An Education from Big Brushes

[oakeshott]

As posted elsewhere ( http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/306126-Extraordinary-Generosity-from-a-B-amp-B-Member ), a generous B&B member offered to help me learn more about brushes in order to:

• Identify different characteristics
• Learn what I like
• Just generally get smarter about brushes.

In order to accomplish this, he loaned me seven varied, large and well-made Badgers. Here is a pic of the lineup:

View attachment 266335

And for those who like aerial views:

View attachment 266337

For whatever value it may be to others, I plan on posting my impressions of each brush as they come up in the rotation. Initially, this was going to be titled a "review", but that would be misleading to newbies and unfair to those of you with years of experience in wetshaving who have a genuine base of knowledge. The most useful thing, I'm hoping, will be what is learned from this experience and how that affects my future brush selections. I've gotten to a High School level with razors and soaps, but feel that with brushes, I'm still in kindergarten.

It should be noted that the member who loaned these to me prefers soft brushes and so scritchiness is not a quality that likely will be in evidence. I couldn't wait to get home and use them, so the very day I took possession of the brushes, I had to try a pair of them and they were in fact softer than any other brush I'd tried with the exception of my Kent BK4. So, for those of you partial to Boar, this thread may not be too interesting except perhaps as another example of how much money you save.

For the duration of the test, I'll use the same soap and razor. The soap is Calani and the razor is a vintage German slant which gives as good a shave as anything I own. Below is the information about each brush and the order in which they'll be tested. I've created two new categories (or at least new to me) to keep in mind. We often talk on the board about how high a loft we should use for a certain knot and so I've listed this as the Loft to Knot Ratio (L2K). Don't know if it's important, but have also done the same with the Loft to Handle (L2H). This probably has little to do with performance, but something to do with feel. Guess I'll find out.

I would have also measured the weight of the brushes dry, with water and after loading, but my digital scale is on the fritz and this degree of measuring is already ever so much and has the missus chatting up her old boyfriends on facebook as a back up plan. One wouldn't want to find oneself well shaven, but suddenly single, correct lads?

Morris & Forndran 3 Band Super Badger Fan
Loft 45mm
Handle 43mm
Knot 30mm
L2H 1.046
L2K 1.5


Thater 2 Band Bulb
Loft 54mm
Handle 48mm
Knot 30mm
L2H 1.125
L2K 1.8

Thater 2 Band Fan
Loft 52mm
Handle 54mm
Knot 30mm
L2H .962
L2K 1.8

Thater 3 Band Bulb
Loft 55mm
Handle 51mm
Knot 30mm
L2H 1.078
L2k 1.833

Shavemac 3 Band Silvertip D01
Loft 51mm
Handle 49mm
Knot 28mm
L2H 1.04
L2K 1.82

Simpsons PJ3 Super Badger 2 Band
Loft 57mm
Handle 60mm
Knot 28mm
L2H .95
L2K 2.036

M&F Blond Badger 2 Band Custom Handle
Loft 55mm
Handle 70mm
Knot 34mm (!!!!)
L2H .785
L2K 1.618

As for what I'm used to using, the largest is a 26mm Dreadnought with Silvertip from Rodney Neep and the others range from 20mm to 24mm. I also have a 24mm M&F 3 band and Rudy Vey's B&B LE from 2011. The Vie-Long BGS LE 2012 Horsehair also gets a good workout in my rotation and my travel brush uses a 16mm TGN Finest. Those are what I'm used to. Next post, the test begins.

 

[oakeshott]

The first brush up is the M&F 3 Band Super Badger in Fan:

Morris & Forndran 3 Band Super Badger Fan
Loft 45mm
Handle 43mm
Knot 30mm
L2H 1.046
L2K 1.5


View attachment 266346

The brush soaked, as all of them will, in warm water for about 5 minutes. It was shaken out gently and I noted at the time that the water really seemed to release easily. Started to load up the brush which usually takes me about a minute or a minute and a half with the Calani. In retrospect, I should have left just a little more water in the brush as I did have to go back and re-load for a few seconds, but I'm certain this was my error and not the brushes. Once loaded properly, there was plenty for three passes.

My overwhelming sensation with this brush was a familiar one that it shares with my own M&F 3 Band. There's a "point" right in the center of the brush which seems to push back when I lather. There's very little splay with this brush and on the first and second passes I don't notice any scritch, but the backbone of the center bristles is quite firm. I imagine that for some this provides more control than other soft brushes, but I didn't care for it and explains why I reach for some of my other brushes over the M&F.

