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Boar Brush Pass Around

Woo never used three brushes for one shave before! This was a fun, I enjoyed being able to do a side by side comparison of bleached vs natural, I thought I liked unbleached knots before this and it's nice to confirm this belief. They're pretty similar but the bleached knot has less backbone and maybe a wee softer on the tips. The density of both the 80's gives for a real nice flow though of lather and nice massaging of the face, great brushes and even better for the cost. The 506U XSE felt like I thought the omega would plus the knot felt denser then the 80's and just ate up soap, the first two times I thought I had enough lather it just pushed it deeper into the knot and I had to load even more soap a real lather hog, real reluctant to part which the lather. This knot almost feels too low lofted for how dense it is but I feel like this knot after a year of shaving the hairs would split longer and maybe open the knot up more a make for a divine brush.
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I'm enjoying your reviews @Vraad. I like how you're using multiple brushes per shave to get the feel of a brush compared to another. And today's shave, 3 brushes! You are spot on with your assessment of the Zenith 506U XSE (olive handled unbleached). I've had mine for over a year & it has split hairs all over the place & is a divine brush.
 
Yes, the SOC boar is what brought me into the whole boar world! I couldn't believe how great it felt right out of the box. @Vraad, what I enjoy about your posts is that you know exactly what you want and need in a brush! I can only imagine what you would make if you had access to the right knots and handles. Myself, I tend to fumble around buying different things, passing some on, resetting knots I set to different heights or in different handles, all because I don't know what I will like! Keep up the great reviews!
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Woo never used three brushes for one shave before! This was a fun, I enjoyed being able to do a side by side comparison of bleached vs natural, I thought I liked unbleached knots before this and it's nice to confirm this belief. They're pretty similar but the bleached knot has less backbone and maybe a wee softer on the tips. The density of both the 80's gives for a real nice flow though of lather and nice massaging of the face, great brushes and even better for the cost. The 506U XSE felt like I thought the omega would plus the knot felt denser then the 80's and just ate up soap, the first two times I thought I had enough lather it just pushed it deeper into the knot and I had to load even more soap a real lather hog, real reluctant to part which the lather. This knot almost feels too low lofted for how dense it is but I feel like this knot after a year of shaving the hairs would split longer and maybe open the knot up more a make for a divine brush.
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I recognize those blade wrappers my friend! Excellent write up.
 
Yeah I feel like the 506u xse is the advanced user boar lovers brush, it would be a labor of love to break one in with it's short loft unbridled boar backbone! If you didn't know that it the hairs would split and lose some backbone, on first use I could see badger users writing it off off the bat. I like doing side by side comparisons, I would have been hard pressed to remember a difference in the Zenith 80's if I had to use them on different shaves but side by side you can pick up on how bleach weakened the hairs backbone ever so slightly. same goes for the blades the sharp star is slightly smoother but both shave decent so I wouldn't have picked up on it if I didn't use em on the same shave
 
Omega Premium Jade and Proraso Pro yesterday the Pro felt like a delight, nice flow through, not super dense, a lighter backbone, like a well broken in boar. The jade was also another great brush it had the best handle for me out of the bunch ergonomically wise. the knot was good, denser then the pro and with the shorter loft came more backbone but not close the the 506 though, this one actually had some what feels nice to me stritch, but I have a black badger in my rotation so I like it all.
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Today's shave was the battle of the dyed 3 banders, with the Semogue #830, 22 / 55 going against one of my own, a vintage Ever Ready C40, 22 / 52. My C40 actually came to me a few months ago in a lot of razors that I purchased and I think I've only cleaned then used it once since. The C40 seems to have not been used to much for being ~50 years old, so it's fun to use it with similarly used modern boars. In this round the #830 felt kinda soft and a wee less dense then the C40. The #830 didn't had enough back bone for me, it could be more broken in then my C40 and/or the 3mm longer hairs. The C40 has a bit of stritch just like the Omega Jade and was pretty spot on for what I like for boar backbone, turns out I got a nice little surprise in that razor lot.
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Could be that the softer #830 just fells less dense as it blooms out further.
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Great write-ups, thank you for your thoughts on the various brushes. Specifying what you like in a brush really helps all the readers relate to your posts. There is a lot that goes into what makes a brush ideal for each person, as @Vraad has talked about in his posts. Knot size, loft, handle shape, density, the thickness of the hair, & bleached vs. unbleached, to name a few.

