has the same 50/50 ratio in a Natural White Hair, the knot is 24mm set to ~53mm loft; http://www.giftsandcare.com/en/hors...rocha-de-afeitar-caballo-vie-long-13061b.html The 13061(B) works well in a bowl or on the face. I enjoy all my Horses, which have replaced my Boars, and after two years of using some, their tip softness rival my Shavemac Finest Brushes.

 

[mistercitizen]

The 13061 would be very similar in Backbone to the Semogue 830, with a hair more scritch out of the box, the tips will soften noticeably with ~12-15 lathers and the scritch will relax a bit. I'd recommend a lighter touch/pressure than with Badgers & Boars, too much pressure will result in a bit of a gap in the middle of your knot, and/or some tangling of the Hairs. I own/owned ~20 V-L Horse Hairs, mostly Natural Brown (35/65) with a few 50/50's and have had one knot that had this problem, after gently combing it out, base to tips, and using less pressure the problem never returned.

You can use circular motions when face lathering, though some have found this to tangle the knot, I face lather and use circular motions, with light pressure and my knots are fine. Personally I prefer my lofts no higher than 50-52mm, this provides a bit more backbone & spring to the knot IME, I would advise against a 20 or 21mm knot, which aren't as densely packed, unless you set the loft no higher than 45-46mm.

I think you might like the 13061B, which has the same 50/50 ratio in a Natural White Hair, the knot is 24mm set to ~53mm loft; http://www.giftsandcare.com/en/hors...rocha-de-afeitar-caballo-vie-long-13061b.html The 13061(B) works well in a bowl or on the face. I enjoy all my Horses, which have replaced my Boars, and after two years of using some, their tip softness rival my Shavemac Finest Brushes.

Tom, thank you for the very informative reply. The 13061B does look nice and I do think a shorter loft might be better.... especially if I were to replace one of my boars that I use for face lathering. I did not realize that tangling of the knot was such a concern for the horse hair brushes. I really just do not know very much about them. Thanks again for the information.

Ben

 

[mftoms59]

Tom, thank you for the very informative reply. The 13061B does look nice and I do think a shorter loft might be better.... especially if I were to replace one of my boars that I use for face lathering. I did not realize that tangling of the knot was such a concern for the horse hair brushes. I really just do not know very much about them. Thanks again for the information.

Ben

You're welcome, the tangling issue has popped up a few times as well as the gap issue, as I previously posted, IME these usually occur when excess pressure is applied. Relative to the number of Horse brushes in use, it appears to be a minor problem, as with all brush hair types, minor issues/problems can arise from time to time. If you have a bit of time, maybe this thread can ease any concerns you might have with a Horse; http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...e-Long-El-Caballo-Español-(The-Spanish-horse)

 

[Snuff-Belgium]

It's a nice looking brush the Vie-Long 13061. I never looked into horse brushes but two weeks ago I received a no name very big horse hair brush that's used by Turkish barbers (it's not the Best Shave #6) and it's very nice (speaking of performance as the handle looks very cheap) I've used it for bowl and face lathering. It's kind of big (

Knot Diameter: 28mm, ​

Loft: 58mm, ​

Overall Height 120mm) but I'm going to look into horse brushes for sure, if this is a typical example of how good they are. Good luck with your choice! ​