This actually seems very unusual to me since I thought that the tips split due to usage. Any idea how they can be split out of the box? Has anyone seen this phenomena with other boar knots? I've only only tried a few Semogue boars and I don't remember the tips having been split out of the box. Not that this would be bad - sounds like a nice feature to speed up the breaking in process and make the initial shaves more comfortable. Just curious!
Brush Chronicles #14: Omega B&B Essential Boar
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This actually seems very unusual to me since I thought that the tips split due to usage. Any idea how they can be split out of the box? Has anyone seen this phenomena with other boar knots? I've only only tried a few Semogue boars and I don't remember the tips having been split out of the box. Not that this would be bad - sounds like a nice feature to speed up the breaking in process and make the initial shaves more comfortable. Just curious!
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- #22
Day 3: Omega B&B Essential Boar and Captain Fawcett's Shaving Soap or Don't Use a Soap for the First Time When All the World Can See the Results
Over in the Soap Forum, questions about Captain Fawcett's shave soap came up as to ingredients and performance. Back in December, before I put all shave purchases on hiatus indefinitely, I picked up a bowl of this soap, based solely on the scent description (from West Coast Shaving):
What's not to like about a scent like that? Why nothing, the scent is fantastic. Unfortunately, I tossed the box that the soap came in, so I was not able to find out what's in the soap itself. I couldn't tell you whether it was tallow or veggie. I offered to give the soap a go this morning. Captain Fawcett's is a hard soap like the triple milled varieties that come from the likes of DR Harris or Geo F. Trumper. I wet the surface of the soap with a little water to soften it up a bit during my shower, and soaked the brush in some water. As new soaps are uncharted territory for anyone, I took the 3017 approach and after gently squeezing the water from the knot, proceeded to load the damp brush for one minute.
Now, one might say that the protolather on that loaded brush looks pretty worrisome. The lather that formed was pretty dry and airy. Well, they would be right. I then face lathered the soap for a minute or two, repeatedly going back to the basin to dip the tips of the brush in the water. As I worked the lather on my face, it built up into a fairly dry thing, and unlike the explosion of lather that I got earlier from MdC, this lather pretty much fizzled:
The lather on my face began dissipating, and the same thing happened to the lather in the brush. There was plenty of soap loaded, as my face was very slick, and despite the lack of lather in the brush when I reapplied for the second pass, it once again built up a bit before thinning out. The quality of the shave was actually quite good. I had no irritation and am BBS. Postshave feel was a bit dry, but nothing that a good AS couldn't take care of. Now, lest anyone get the idea that this is a bad soap, please keep in mind that this is one shave with a soap I've never used before. I had similar experiences early on with Simpson's Unscented soap, Mitchell's and Cade. In all of those cases, a bit of trial and error coupled with consistent use of the soap resulted in consistently decent to excellent performance from all of them. So much so, that I rank Mitchell's in my top three soaps for ease of lathering and performance. At some point, I will put Captain Fawcett's soap through its 3017 paces if only for the scent, which is fantastic.
Over in the Soap Forum, questions about Captain Fawcett's shave soap came up as to ingredients and performance. Back in December, before I put all shave purchases on hiatus indefinitely, I picked up a bowl of this soap, based solely on the scent description (from West Coast Shaving):
"Delight in the fresh top notes of Bergamot & Mandarin that yield to an exotic blend of Cardamon & Tonka bean, resplendent against a backdrop of Lavender & Vanilla."
What's not to like about a scent like that? Why nothing, the scent is fantastic. Unfortunately, I tossed the box that the soap came in, so I was not able to find out what's in the soap itself. I couldn't tell you whether it was tallow or veggie. I offered to give the soap a go this morning. Captain Fawcett's is a hard soap like the triple milled varieties that come from the likes of DR Harris or Geo F. Trumper. I wet the surface of the soap with a little water to soften it up a bit during my shower, and soaked the brush in some water. As new soaps are uncharted territory for anyone, I took the 3017 approach and after gently squeezing the water from the knot, proceeded to load the damp brush for one minute.
