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How To Break In A Brush & Get The Funk Out

So I got a real badger brush for my birthday, and had read over this thread a bit, but not enough. I have my brush sitting in a lather right now, but I did not soak it in dawn first, did I screw it up? I knew I was supposed to, but it didn't smell. Now I am reading that when wet it could have a smell...

Help!
 
So I got a real badger brush for my birthday, and had read over this thread a bit, but not enough. I have my brush sitting in a lather right now, but I did not soak it in dawn first, did I screw it up? I knew I was supposed to, but it didn't smell. Now I am reading that when wet it could have a smell...

Help!

I don't think you screwed it up, no. Most brushes made of animal hair will have a very noticeable stench, that is much more noticeable when the brush is wet.

Using Dawn would have helped speed up the de-smellification process, probably, but the smell will work itself out with a few batches of lather.

Your brush will be fine, you may just have to whip up a practice batch of lather or three before using it for a real shave.
 
I have a brush on the way and if it has "the stink" I will definitely give this method a go. One question though, does the lather leave a noticeable residue when it dries on the brush? I have never left lather out, just sitting in the open air.
 
Used the Ambrose method again with great success. I restored a vintage Century brush with a TGN 24mm Silvertip (short loft) and the badger smell is gone and the tips are softer. I used MWF to lather the brush and left it overnight without rinsing.:thumbup:
 
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LOL I found a great Litmus test to see if funk is gone, try Tabac and take a sniff! Happened to me a few shaves ago and Wow what a combo!
Beware!!!
 
Wow, just got my Semogue in, and was looking at ways to soften it and make it smell nice!

This is a great technique!
 
my simpson duke 3 came in and smelled soooooooo freakin bad. had some major funk. after about 3 lathers, and a little bit of shampoo, its almost gone.
 
I've tried several of the methods here. A couple soaks in Dawn or other dish soap. A 50/50 vinegar/water bath. 2-3 rounds of shampoo and rinse. A test lather and sit overnight. Or just using the brush for a few shaves. It's all good.
 

musicman1951

three-tu-tu, three-tu-tu
It seems to have worked very well. Since this is my first boar brush it's hard to say exactly - but the brush was comfortable on my face today. That's a win in my book.
 
Excellent technique I used it on a new Omega and it worked well. I modified the technique slightly (used shampoo instead of liquid soap) so my results weren't quite 100% but I can see that it works overall.
 
Used this method on an Omega 81052 boar brush. Ehn I got the brush I rubbed it agaist my face just to see what it felt like dry. I have never had a boar before but I can tell you there is no way I would ever suspect one could willingly rub this thing against his face.

I washed with my dish soap, Palmolive with "Oxy" (whatever that is, I wonder if my dish soap isn't addicted to "Hillbilly Heroin"). Then I soaked it in very hot water for about an hour, then I made a lather with green Proraso and let it dry for about five hours.

I can tell you, sir, that I would not recognize the brush I scraped against my skin the first day. This brush was much softer with some splitting already occurring on the ends of the hairs. I used it to shave the next day and it made a very good lather. It is a bit thirsty and I lost two hairs on the first lather, but for certain it knocked a couple weeks off the breaking in process. Thank you for your excellent advice.
 
I prefer to use an organic citrus smelling dish washing liquid or Palmolive. For whatever reason I noticed that Dawn stinks up the kitchen sponges. It's only dish washing liquid made by P&G, those made by Colgate-Palmolive (Palmolive or Ajax brands) don't have that stinkin' effect. Not sure what P&G puts in their detergents... I wouldn't want my badger brush to smell worse than before :smile:
Try porolon sponges instead of rubber ones.
 
No problem, the brush is fine.
I have a very sensitive sniffer.
The funkiest brush I've bought was a Semogue 610. It took over two weeks of hand lathering and drying to defunk.
Funny thing, I bought a second Semogue 610 and it had practically no odor at all, no funkiness whatsoever.
 
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