What's new

Brush den complete

The final piece of the puzzle has landed and the brush den is officially complete. The shelf is full and I’m checking out of BAD to focus on other acquisition disorders. Here are the top ten I’ve ended up with. Each main brush model is represented in 2-band and 3-band. They all offer something different and I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite. The collection goes way beyond utility and sometimes I think that there’s actually too much choice. Saying that I can’t think of a single one that I’d like to be without.

CC60DA19-7844-4165-9D35-BCBA63D94267.jpeg



The Simpson Duke 3’s in Best and Silvertip. The perfect all arounder. A compact knot with a decent sized handle. The Duke 3 makes a great daily driver. It’s not too hungry and does a great job with whatever you throw at it. The Simpson Silvertip hair may well be my favorite hair grade of all. Extremely soft and plump with a bouncy backbone.
FC86125F-8E35-4D29-8E49-4D64C0041AD0.jpeg



The Simpson Chubby 2’s in Super and Manchurian. The big dogs. It’s always fun to let these two off the leash. They’re big, hungry and pure luxury. Great for finishing off a puck of soap or face planting into a wall of badger. The definition of excess.
B79E042D-81BE-48E3-9363-1D0350A894D6.jpeg



The Shavemac CB3’s in 24mm Silvertip and 2-Band Silvertip. The bulbs. These two are German precision at its finest. The bulbs are perfectly formed. The hair is always consistent. They never shed. Density is perfectly calibrated to the task. Simply put they are a joy to use. Probably my favourite knot shape too. I don’t think you can go wrong with one of these.
DA933C0E-9583-469F-B64C-3D48A4CB0616.jpeg



The Plisson #12’s in High Mountain White and European White. The classics. The Plisson brand is steeped in history and these brushes are about as classic as it gets. Natural horn and Ebony handles adorn the knots. These are the most beautiful brushes I own. They also have the most ergonomic handles. The high lofted bulb is a real workhorse too. The brushes have the unique ability to hold lather in the top of the knot without it getting all over the handle and bunching up at the base of the knot. They always feel like an indulgence.
44F98F31-CE97-4651-8EC7-C8B762EA7A3C.jpeg


Apart from the main pack there are two brushes in supporting roles.

The Simpson Classic 1 in Best. The traveller. Quite possibly the perfect travel brush. It’s small and compact but blooms up big. There’s no need to rough it when you got one of these in you dopp bag. If your in a rush you can hit it with the blow drier and pack it away in it’s made to measure tube.
80D083DB-D3C6-4330-B91D-0EA85C6A5D6A.jpeg



The Edwin Jagger 23mm STF synthetic. With all the hype around synthetic I had to try one. To be fair it’s a pretty good brush. For me it just fell short of the badgers in terms of face feel, performance and aesthetics. The synth now plays a supporting role in the shower. It’s actually perfect for these conditions and saves my badger brushes for face duties only.
644C7295-1E6C-4127-9BA7-E388B547060B.jpeg



There were of course a few missteps that didn’t work out. There was a brief flirtation with boars. I like to give everything a try and I actually really liked the boars. I just liked the badgers more and with life being short and space being tight they eventually got side lined. The Chubby 1 was my first brush and is probably one of the best face lathering brushes out there but the handle turned out to be a bit short when I moved to bowl lathering. I was sad to see these go but the Chubby 2’s are working out much better for the bowl. And then there was a Thäter 3-band. This was the softest brush I’ve ever had but it turned out to be too soft for me. This got swapped out with an almost identical looking Shavemac. The Shavemac turned out to have a lot more presence and I’ve never looked back.

That gents is my completed brush collection and I’m sticking to it. Ten is enough.
 
Last edited:

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
Great set up. I love the Dukes particularly. That Classic is like a mini-Chubby, isn't it? I have one myself. Great little brush.
 
Going through the emails this afternoon, in the cold light of day, and adding up the total cost of the collection has been a sobering experience. I was pretty close with my estimate. I knew it was bad and the numbers don’t lie.