Now, one might say that the protolather on that loaded brush looks pretty worrisome. The lather that formed was pretty dry and airy. Well, they would be right. I then face lathered the soap for a minute or two, repeatedly going back to the basin to dip the tips of the brush in the water. As I worked the lather on my face, it built up into a fairly dry thing, and unlike the explosion of lather that I got earlier from MdC, this lather pretty much fizzled:
The lather on my face began dissipating, and the same thing happened to the lather in the brush. There was plenty of soap loaded, as my face was very slick, and despite the lack of lather in the brush when I reapplied for the second pass, it once again built up a bit before thinning out. The quality of the shave was actually quite good. I had no irritation and am BBS. Postshave feel was a bit dry, but nothing that a good AS couldn't take care of. Now, lest anyone get the idea that this is a bad soap, please keep in mind that this is one shave with a soap I've never used before. I had similar experiences early on with Simpson's Unscented soap, Mitchell's and Cade. In all of those cases, a bit of trial and error coupled with consistent use of the soap resulted in consistently decent to excellent performance from all of them. So much so, that I rank Mitchell's in my top three soaps for ease of lathering and performance. At some point, I will put Captain Fawcett's soap through its 3017 paces if only for the scent, which is fantastic.
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- #23
I don't know how they achieve this. The hair and bristles in all knots are processed in different ways before either shipment and/or knot construction. I am as in the dark about this brush as I am the other brushes in the stable.
It is generally accepted that two things split the tips on boar brushes. Just going through a wet to dry to wet to dry cycle will start the tips to split, and seems to be the main action that starts the process. Use of the brush after the splitting has started accelerates the breaking in. It's possible the omega knots/brushes go through a different wash/dry cycle(s) during their manufacturing, and that causes the tips to start splitting.
Last night's shave was pretty much a repeat of the previous - palm lathering MW Maestrale in an attempt to finally finish it off.
I soaked the brush while in the shower unlike the previous night. While I got a good lather the first time, soaking the brush definitely helped the process, as did soaking the soap.
Shook brush dry, picked up as much soap as possible and went to work. Produced a good deal of thick, slick lather.
Luckily for the sake of viewers, the process was not photo-documented.
Tonight I think, some bowl lathering QCS Fougere.
I soaked the brush while in the shower unlike the previous night. While I got a good lather the first time, soaking the brush definitely helped the process, as did soaking the soap.
Shook brush dry, picked up as much soap as possible and went to work. Produced a good deal of thick, slick lather.
Luckily for the sake of viewers, the process was not photo-documented.
Tonight I think, some bowl lathering QCS Fougere.
I don't know how the hairs come pre-split. I have a SOC that has months of use and the tips on it aren't split as much as the tips on my BBE boar. I'll try and get some pictures up later to show the difference.
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This it my first B&B brush, I traded for it on the BST. It had been lathered only a few times before I got it and after a good bath it looked like this.
With my very first use it felt soft and broken in and lathered a hard Dr. Harris soap easily.
My very first Bore was a PIF to me from a fellow member, and Since then I have fallen in love with boars. It was a Omega 49.......quite the lather machine............but now I want to learn how to face lather and try a smaller brush. So the B&B was acquired. Night shave With the B&B later tonight.
View attachment 451053
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With my very first use it felt soft and broken in and lathered a hard Dr. Harris soap easily.
My very first Bore was a PIF to me from a fellow member, and Since then I have fallen in love with boars. It was a Omega 49.......quite the lather machine............but now I want to learn how to face lather and try a smaller brush. So the B&B was acquired. Night shave With the B&B later tonight.
View attachment 451053
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- #28
That's a great post. 
​Loading it like I hate it........................my B&B Essential Boar has never herd better words, and here's how my shave went.
View attachment 451120
​My soap of choice was BBP one quick dip picked up this. Time to work on my face lathering.
Here's what the brush looked like after first lather, maybe a bit more water was needed, but it felt rich and slick.
Each pass was better then the first by adding some water. I did three passes and some touch ups.
View attachment 451120
​My soap of choice was BBP one quick dip picked up this. Time to work on my face lathering.
Here's what the brush looked like after first lather, maybe a bit more water was needed, but it felt rich and slick.
Each pass was better then the first by adding some water. I did three passes and some touch ups.
The B&B brush was still holding a far amount of soap, so I decided to see what would happen if I tried to bowl lather what was left, here are the results, looks like enough for a two pass shave to me. Nice brush.................
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Excellent work by you!
Day 3, bowl lathered QCS Fougère. Overloaded (for me) on the protolather
to get to a real nice cushiony slick lather.
