An Education from Big Brushes

[oakeshott]

Going to repost Round 3 tonight. My beautiful bride found my notes and emailed me a photo of them. It may be a double post with the Simpson Persian Jar. If I had that Thater here in NYC with me, then I would do it again. Probably no shave on Friday night and then Saturday to wrap up the evaluation.

 

[oakeshott]

The Simpson's Persian Jar 3 in 2 band looks exactly as one would imagine the perfect shaving brush to look like. It's not old fashioned looking, it's classic. One can easily imagine the Last of the Wet Shavers (another great name for a rock band) using this very brush a 1000 years from now in the desolate final days of humanity before the end of our species. Really...it looks that good. Here it is:

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

View attachment 267313



It doesn't just look good though, it feels good also. I much prefer it to the octagonal handle of the Thaters which make me want to grip them between my fingers rather than hold them in my hand as the Simpson does and it has more length than the M&F which I liked very much. So far, easily my favorite handle for feel and looks with the Thater Fan coming in second. What about the knot? Not as enthusiastic, but for reasons I didn't expect.

The brush loaded up quickly just as the Shavemac did the night before. For now, I'll attribute this to the NYC water, but there's no way to tell without running this entire test in reverse and THAT ain't going to happen. In retrospect, I should have kept loading, but it had been enough with the Shavemac, so I assumed it would be the same with the Simpsons.

Laid on the first pass and this is another ultra soft brush, but not to the degree of the 2 band Thaters which are still my yardstick for that particular quality. The face feel of the Simpsons had something else, however, that the Thaters didn't have and it was the sensation of a having a ridiculous amount of hair doing the work on your face. The sensation from the Thaters is of "pressure", not hair. The PJ clearly feels like hair on your face and vast, vast amounts of it. Not a better or worse feeling, but different. As I think about it, I can imagine without any trouble many people preferring this sensation over the Thaters as being more real, more authentically brush like. There is a dreamlike quality to the Thater's softness that is absent in the Simpson. One imagines Camus using the Simpson and Kafka the Thater. (I'm sure that cleared things up.)

The trouble, or what I thought of as trouble, began with the second and third pass. Clearly I hadn't loaded it up enough, but I swear it had just as much soap loaded as the Shavemac the night before which had lather to spare. Ended up having to squeeze the lather out for the third pass which I hate to do because then you can't paint the lather as well with the squeezed bristles. This is clearly a first world complaint and it embarrases me to even mention it, but honesty is called for in dark times like this.

My theory is that the problem was caused by the loft. Not only does this brush have the highest loft, but it's a full 6 mm higher than the Shavemac. You veterans correct me if I've got this wrong, but I believe the lather was there in the brush, but was "lost" in there and not released. A simple problem to solve, not really a problem at all but rather a characteristic; I could have just loaded for another thirty seconds and there would have been plenty of lather. For the relentlessly parsimonious, however, it's worth noting that the same knot size in a much larger loft required a noticeable amount more soap (loading) to dispense the same amount of lather.

I would own this brush. Every day that I open up the door to my little shave den and saw it would give me joy. When my hand would reach out to make its choice, however, I'm fairly certain it would choose the Thater 4 times out of 5. If I were to make a perfect brush out of the 7 on hand, it would have the Thater 2 band Fan knot with the Simpson's PJ3 handle.


EDIT: Round 3 Posted on the first page of the thread.

 

[oscar11]

One imagines Camus using the Simpson and Kafka the Thater. (I'm sure that cleared things up.)

My guess would have been a brushess cream and an accidental cut throat while shaving for Camus.

 

[GDCarrington]

Excellent reviews one and all!

Wonderful job of comparison and contrast!

Keep it up!

 

[oakeshott]

I had planned to post on the final brush last night, but ended up not shaving instead and husbanding my energies. It's the first time since I started DE shaving that I've gone two days in a row without shaving. Did a little lathering, but ended up not shaving. Today there's a little spring in the step and can feel my old self coming back. The result is below.

The M&F Emilion (which I keep thinking of as the St. Emilion because of my time in the wine business) is the final brush and fitting that this seven round experience should end with a heavyweight. Specs and pics:

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

View attachment 268023

This is a behemoth of a brush. Massive knot of approximately 34mm and a heavy, thick 70mm beautiful handle. The first thing one notices when picking it up is the weight and space it takes up. Some of the other handles, even bigger ones, don't have the same heft and the only one I can compare to it was a custom solid length of stainless bar stock that was milled into a brush for me.

Began loading up the M&F and made it a point to load longer than I would with smaller brushes just to make sure there would be enough for a solid three passes. Again, I couldn't forget the weight of this brush. Not a bad thing, but rather a characteristic that was so distinct compared to others of its kind that one couldn't forget it.

There are some brushes that when they hit one's face, one says "wow". This is one of those brushes. I realize now that with a brush of this size and weight, the incredible softness would come across as incongruous and so it did. Not a bit of scritchiness to it and with the density and backbone that after my limited experience with M&F, have come to expect as standard. It lacked that curious (and to me annoying "push back") of the butterscotch M&F, but otherwise the face feel was similar.

