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Mixed Knots

Hi all,

I had a question pertaining to mixed badger/boar knots. I know that the small Omega mixed knot generally gets good reviews. I am a bit more interested in the Semogue OC badger/ boar mix.

I am wondering if there is a risk that the boar hair will break in, but the Badger will always have some scritch? I have been breaking in the Boar SOC for 4 months. It has become unbelievably soft and no longer eats lather. I really like the aesthetics and function of the brush.

In general, what is the benefit of adding 2-band badger hair to a boar brush? Does the face-feel, backbone or lather quality improve? Is there a downside with mixed badger/boar in general and the mixed SOC in particular.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
I have two Mistura brushes, both SOC. I have the Taj and the Butterscotch handles. I brought these two brushes with me when we traveled to Bali for dental work last August, 2022. They are very fine brushes. I haven't noticed any degradation in the face feel I get with either of them, after extensive use.

We are headed back for the final dental work in April through the middle of May in just a few months now. I might bring them along again.
 
The Semogue mistura is a very good brush, and easy to use. My opinion on mixed is that if you have badger, the mixed is a way to make the brush a bit better. If you have boar, the mixed is a way to make the brush a bit worse. So, you can see where my preferences lie.
 
The small Omega is Scritch Master 1 and really an acquired taste, the SOC starts good and becomes great. It’s really the Goldilocks of what Semogue has available.

Mixed = Mistura/ 2Band / Boar
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I have a Yaqi 2-band which I like, but do not use very much. It is supposed to be 26 mm, but actually blooms to a monstrous size. It kind of feels like memory foam on my face. It has backbone, but the backbone feels like the resistance that you would get from pressing down on a cushion. The thing that sets this apart from my other brushes is its softness and ability to retain heat.

My brush with the greatest amount of backbone is the Omega Jade. After 4 months that one is still breaking in, but was very usable from day two. That's a very nice brush, but it is not as ergonomic as the SOC.

I don't know if I can justify buying the Mistura, but I have been looking at the one with the Taj resin handle. I love the softness, of the Cherry Handles SOC, but the aesthetics and the ergonomics are what really set it apart. The weight distribution is perfect. If the Taj Handled SOC Mistura has a similar overall weight and weight distribution to the wood handled SOC, I might eventually get that. Otherwise, maybe I will get the Ashwood handled one.
 
I have a Yaqi 2-band which I like, but do not use very much. It is supposed to be 26 mm, but actually blooms to a monstrous size. It kind of feels like memory foam on my face. It has backbone, but the backbone feels like the resistance that you would get from pressing down on a cushion. The thing that sets this apart from my other brushes is its softness and ability to retain heat.

My brush with the greatest amount of backbone is the Omega Jade. After 4 months that one is still breaking in, but was very usable from day two. That's a very nice brush, but it is not as ergonomic as the SOC.

I don't know if I can justify buying the Mistura, but I have been looking at the one with the Taj resin handle. I love the softness, of the Cherry Handles SOC, but the aesthetics and the ergonomics are what really set it apart. The weight distribution is perfect. If the Taj Handled SOC Mistura has a similar overall weight and weight distribution to the wood handled SOC, I might eventually get that. Otherwise, maybe I will get the Ashwood handled one.
The resin handles are heavier than the wood.
 
More backbone with the Mistura. The cherry SOC Mistura was my choice over the SOC boar. The badger hair seems to stabilize the boar hair so it does not get too floppy over time.

I also chose the C5 Torga boar over the SOC boar. It has shorter loft, but very similar hair. The shorter loft stops it from getting all floppy and blooming out of control.

I've been happy with both the SOC Mistura and the C5 Torga boar. I've also got the cherry SOC Two-band badger which is quite a nice brush, too.
 
Thank you all for your help. I ordered the SOC Mistura Taj Resin to go along with the Cherry handled SOC Boar. If I had planned things out, I may have gone with the Taj Boar and the Cherry Mistura, but I am definitely looking forward to trying the Mistura. Hopefully, it will be more than the sum of its parts!
 
I got my Taj Mistura and washed it today. The brush had absolutely no odor. I expected a certain amount of roughness or scritch from the boar hairs during the break-in period. Surprisingly, the brush, which has a significant amount of backbone, has no scritch or roughness.

Other than the unusual amount of backbone, I would say that the face feel is more like that of a badger brush than a boar brush. However, taking the backbone into account, the face feel is completely unique. I am very happy with it.

It would be nice to understand how Semogue is avoiding the initial roughness with the boar hair. The SOC boar definitely requires breaking in before the tips become soft.
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I wanted to thank everyone for their input and also give a brief update with my experience with the Semogue OC Mistura. Contrary to my previous statement, the brush does have a break-in period. It starts out soft and becomes softer. The break-in is mainly related to the fact that the brush seems to consume a little bit of lather until the boar hairs split. The amount of lather it consumes is much less than the amount that the boar OC consumes in the first few months, but I just want to make sure that I don't mislead anyone with my previous statement.

In terms of face-feel, I would say that the Mistura feels more like a two band badger than a boar brush, but it has much more backbone than any of the two band badgers that I have tried. It has significantly more backbone that the boar OC and the bloom is smaller than that of the boar OC. In terms of backbone, it is probably comparable to the Jade Omega (011842). Nevertheless, the face feel is completely different.

In terms of evaluating the softness of the tips and the backbone, I observe the following:

Backbone: Mistura OC > Two Band OC > Boar OC

Softness: Boar OC > Mistura OC > Two Band OC

I don't think that the above observations are generally true for boar and badger brushes. The Semogue OC Boar is unusually soft and loses much of its backbone when it is fully broken-in. The Mistura is a much denser knot and seems to solve the issue with loss of backbone.

In my opinion, the Mistura is a great brush for anyone that loves the Boar OC, but wants more backbone. Keep in mind that I have only owned the Mistura for about two months. If my observations seem off, please chime in.
 
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