Caution: I'm a newbie with no badger brush experience. After reading the rave reviews, I bought an Omega 49 for my first brush. It's great, but a couple of weeks later when I saw an Omega 10066 for $6.95 I bought one feeling that a smaller boar would be a good one to include in my rotation. While they are still breaking in, they both seem excellent, and I've been generating good face or bowl lathers with each. About 2 weeks into this wet shaving thing, I got an EBay email that read: "DISCOUNTED: The Cheap Best Badger Shave Brush wood handle". It was half-price or $5.49 and that included shipping from China. Before deciding on the boars, I had thought maybe a WD badger, but thought I'd wait til I had at least done my first shave. Well, what did I have to lose (exactly $5.49). So I ordered it on Dec. 6 expecting it around the holidays (if it showed up at all). It arrived on December 16!
The brush looked nice (certainly for the price). It is listed as knot: 20mm, loft 50mm, and overall height 100mm. Interesting the grade is listed as "cheap Best Badger"! Not much odor. I washed it and have used it about 5-6 times to make lather, letting it dry out in between like my boars. The badger has seemed to get progressively softer, not just the tips, but the whole brush. Trying to face lather, it just splays out completely, so I have pretty much a flat disc. It's better if I bowl lather and then pretty much slap it on the face. When I load (and it doesn't load as full as my other brushes), I get a pretty big "hole" in the center. I included some pictures. Overall, it seems to have little or no back bone compared to the two boars (and to a Plisson synthetic... yes I suffer from SBAD). I can't imagine a quality badger would have so little backbone, but as I noted, I don't have any experience with them.
So, is the answer to my question: "You get what you pay for"?
The brush looked nice (certainly for the price). It is listed as knot: 20mm, loft 50mm, and overall height 100mm. Interesting the grade is listed as "cheap Best Badger"! Not much odor. I washed it and have used it about 5-6 times to make lather, letting it dry out in between like my boars. The badger has seemed to get progressively softer, not just the tips, but the whole brush. Trying to face lather, it just splays out completely, so I have pretty much a flat disc. It's better if I bowl lather and then pretty much slap it on the face. When I load (and it doesn't load as full as my other brushes), I get a pretty big "hole" in the center. I included some pictures. Overall, it seems to have little or no back bone compared to the two boars (and to a Plisson synthetic... yes I suffer from SBAD). I can't imagine a quality badger would have so little backbone, but as I noted, I don't have any experience with them.
So, is the answer to my question: "You get what you pay for"?
