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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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