By the third pass, I did notice what one "might" take for a little bit of scritchiness, but not enough to either please those who like it or put off those who don't. It might also just have been over analysis. There were no real surprises or revelations with this brush as it is similar to one I already own. The backbone of the brush, even though it was quite soft, meant that it never really felt like a "big" brush. The M&F does prove, however, that a fan knot can have backbone and control. It's not either/or between Fan and Bulb. Hmmm. Guess there was a revelation here after all. Thank you Mr. Sabini.

Please note that my impressions of this one were influenced by the fact that I'd cheated by using two of the Thater's the first day I'd had the brushes. I was expecting something more similar to those.

Next up: Thater 2 Band Bulb.

 

[SEnSE]

Subscribed & looking forward to seeing how this goes for you.

 

[Cochese2323]

Subscribed too. I post a dumb question as I did not read your entire post. So i edit my questoion....is that a duck or goose in the background? It's band would look nice on my lanyard.

 

[oakeshott]

Subscribed too. I post a dumb question as I did not read your entire post. So i edit my questoion....is that a duck or goose in the background? It's band would look nice on my lanyard.

Pintail and the band is the best part. Full disclosure, I did not harvest that duck. It came with a Wood Duck mount that I also did not harvest but had a moral right to. A story for another thread.

 

[Cochese2323]

That's cool. I have never even seen a pintail in the wild here in Wisconsin in probably 12+ seasons of waterfowl hunting. Good luck with the brushes though, that is a true all-star line up. Thater 2-band is on my current wish list. Love TGN 2-bands and love my Thater 3-band so seems like it would be a natural winner.

 

[oscar11]

That's a brush line up to envy. Enjoy yourself.

 

[Squidma]

That butterscotch M&F is a beautiful brush!

 

[AjaxLepinski]

Just subscribed as well. I've been thinking about buying a Thater and I'm interested hearing your impressions.

 

[oakeshott]

That's cool. I have never even seen a pintail in the wild here in Wisconsin in probably 12+ seasons of waterfowl hunting. Good luck with the brushes though, that is a true all-star line up. Thater 2-band is on my current wish list. Love TGN 2-bands and love my Thater 3-band so seems like it would be a natural winner.

A few hours west to North Dakota and you will see them... and every other duck you have on your wish list (well, not eiders).

 

[oakeshott]

Just subscribed as well. I've been thinking about buying a Thater and I'm interested hearing your impressions.

Full report tomorrow, but the short story is I will be having a den clearing to finance a Thater. What a brush!

 

[Cochese2323]

Just subscribed as well. I've been thinking about buying a Thater and I'm interested hearing your impressions.

Just do it! You will not be disappointed. I do not use my Thater every day, but when I do, I am swiftly reminded why I own it. Pure luxury. I am 99% certain it is made of Unicorn mane.

 

[cessnabird]

Great thread! I will check in regularly to see how your tests are going and to hear your thoughts on them all. We have some class act gentlemen here on B&B, so generously loaning such phenominal brushes. Have fun sir!

 

[barneykiller]

Subscribed. What a beautiful set of brushes you have to try.

 

[AjaxLepinski]

I am 99% certain it is made of Unicorn mane.

Just got my laugh of the day!

 

[djh]

I think that I recognise those brushes. A wonderful gesture on behalf of the lender and many thanks to our OP for firing up this thread to share some great info with us.

 

[oakeshott]

Last night featured the first of the German brushes, the Thater 2 Band Bulb. It just occurred to me that of the 7 brushes, 4 are German and the rest are British. Make of that what you will. The Thater's specs are:

Thater 2 Band Bulb
Loft 54mm
Handle 48mm
Knot 30mm
L2H 1.125
L2K 1.8

View attachment 266592

Higher L2K ratio and a bigger knot. There's a lot of badger here folks. The warmup was the same as before with the brush soaking and a little bit of hot water on the calani to soften it a bit. With the M&F, I was conscious of using too dry a brush, but I shook it out approximately to the same degree as the goal is to keep the testing as close to identical as possible. I think, however, that the Thater must have retained more water as the loading experience was substantially different.

Loaded for about a minute and a half and, unlike the M&F, it started to build lather in the bowl and on the sides of the brush. This lather, particularly on the brush, was much frothier than with the M&F and during my first pass, I actually removed some of it from the sides of the brush and put it back in the bowl. I was concerned that my lather wouldn't be dense enough, but a few drops of water seemed to fix that and the consistency for the first pass was right.