Who wants to try these brushes? Come on folks, try them out, sign up!
 
today was the battle of the bleachers, the Semogue Galahad C3, Semogue SOC and Zenith 80N Bleached. they all felt pretty close with the SOC having a wee bit more backbone and maybe a bit denser or just more hairs front and center and less blooming then the Galahad, the 80N felt like the SOC just bigger maybe less dense. I got about one more shave before I've taken all out twice so who's ready for em!?!
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With you using more than one brush each shave, I wonder what the next shave will be with?
:popc:

Thanks for the great writeups!
 
Today's shave has was the war of the high lofts with The Zenith 80B XSE Unbleached 27 / 64, The Omega Proraso Pro 28 / 65 and my ancient Rubberset 400 4 22 / 65. They're all pretty similar with the Zenith having smidge more stritch. The Proraso with a little less backbone, I feel like the omegas are lightly bleached. The Rubberset hairs come more focused to a point and it being severely used the tips have become so soft but it also is a bit lacking in backbone.
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Today's shave was low lofts, The Omega Jade Vs. Zenith 506U. Both of these brushes are real nice both with great backbone with the 506 being perfect in my mind, The jade has a faint hint of scrub which I liked better vs. the 506 having very soft tips. THe Zenith maybe denser or it could be the back bone making it feel denser.
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FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Ttoday's shave was low lofts, The Omega Jade Vs. Zenith 506U. Both of these brushes are real nice both with great backbone with the 506 being perfect in my mind, The jade has a faint hint of scrub which I liked better vs. the 506 having very soft tips. THe Zenith maybe denser or it could be the back bone making it feel denserView attachment 1470889
Nice looking brushes my friend!
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Today's shave was low lofts, The Omega Jade Vs. Zenith 506U. Both of these brushes are real nice both with great backbone with the 506 being perfect in my mind, The jade has a faint hint of scrub which I liked better vs. the 506 having very soft tips. THe Zenith maybe denser or it could be the back bone making it feel denser.View attachment 1470889
I have both of these brushes.... .I'm breaking them in.... My Zenith has the copper handle... and my Jade handle isn't quite a colorful as the pass around, unfortunately... but still seems like it's going to be a very nice brush.
 
Last shave from four days ago this round was a the Omega #13564, 23 / 45 and since it when I first used it I thought it felt badgery so it's going against a Shavemac/Rudy vey 2 band 24 / 50. The omega has more backbone but not by a lot. The 2 band has some nice scrub, more then half the boars in the pass around. Pretty wild how the 2 bands are so popular given that they cost like 8 to 10 times more then a boar that feels just as good maybe better if you get a boar with solid backbone like the 506, but hey people don't wanna break stuff in I guess. Any way I sent the brushes out to @bobmsp in Minnesota yesterday, so many thanks to @dmshaver everyone evolved in putting this on!!
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Thanks, @Vraad for starting off the pass around. Your write-ups are insightful & beneficial to the community at large. Quite interesting how you compared the Omega 13564 to a Shavemac D01 2 band. I would not have thought of comparing boar to badger, but it makes complete sense now that you've brought it up. I hope you enjoyed your time with them. Thanks for getting the brushes packaged & on their way to @bobmsp.

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I have both of these brushes.... .I'm breaking them in.... My Zenith has the copper handle... and my Jade handle isn't quite a colorful as the pass around, unfortunately... but still seems like it's going to be a very nice brush.
The copper-handled Zenith is a very nice brush, give it time to break in & I think you'll really enjoy it. It is a bleached knot & is not the same as the Zenith 506U which is an unbleached knot. There are two Zenith unbleached brushes in the pass around, please consider signing up if you would like to try them, along with many other fine boar brushes.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
The copper-handled Zenith is a very nice brush, give it time to break in & I think you'll really enjoy it. It is a bleached knot & is not the same as the Zenith 506U which is an unbleached knot. There are two Zenith unbleached brushes in the pass around, please consider signing up if you would like to try them, along with many other fine boar brushes.
Thanks for the kind offer.... I have 8 boar brushes... all new. I wet/dry cycle them every day. They are already showing some nice improvements.

I ordered this one by mistake: shaving brushes - https://yourshaving.com/gb/10-shaving-brushes?q=Brand-Saponificio+Varesino-Zenith+shaving+brushes

LOL... but it's turning out to be among the best, I think.... The feel is very similar to the Copper handle B33. I didn't like the handle, initially... but it's actually growing on me. It has the same loft but is just a tad smaller... 26mm instead of 27.5mm.
 
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