Enough for 3 full face shaves, or 10 of my cheeks n neck shaves.
Day 3, bowl lathered QCS Fougère. Overloaded (for me) on the protolather
to get to a real nice cushiony slick lather.
Enough for 3 full face shaves, or 10 of my cheeks n neck shaves.
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- #32
Great lathers, gents!
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- #33
Day 4: Omega B&B Essential Boar and DR Harris Windsor Soap or Another Reason to Celebrate Like it's a Jubilee
After yesterday's experience with Captain Fawcett's Luxurious Shave Soap, I decided to dip into a soap which I know to be tried and true, DR Harris Windsor. In the past, I have 3017'd a puck of Harris Almond and a stick of Harris Arlington, both of which provided me 4+ months of stellar lathers and great scents. Unlike the other traditional English houses like the 3 T's, Penhaligon's and Floris, DR Harris did not reformulate their soaps in such a way that tallow was eliminated from the formula, though it's prominence in the ingredients list was reduced. As a result, Harris soaps have, over recent years, achieved greater prominence and recognition as top shelf shaving soaps. I have had the opportunity to use or sniff each of the Harris scents, and Windsor (recently introduced in honor of Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee as monarch) is my favorite. It has more of a light, citrusy fragrance that some have loosely compared to Pen's Blenheim Bouquet, but they are entirely different beasts in the details and complexities.
So for a direct comparison with Captain Fawcett's, I followed the exact same loading and lathering process for this once-used puck of Windsor. A damp brush swirled on a soaked puck of Windsor for 1 minute yielded this:
After face lathering and successive trips to the basin for additional water, I was left with a brush loaded with rich, slick lather:
Compared to the lathered Captain Fawcett's:
There is a big difference in appearance, and an even bigger one in performance. Today's shave was thoroughly enjoyable and not fraught with disappearing lather. The knot of the Essential, though not nearly as big as the Semogue SOC or Omega 10048, is capable of holding a lot of lather, and unlike the dense, big-knotted badgers, despite being boars, these brushes are not hogs when it comes to releasing lather.
After yesterday's experience with Captain Fawcett's Luxurious Shave Soap, I decided to dip into a soap which I know to be tried and true, DR Harris Windsor. In the past, I have 3017'd a puck of Harris Almond and a stick of Harris Arlington, both of which provided me 4+ months of stellar lathers and great scents. Unlike the other traditional English houses like the 3 T's, Penhaligon's and Floris, DR Harris did not reformulate their soaps in such a way that tallow was eliminated from the formula, though it's prominence in the ingredients list was reduced. As a result, Harris soaps have, over recent years, achieved greater prominence and recognition as top shelf shaving soaps. I have had the opportunity to use or sniff each of the Harris scents, and Windsor (recently introduced in honor of Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee as monarch) is my favorite. It has more of a light, citrusy fragrance that some have loosely compared to Pen's Blenheim Bouquet, but they are entirely different beasts in the details and complexities.
So for a direct comparison with Captain Fawcett's, I followed the exact same loading and lathering process for this once-used puck of Windsor. A damp brush swirled on a soaked puck of Windsor for 1 minute yielded this:
After face lathering and successive trips to the basin for additional water, I was left with a brush loaded with rich, slick lather:
Compared to the lathered Captain Fawcett's:
There is a big difference in appearance, and an even bigger one in performance. Today's shave was thoroughly enjoyable and not fraught with disappearing lather. The knot of the Essential, though not nearly as big as the Semogue SOC or Omega 10048, is capable of holding a lot of lather, and unlike the dense, big-knotted badgers, despite being boars, these brushes are not hogs when it comes to releasing lather.
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Here is a quick palm lather I did using Savon Du Midi Vetyver hard soap.
There was plenty of lather for a nice three pass shave and then some.
There was plenty of lather for a nice three pass shave and then some.
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- #35
Yep...
Could someone PLEASE send Chris the links for making good lather!?!?! It must be awful shaving with that thin and airy lather and it doesn't even look like enough for a single pass!
I kid, of course. I will never tire of gawking at Chris' epic lather pr0n.
I kid, of course. I will never tire of gawking at Chris' epic lather pr0n.And this he claims was a "quick palm lather". I'd like to see what happens when he asserts himself!
Chris, are you like a 12 pass shaver?
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