The feel of this thing was simply tremendous. My first thought was of my Kent BK4 but with more density or backbone, I can't really tell which. There is no "push back" in the brush but it doesn't splay wildly either. The word that came to mind is that it "cupped" my face. It was incredibly, wonderfully delightfully soft. I cannot swear to it, but I may have made the mental purchase of a Thater before I'd even finished my first pass. It was without a doubt the best brush experience I've had and makes mysterious to me the notion of how a 30mm brush could be "too big". It felt just perfect. This is the hair that girl who sat in front of you in High School that you never got to go out with must have had.

I have another brush, a big one though not as big as this, that I will load and load and load, but getting the lather out on the second and third pass is like wrestling an octopus. It can be done, but not without trouble. No such trouble here. The Thater gives as good as it gets and the lather is not withheld. By the third pass, it might have been a little light, but I'd also removed lather from the brush during the first and second pass (there was just so much) to make it easier to handle. (I was terrified of dropping one of these brushes.)

I really cannot find fault with the Thater. I suppose the tougher, he-men amongst you might want more scritch (you'll find none here) or something upon whose bristles you can rest your hammer, but for us more delicate flowers, the Thater might very well be perfect. Keep in mind that prior to the test, I had heard of Thater, but knew nothing about them and had a prejudice toward English brushes. To me, the only brushes. How staggeringly ignorant and wrong I was. If any of you heard a loud "Click" about 11pm EST last night, that was the sound of my rusty mind changing.

Seriously, I'm in love and am only on my second of 7 dates.

 

[AjaxLepinski]

Shounds like I have a Thater in my near future! Now I'm wondering how the other Thaters measure up to your second date.

 

[German]

Thäter rocks!!!!!!!!
View attachment 266627

 

[oakeshott]

For those of you following this thread in real time, you will have noticed that I omitted posting Round 3 of the evaluation. Attend to those words; I say posted, not wrote, because that post was most certainly written. My memory is never flawed in this regard and the post I recall was without doubt the most erudite, exciting and revolutionary post in the history of B&B. The few critics who got to review it before its accidental deletion all predicted Pulitzers or Nobels...none of them were sure for which it would qualify, hence the confusion. At the very least, an invitation to the White House for an invitation to become the Shaving Czar was in the bag not to mention a night in the Lincoln Bedroom.

Alas, that brilliant post is gone for good and so you will have to settle for the following wan imitation of that original brilliance. You have my sympathies.

Round three brought us the Thater 2 Band Fan. This brush had the unenviable task of following what was, I believed at the time, the best brush I would ever try. Here are the specs and pic:

Thater 2 Band Fan
Loft 52mm
Handle 54mm
Knot 30mm
L2H .962
L2K 1.8

View attachment 267316

First of all, the handle of this brush feels more substantial than the one on the bulb. This pleases me. Turns out I like a solid feeling handle and the shape of this one causes you to hold it in your fist rather than between the fingers. Also good. Once the lathering starts, it appears as if it picks up the soap more efficiently, but I'm pretty certain it was because I took the time to shake out more water. Brushes this size hold enormous amounts of water and so they should be well drained first.

I think because of the smaller amount of water, there was none of the frothy lather seen in the first Thater and the brush bristles seemed stiffer while loading, but once it hit the face any notion of stiff bristles disappeared. This was as soft as the bulb...maybe softer. The most luxurious brush sensation I'd ever experienced. There wasn't a sense of any hair at all, just a light pressure and the first pass of lather was perfect. At that moment, and nothing has changed in the intervening days, I fell in love with that brush. On the second and third pass, I noticed the "cupping" sensation that the 2 Band Bulb displayed. Almost as if the bristle and lather combo is holding on to one's face loathe to let go of a lover. That may be a bit of overstatement, but it was really, really good.

After the third pass, I could have gone for a fourth. Not because I needed to, but because it just felt so good. Plus, there was plenty of lather left to do so. Here's the proof. This is the 2 Band Fan ( the name of my next Rock and Roll Band) after 3 passes:

View attachment 267322

This post is written in retrospect and I cannot pretend to not know what I know which is that I thought this was the finest brush I'd ever used the night I used it and I still do. There are better handle shapes, better colors and maybe better weights, but the work is done by the knot and it is beyond my experience to know how the work of this knot could be improved upon. It is simply luxurious and makes shaving a joy. I don't know when or where, but I will be buying one of these.