There was, however, this unusual feeling of the handle "driving" the brush. Most of the time, I'm not aware of the handle, but with this brush, I couldn't get away from it. If any of you have driven a real muscle car or ridden an especially spirited horse then you know what I mean. It's the feeling of steering something that is only just under your control and requires all of your attention. This subsided somewhat on the second pass, but I was still overwhelmed with just how soft and voluminous it all felt. Truly a great, albeit, idiosyncratic shaving brush.
At this point, I was aware of this being the last brush...the last pass and made the snap decision to go back to the brush against which I had so far compared every other brush in the lineup; the Thater 2 Band Fan. Would it be, after testing all of these other excellent products, still be everything I thought it was? The answer is yes. It was. I honestly don't understand how anything could have been softer or more luxurious than the Emilion, but for me, the Thater was that. Maybe it was a function of being less dense? less backbone? I don't know but welcome your conjectures.

I set out on this project with the intent of learning something. It will take a while to process everything, but right off the bat, here's what I think I learned:

1. Big brushes are every bit as manageable as smaller brushes. I've read about others who can't control big brushes, but I don't get it. If anything, there was less soap flying off the brush or out of the bowl while loading up. As for my face, it went where I wanted it to go and nowhere else. Cost is a good reason to use smaller brushes, but not any other reason that I could see.
2. 2 Band vs. 3 Band. Ok, I must be missing something here, but I just don't see any reliable difference. Manufacturer seems like a much more reliable predictor of brush traits than anything else. I don't know that I would every even list two or three band as a brush requirement except for aesthetic reasons.
3. I like soft. I like soft a lot. As far as I could tell, it made no difference in the ability of a brush to generate lather, but it made a lot of difference in terms of how much I enjoyed the shave.
4. The role of density/backbone, which I now believe to be related, makes sense to me now.I think there's more scope for experiment and variability here with brushes, say over 22 or 24 mm than with those under. My smaller brushes with long lofts (over 50mm) can't avoid some degree of floppiness. I will probably start paying much more attention to the L2k ratio than I have before. Most of you already do this, but I hadn't. Makes sense now.
5. Everyone of these brushes did what they were supposed to do way, way beyond what could possibly have been required of them. The distinctions I made were so small that others might leave them unnoticed and preferring one over the other boils down to a matter of personal preference and taste. They all lather up and let it go brilliantly.

Finally, thanks again to the member who loaned me the brushes, but gave me an education. A fine gift indeed.

 

[htownmmm]

Well done research!

All of your shaving brethren who love big brushes appreciate the time and effort you have put into this review.

 

[AjaxLepinski]

A fabulous series of articles and thanks for taking the time to post your observations! I don't think many of us will ever have a chance to play with a collection of such outstanding brushes and it was nice hear about your experience. I see a Thater 2 Band Fan in my not too distant future!

 

[Lando]

Very nice writeup, can you comment on specific differences between the thater 2 band bulb and fan? considering a purchase of one or the other. i prefer fans (eg 2XL), but with the high loft of the thaters concerned that the fan might feel a tad floppy.

thanks for the good read

 

[GDCarrington]

This comment interested me because I once had the same negative viewpoint about big brushes until I received one that altered my earlier negative opinion.

1. big brushes are every bit as manageable as smaller brushes. I've read about others who can't control big brushes, but i don't get it. If anything, there was less soap flying off the brush or out of the bowl while loading up. As for my face, it went where i wanted it to go and nowhere else. Cost is a good reason to use smaller brushes, but not any other reason that i could see.

Smaller brushes are great and have their strong points as well, but I will not look negatively on a large brush as I did a couple years ago.

Excellent series of tests and well written reviews. Well done! A+

 

[oscar11]

Great write up, I enjoyed it. Thanks.

 

[Flashisfast]

Thanks, this has been helpfu.

 

[oakeshott]

Very nice writeup, can you comment on specific differences between the thater 2 band bulb and fan? considering a purchase of one or the other. i prefer fans (eg 2XL), but with the high loft of the thaters concerned that the fan might feel a tad floppy.

thanks for the good read

Lando,
You should post that question on the brush board where much, much more experienced guys than me can weigh in. I wouldn't be the life of the party that I am, however, if that stopped me from commenting anyway.

I didn't find either the 2 band fan or bulb floppy, but that is an entirely subjective valuation. I found the fan softer, but that was likely due to the shape of the knot rather than the quality of the bristles. The handle shape was also preferable. In a blind test, however, in which Helen Mirren did the lathering, I doubt that I could tell the difference between the two (or would even care if Helen was doing the work). If you were worried about floppiness, then the three band bulb would give you more noticeable backbone I believe.

Again, the differences are so narrow that for a newbie like myself, it's hard to make distinctions. For the record though, I'll be getting the 2 band fan.

 

[vertelselaar]

I enjoyed your investigation very much. Thanks for taking the effort and the trouble to work it all out in writing for us!