Review of Excalibur Rustics 24mm Super Silvertip
Being new to wet shaving, but not having to necessarily budget on a dime, I went in search of a nice brush, with the longer barbers handle, to add to my ever growing collection. After some searching around I came across some brushes on that auction site, by Excalibur Rustics, Rub Gubber being the actual maker. The handles looked amazing, using plenty of burl and natural wood colors, and knots ranging from Best to Super and knot sizes from 22mm all the way to 30mm. I didnt want a 30mm monster knot, as Im still developing my own distinct style, but wanted something more than my, (at the time), only brush, a $10 special off of Amazon in pure that couldnt stop shedding. So after browsing through his available brushes, I decided on the longer handled, black and white Ebony with a 24mm Super knot set at a 54mm loft. Now, Im not sure where he sources his knots from, possibly a question to ask him in the future. Delivery time for me is a little wonky as I am working overseas, so you can typically add at least 5 days to what it would take to arrive if I were stateside. The brush arrived about 10 days later, and quite impressively.
The brush was packaged very well, in its own travel tube, wrapped in paper towel. The travel tube is something I will hold on to for future uses. The brush itself was as described. Nice and tall, with a full, soft, dense knot of badger. What I was impressed with was the handle itself. The figuring on the wood is phenomenal, and the clear coat over this looked impressive, almost like the entire handle was made of resin. Very well made, and very well protected.
I immediately went to make a test lather with it, to see how it performed out of the box. I grabbed my Castle Forbes cream and loaded the brush with a little cream. A little water, and after a minute or so of whipping, more water, whipping, the lather started to become evident. Having read about new Super brushes, I was expecting it to be a lather/water hog, and this was no exception even more so than I was thinking. I ended up using a bit more product and water than expected, but the result was a nice, yogurt consistency lather. I rinsed everything off, and set it out to dry.
The next morning was time for its first actual shave session and, being Wednesday, was time for a test, Mitchells Wool Fat. I was still trying to dial this soap in, as I had just received it as well, though the previous lather was about right. I soaked the brush, showered and went to load the brush. After about a minute of loading and creating a nice proto lather, I started to work up a decently good lather. I did have to go back to reload once. This brush has some scritch, but overall has a very soft feel to it. A little bit of backbone, maybe not quite as much as I was hoping. Overall, I was very happy with the brushs performance on the first shave.
Over the next week +, I used this brush most mornings and the more it started to break in, the more I would consider it to be slightly floppy, as the little backbone it had became more subdued. Loading the brush takes more work as well. I found that a mixture of bowl and face lathering was the best route, with the bulk of the lather being applied with a painting motion after some swirling motion. The best quality of the brush, however, is the softness when applying to the face. For those who cannot deal with a lot of scritch or scrub, this would be an ideal brush. Ive heard HMW knots being described as being like a pillow when applied, and this is pretty much how I would describe this brush. Im happy with the purchase overall. The quality of the handle, and the softness of the knot when applying on the face is impressive. I do wish it had a bit more scritch and backbone, but I think this can be attributed to the 54mm loft paired with a 24mm knot. Of course, YMMV...
More pictures in a follow on post...
Being new to wet shaving, but not having to necessarily budget on a dime, I went in search of a nice brush, with the longer barbers handle, to add to my ever growing collection. After some searching around I came across some brushes on that auction site, by Excalibur Rustics, Rub Gubber being the actual maker. The handles looked amazing, using plenty of burl and natural wood colors, and knots ranging from Best to Super and knot sizes from 22mm all the way to 30mm. I didnt want a 30mm monster knot, as Im still developing my own distinct style, but wanted something more than my, (at the time), only brush, a $10 special off of Amazon in pure that couldnt stop shedding. So after browsing through his available brushes, I decided on the longer handled, black and white Ebony with a 24mm Super knot set at a 54mm loft. Now, Im not sure where he sources his knots from, possibly a question to ask him in the future. Delivery time for me is a little wonky as I am working overseas, so you can typically add at least 5 days to what it would take to arrive if I were stateside. The brush arrived about 10 days later, and quite impressively.
The brush was packaged very well, in its own travel tube, wrapped in paper towel. The travel tube is something I will hold on to for future uses. The brush itself was as described. Nice and tall, with a full, soft, dense knot of badger. What I was impressed with was the handle itself. The figuring on the wood is phenomenal, and the clear coat over this looked impressive, almost like the entire handle was made of resin. Very well made, and very well protected.
I immediately went to make a test lather with it, to see how it performed out of the box. I grabbed my Castle Forbes cream and loaded the brush with a little cream. A little water, and after a minute or so of whipping, more water, whipping, the lather started to become evident. Having read about new Super brushes, I was expecting it to be a lather/water hog, and this was no exception even more so than I was thinking. I ended up using a bit more product and water than expected, but the result was a nice, yogurt consistency lather. I rinsed everything off, and set it out to dry.
The next morning was time for its first actual shave session and, being Wednesday, was time for a test, Mitchells Wool Fat. I was still trying to dial this soap in, as I had just received it as well, though the previous lather was about right. I soaked the brush, showered and went to load the brush. After about a minute of loading and creating a nice proto lather, I started to work up a decently good lather. I did have to go back to reload once. This brush has some scritch, but overall has a very soft feel to it. A little bit of backbone, maybe not quite as much as I was hoping. Overall, I was very happy with the brushs performance on the first shave.
Over the next week +, I used this brush most mornings and the more it started to break in, the more I would consider it to be slightly floppy, as the little backbone it had became more subdued. Loading the brush takes more work as well. I found that a mixture of bowl and face lathering was the best route, with the bulk of the lather being applied with a painting motion after some swirling motion. The best quality of the brush, however, is the softness when applying to the face. For those who cannot deal with a lot of scritch or scrub, this would be an ideal brush. Ive heard HMW knots being described as being like a pillow when applied, and this is pretty much how I would describe this brush. Im happy with the purchase overall. The quality of the handle, and the softness of the knot when applying on the face is impressive. I do wish it had a bit more scritch and backbone, but I think this can be attributed to the 54mm loft paired with a 24mm knot. Of course, YMMV...
More pictures in a follow on post...