In the last 14 months I bought 17 brushes, sold 4, kept 10 and relagated 3 to storage. Of the brushes I sold, I managed to recoup 61.4% of the initial investment after shipping and fees. In retrospect I should have probably kept a couple of the Chubby 1’s but what’s done is done.

It’s fair to say that BAD hit me pretty hard this year. I’ve enjoyed the ride but I’m stepping off the train. I’ve probably got another 50-60 years on this planet and this little hoard should go pretty close to seeing me out.
 
Last edited:

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
Nice collection! I am also set at ten brushes and having just acquired a Paladin 2xl and a Simpson Classic 1, I have a couple of sales coming up. I am just deciding what to let go. I think it is wise to retain a limited number of brushes, razors, etc. and to really appreciate them, rather than to have so many that they hardly get used and you need an Excel spreadsheet to maintain your inventory. That seems a bit sad to me, but to each his own. 😁
 
Nice collection! I am also set at ten brushes and having just acquired a Paladin 2xl and a Simpson Classic 1, I have a couple of sales coming up. I am just deciding what to let go. I think it is wise to retain a limited number of brushes, razors, etc. and to really appreciate them, rather than to have so many that they hardly get used and you need an Excel spreadsheet to maintain your inventory. That seems a bit sad to me, but to each his own. 😁
A Paladin is certainly tempting but I can’t have it all. If the Paladins were easier to purchase, there would more than likely be a few in the mix by now. They look amazing. There’s plenty of amazing stuff out there but you don’t need to have everything that’s amazing to have an amazing selection. You have to draw the line somewhere.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
Paladins are very nice but man, they're big.
I agree, I love small brushes and the current trend among so called artisan and high end makers for almost comically large brushes frustrates me. It is one reason why I appreciate Simpson so much for their smaller brushes. My Paladin would be far too large for me as an every day brush but it adds a nice variety. That said, it will be my only large brush.
 

Hannah's Dad

I Can See Better Than Bigfoot.
I agree, I love small brushes and the current trend among so called artisan and high end makers for almost comically large brushes frustrates me. It is one reason why I appreciate Simpson so much for their smaller brushes. My Paladin would be far too large for me as an every day brush but it adds a nice variety. That said, it will be my only large brush.
You just ‘need’ to find a 24mm Paladin, like this Winston Churchill SE. The knot is comparable to the Simpsons Duke 2 — the perfect face-lathering size, IMHO.
986FF0E3-A86A-4D8C-B777-47F8536F033C.jpeg
 
That's a great collection. I'm also a badger fan. After some BST sales, I'm down to two brushes in regular rotation, one of which is a Shavemac silvertip bulb in a handle that is very similar to the Plisson - I agree with many of your thoughts.
 
Great collection! I think that the older Plisson 2 band high mountain white is as good as it gets - it matches Rooney finest in terms of backbone and soft tips. There is some great bristle around still but it’s getting very hard and expensive to acquire anything of that quality new. I can’t remember how many times I thought I’d reached the ideal set up only to add and trade another dozen items!
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
The final piece of the puzzle has landed and the brush den is officially complete. The shelf is full and I’m checking out of BAD to focus on other acquisition disorders. Here are the top ten I’ve ended up with. Each main brush model is represented in 2-band and 3-band. They all offer something different and I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite. The collection goes way beyond utility and sometimes I think that there’s actually too much choice. Saying that I can’t think of a single one that I’d like to be without.

View attachment 1172265


The Simpson Duke 3’s in Best and Silvertip. The perfect all arounder. A compact knot with a decent sized handle. The Duke 3 makes a great daily driver. It’s not too hungry and does a great job with whatever you throw at it. The Simpson Silvertip hair may well be my favorite hair grade of all. Extremely soft and plump with a bouncy backbone.

In light of the renown of the rest of your collection, the HMW Plisson in particular, guys should sit up and take note of your statement about the excellence of today's Simpson 2 band hair. Yes, it is extremely expensive but it is likely the finest badger hair available anywhere today.
 
Top Bottom