What's new

Current Rooney Knot Grades

Great pics. The first thing I noticed was the flat tops in the 2014 pics.

Almost looks like it was trimmed after the knot was put in as some are flat and some are more naturally pointy.

I've seen Rooney be accused of trimming before but I forget where.

I know I've seen tips breaks off of knots at times from regular use. Can't remember if it happened with this brush.... It's also possible that it was trimmed but I would probably need a good pic of when it first arrived to prove the tips were like that before I started using it. Or if someone else sees similar flat ends on their modern Rooney, that would definitely be interesting.

On a related note...this excellent post from @mblakele discusses broken tips with close up pics.

Great pics! What are you using to take the pics, I am interested in how my brushes look under magnification.

I used a canon G11 in macro mode and natural light to get pics of the knots. Then I cropped them on my laptop to zoom in. Would love to see pics of yours if you get a chance.
 
I have a cheapo digital camera with macro that I tried taking some pics with but nothing came out clear. I will try again tomorrow evening after work while there is still some daylight.
 
Great pics. The first thing I noticed was the flat tops in the 2014 pics.

Almost looks like it was trimmed after the knot was put in as some are flat and some are more naturally pointy.

I've seen Rooney be accused of trimming before but I forget where.

...It's also possible that it was trimmed but I would probably need a good pic of when it first arrived to prove the tips were like that before I started using it.


I found a pic from mid-October with enough detail to zoom in a bit. This was after only 12 shaves so I can't imagine I had much impact on the tips at this point. Plenty of hairs with flat-ends can be seen, so I'd say this is how Rooney shipped it. Don't get me wrong though, I still like this brush and enjoy using it quite a bit.

$1-2 after 11 shaves.jpg
 
I have a cheapo digital camera with macro that I tried taking some pics with but nothing came out clear. I will try again tomorrow evening after work while there is still some daylight.

I tried again but had no luck. If I happen to come up with a way to get some good pics like Shevec I will post them here.
 
I have one of the new Rooney brushes from CS and I think it's great. It's soft with backbone and just an all around great brush at a great price.
 
I'm disappointed that the Heritage Brushes have disappeared from the Vintage Blades site. Hopefully one day they'll come back. I want a Beehive.
 
I'm disappointed that the Heritage Brushes have disappeared from the Vintage Blades site. Hopefully one day they'll come back. I want a Beehive.
The Beehive 2 could be my favorite handle shape in my collection. Mine is a M&F but it's identical.
 
I have one of the new Rooney brushes from CS and I think it's great. It's soft with backbone and just an all around great brush at a great price.


I read on another thread that yours has hooked tips. You can see a little bit of that in my last pic, but more tips are just bent, and several have flat ends. The result is a combination of soft and scrubby with a hint of scritch. I wonder if the CS batch is softer than the batch where I got mine in mid-2014.
 
I read on another thread that yours has hooked tips. You can see a little bit of that in my last pic, but more tips are just bent, and several have flat ends. The result is a combination of soft and scrubby with a hint of scritch. I wonder if the CS batch is softer than the batch where I got mine in mid-2014.
How do yours look when wet? Do they clump together?
 
I initially purchased a 1/1 from vintage blades and the hair was exactly like what you described in your first picture. It actually prompted me to buy a 1/2, which had hair like you second picture. Only test lathered so far but a huge variance in quality, was quite disappointed.

You can see in these closeups why the Silvertip batch from 2013 feels softer than the one from 2014. In the photo of the 3/1 from 2013, you can see the tips of the hair are intact. But in the 1/2 from 2014, some of the hairs contain flat ends. Not sure what would cause some of the ends to be flat - perhaps some tips broke off during the various processing steps.

Rooney 3/1 Silvertip from 2013
View attachment 543869

Rooney 1/2 Silvertip from 2014
View attachment 543868
 
Ohh no, does this mean that the 3/1 is no longer the same legend that has been praised here for so long? I was set on getting one until what I just read. Is it still worth getting or would I be better off with a WD silvertip when the knots are back in stock?
 
Ohh no, does this mean that the 3/1 is no longer the same legend that has been praised here for so long? I was set on getting one until what I just read. Is it still worth getting or would I be better off with a WD silvertip when the knots are back in stock?

Jim at Vintage blades was actually nice to communicate with regarding whether or not he had any brushes with naturally terminating tips available. I'd send him an email so you could find out.
 
I had two Rooney Super Silvertip brushes. One was a re-branded T&H 1/2 and one was a 3/1 purchased from Vintage Blades. Both of them had similar hair that was very soft yet the knots lacked density and they were floppy. They measured 24x50 for the 1/2 and 22x26 for the 3/1.

I also had a Simpson Duke 2 in best that was much more scratchy and had brown tips as opposed to the very light tips of the Rooney silvertip. FWIW.
 
My Duke was pretty new and it had brown tips the same color as the hair below the dark band. I've seen some that had very light tips. Wish they could up their hair quality.
 
Top Bottom