Looking for a really high-end expensive brush

[IMightBeWrong]

The Varlet is the best I've used. When I bought mine, they weren't the most expensive option, but they have become the most expensive option since they've gone all-custom. I'm glad I got some when prices were lower.

I’ll eventually order one. Hope I’m not too late to the party when I’m ready, though. I am planning a move, though, and wouldn’t want to order until in the new place. :/

Awesome you were able to get one earlier. Anything you’d say it’s similar to?

 

[pork]

I’ll eventually order one. Hope I’m not too late to the party when I’m ready, though. I am planning a move, though, and wouldn’t want to order until in the new place. :/

Awesome you were able to get one earlier. Anything you’d say it’s similar to?

I have five of them. Two have identical knots. The other three are each different from the rest. They might be similar to something I haven’t yet tried, but they aren’t too similar to what I own now or have owned (Declaration, Simpson, Black Eagle, etc.). And they are different from one another (aside from the pair with identical knots). I dunno...best assessment I have is they just flat out work better than any other brush I’ve used. The hair sorting is top notch and lather release blows away everything else I own.

 

[IMightBeWrong]

I have five of them. Two have identical knots. The other three are each different from the rest. They might be similar to something I haven’t yet tried, but they aren’t too similar to what I own now or have owned (Declaration, Simpson, Black Eagle, etc.). And they are different from one another (aside from the pair with identical knots). I dunno...best assessment I have is they just flat out work better than any other brush I’ve used. The hair sorting is top notch and lather release blows away everything else I own.
View attachment 1138468

Just do me a favor and think of me first if you want to sell any!

 

[old_school]

A couple more Eagles. Simpson G3 in Super and another one in Manchurian.

 

[blantyre]

You might consider vintage. Depending on the type of hair that you like. I like backbone and a bit of scratch. My favorites are Rooney finest and the old two band Plisson high mountain white. I’ve tried recent Paladin and Bad Sears. Beautiful craftsmanship but the knots were both “gel tip” -basically overcooked spaghetti. I am considering ordering a Varlet but I can’t find out much about the hair grade other than the promise of soft tips that makes me pause. If it’s the low grade stuff that’s processed to makes the tips soft then I’m not interested. Some of the Shavemac D knots are excellent and Rudy Vey can get these.

I suspect that the really good wild badger was hunted to near extinction a decade or more ago. The hair now comes as a high value by product from Chinese badger sausage farms and it just doesn’t have the same qualities that develop when the creature has to survive in the wild. A lot of the hair now is heavily chemically processed to give it qualities that reviewers seem to like.

 

[blantyre]

(love making the cream over my face and not in a bowel)

the pitfalls of the spell checker! I guess this would qualify as a Freudian slip?

 

[RoccaJohn]

Hi, I have been a long time lurker and only joined yesterday, firstly what a fantastic site.
For the op, could I suggest a marfin brush, I have never owned one but I love the hand carved briar wood handles.

 

[Roy]

SV MAKE beautiful brushes. Excellent in every way and mine has not lost a single hair, unlike a well known makers dense badger.

 

[SharpieB]

the pitfalls of the spell checker! I guess this would qualify as a Freudian slip?

Wow. Ain’t that something.

I almost spit my coffee on my iPad.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

the pitfalls of the spell checker! I guess this would qualify as a Freudian slip?

Sometimes I get really aggravated at autocorrect and think about turning it off. But it’s times like this that it brings some unexpected humor into the conversation that keep it turned on.

I much prefer the spellchecker type software rather than the autocorrect type that thinks it is smarter than you are. With the spellchecker, it at least leaves the words alone and flags them for you to look at.

But some of these new programmers think they know better than the consumer and foist a half ready product on the unsuspecting public. The sad part is that we just say, okay, I guess I have to learn this “new way” rather than insist that they make it the way we want it.

I’m starting to think I’m like those vintage razors we all seem to adore. Old and tossed aside until some future generation sees them as a novel thing of the past and wants to use them again. The sad part is by the time we see the older generation as something we want again, they are usually gone.

I was taught to respect my elders and treat them as a source of experience, but somewhere along the line, someone failed to pass that thinking on to their kids.

Sorry for the rant. Just chalk it up to the lunatic ravings of an older man. I’ll step off my soapbox for now.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

Hi, I have been a long time lurker and only joined yesterday, firstly what a fantastic site.
For the op, could I suggest a marfin brush, I have never owned one but I love the hand carved briar wood handles.

I like a wooden handled brush although I do not own any myself. The Marfin brushes look nice but I suspect the handles are impractical and uncomfortable to use, they certainly look it although the shapes do vary of course. I do not see them mentioned much here and I suspect there is a good reason for that.

 

[bkatbamna]

I got lucky and got a stirling 26mm in Finest that I'd put up there with most of the brushes mentioned in this thread. Now I haven't used a Thater or Rudy Vey but have used Paladin, Declaration, Rooney, Shavemac, and Varlet. Any of the brushes mentioned in this thread are exdcellent.

 

[inspectoring]

Lately I have come back to Simpsons.

I have 2 chubby 3 supers - simply amazing - tips are not bleached but the hair - oh amazing soft tips - excellent backbone- I save one for later use after couple of uses , and continue to use one in a large rotation - amazing backbone soft tips , always face lather - takes at least a day to dry, but you can’t have it in a single rotation.

If you can track down an old stock super brush - I recently did, you would be amazed at the quality of hair from 8 -10 yrs ago. I have used several high end brushes , as well as the cheap ones - I don’t think I will ever go back.

Someone else can chime in but my understanding is that at least back in the day – Simpsons never chemically processed hair.
As far as I know – they still don’t.

 

[Demaratus]

Lately I have come back to Simpsons.

I have 2 chubby 3 supers - simply amazing - tips are not bleached but the hair - oh amazing soft tips - excellent backbone- I save one for later use after couple of uses , and continue to use one in a large rotation - amazing backbone soft tips , always face lather - takes at least a day to dry, but you can’t have it in a single rotation.

If you can track down an old stock super brush - I recently did, you would be amazed at the quality of hair from 8 -10 yrs ago. I have used several high end brushes , as well as the cheap ones - I don’t think I will ever go back.

Someone else can chime in but my understanding is that at least back in the day – Simpsons never chemically processed hair.
As far as I know – they still don’t.

Yes, they seem to be the only ones left. Their hair now sometimes isn’t as good as it once was, but it’s still pretty great compared to the competition. And I say that liking Shavemac, to pick one, a great deal. But everyone else seems to be treating their tips, which yields a fine result that I enjoy a great deal, but the purist in me enjoys the untreated hair.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Space_Cadet]

Brad Sears makes great brushes.
Paladin too.
Have both and they are great.
You might also want to consider a Simpsons Manchurian.

 

[patten1969]

Plisson High Mountain White in natural horn is pretty amazing and amazingly expensive. There are a lot of other great suggestions here too. Paladin isn't the most expensive but the brushes are up there with the best, and the owner has a lot of great history here.

 

[SliceOfLife]

If USPS ever settles down I should have a natural horn handled Plisson HMW coming that was an incredibly good deal.

I've owned a few plisson in the past and never really loved them... several vintage "pure badger" that looked like HMW, and a modern European grey. But this is a fully labeled HMW... So no guessing if it's the exact same knot as their $400+ brush... I will be able to use it and know for sure.


And then there's the poor guy on eBay who had a chrome handled high mountain White, who ripped the knot out and replaced it with a Chinese knot because he didn't think it was dense enough. That was a pretty bad $300 mistake on his part.

 

[razorboi]

...And then there's the poor guy on eBay who had a chrome handled high mountain White, who ripped the knot out and replaced it with a Chinese knot because he didn't think it was dense enough. That was a pretty bad $300 mistake on his part.

Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SliceOfLife]

Your sig is very apt in that case.

 

[dfoulk]

At the very highest tier you'll find hand tied knots from:

Varlet (around the $500 mark)
Black Eagle HT knots (around the $450 to $500 mark)
Mozingo Brushworks ZT series knots (guessing around the $250 to $300 range)

To a lesser extent but certainly exceptional- Declaration Grooming ($300 range) - how good depends on which batch.

I prefer Varlet, Black Eagle and Mozingo hand tied knots over Declaration but I couldn't leave Declaration off of the list. Knots at this level should gel with nice hooked tips. They are densely packed and about as luxurious as you can get. At the moment, these are the best brushes on the planet and it doesn't get any better than this.