Most OVER Rated Brush

[Acmemfg]

From what I gather most members of this forum have more than a couple brushes. Some have dozens (I don't-never will)

So often posts are written about what a spectacular brush this is and what a great performer (such an odd metaphor) that one is, etc., etc.

What I would like to know is:

In your learned opinion, what is the most over rated brush you have ever used? By over rated I mean hyped to the heavens and/or with a significantly hefty price tag and really just does.....what a brush does, and without any fanfare, WOW factor, in spite of its reputation (real or imaginary) or other such notoriety. Not bad, just...well you know.

Price really should be a commanding factor in this evaluation. Let's face it, a $5-$10 brush cannot lay claim to being all that pretentious regardless of how well it is regarded. Actually such a brush can be considered on the opposite end of the "OVER" rated spectrum.

Anyway, my choice:

Simpson Emperor (2) Two Band Super Badger. This is the most expensive brush I own. It does nothing wrong. It is attractive and seems well made. It cost over $100. Simpson brushes seem to have a semi-cult like following. That's fine with me. They are not really "collectable"; there are TONS of them out there. It is really just a nice brush..........that cost over $100. My Omega Pro 49 and 11126 models both are swell brushes, serve the same task, and are also nice to look at. The 11126 was $25; the Pro was $9.

I also have a Simpson Colonel in Best. Cost around $50 I think. I like it more than the Emperor (although I prefer the Emperor handle) and think for roughly 1/2 the price it is not "over rated". Yeah, I know the mileage varies and all that but really? Which brush in your quiver best fits in the "Most Over Rated" Category?

C'mon, you all have one....................

 

[Loric]

Every Simpson with out the word "Chubby" on the handle.

 

[vocalistbob]

I'll vote for most (not all) 3-band brushes (Chubbies are excluded from this group) made by the big-name brushmakers. We have several smaller companies that are turning out terrific brushes with terrific (often superior) knots at a fraction of the prices the big guys charge. Most of them also offer excellent handle designs as well. My personal favorites are Whipped Dog (30mm) and Kimson (28mm).

 

[Greg1911]

Frank Shaving or Plisson

 

[beginish]

Rooney Finest. There, I said it. From the hype, you would think that it was obtained from honey badgers and impregnated with cobra venom, a veritable Brush of Gryffindor. It ain't.

 

[AABCDS]

Plisson

 

[wagstaff]

I bought Simpsons in Best. I love them. I like my Whipped Dog Silvertip about equally, and it was way cheaper. And I just got a Farvour two-band for somewhere in between those prices. It's gorgeous and ... so far I love it. I'm still learning some things about two-band ("Finest") TGN. Never had a two-band in any of the big players', so can't compare those directly.

Anyway, all that seems a bit excessive, but I've bought things as I've found good prices and to satisfy some curiosity. There are lots of more expensive things I'm very curious about, but even within the range I have, I don't see the quality differences justifying the price difference, high to low. If I stopped at my Whipped Dog, I could have used that happily, but for the not-knowing about what else was out there. "Overrated?" No idea, really.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Honestly? I'd say Rooney's standard (super/silvertip) line. They are not bad brushes at all (though the size 3 is rather laughably floppy, but MOST people are talking about size 1 when they discuss these brushes anyway), but the amount of recommendations they would get a couple years back was a bit more than they deserved in my opinion. I compared them side by side with Simpson Berkeley (a bit cheaper), a Simpson Duke (about the same price at the time), and a Simpson Chubby 1 (a bit pricier at the time). It was a clean sweep for the Simpsons. The hair was extremely similar, I preferred the Simpson Best, but others would go the other way, but the density and performance were three Simpsons down the line followed by the Rooney. A nice, well-made brush, but out of its league.
Rooney's "Premium" brushes (Finest and the XL stubby series) are really stand-out brushes but I've always found Simpsons and TGN's to be better options when put against Rooney's <$150 offerings. It'll be interesting to see if the changes to Simpson's pricing turns this in Rooney's favor in the future, though.


Then there are the obvious ones, eBay brushes and the majority of cheap badger offerings you'll find people raving about and insisting that they are being sold for far less than they are worth just because their makers are such swell guys, but at this point that's just beating a dead horse. I'll leave those rants to others.

Rooney Finest. There, I said it. From the hype, you would think that it was obtained from honey badgers and impregnated with cobra venom, a veritable Brush of Gryffindor. It ain't.

Hype? I'm positive I could kill someone with the knot on my Rooney finest if I were to try. I can certainly understand people not liking Rooney Finests, but I wouldn't call them "hyped". They are a kind of brush that no other maker (other than possibly M&F) has anything even remotely similar to. Are they worth $300+? Well, is any shave brush worth $300+? To me, hype is people saying "Go buy this brush, it's the best in it's price range." I don't see that with Finests (other than the occasional: "OMG ClassicShaving just found a secret stash of Finests... they're the last ones ever... again" - thread). Their "hype" is people calling them their favorite brush- which isn't so much hype as just stating your taste in brush, because they are really their own style of brush. They are about as similar to other two band brushes as boar brushes are.

 

[Sir_Eider]

Semogue big boar brushes, specially the "special editions". At least here in Spain Omega boar bruhses cost half price or less and have superior performance IMHO. Their only con would be its cheap plastic handles of most models but they break almost inmediately, while Semogue needs usually long break time, all have soft tips and probably the most important, the italian ones are not soooo foam hunger like the portugueses.

Just an example: a Semogue 2000 that I owned cost me about 20 euros plus shipping and I needed almost 1 month of daily washes to break it and once I got it I never had much lather. In the opposite side, later I bought an Omega 10098 with a much bigger knot for only 6 euros (yes, with a plastic handle I know...), it broke very quickly and produces tons of creamy lather with less effort. For a big boar lathering bowl brush I think that the decision is clear...

Cheers!

 

[Jut]

any badger brush

 

[lu20vt]

Simpson Chubby, Plisson, Rooney Finest.

 

[Mad Man]

It's interesting to consider that if we edited the thread title to "Your Favourite brush of All Time" we'd probably still get the very same list of names...

 

[Foyle]

It's interesting to consider that if we edited the thread title to "Your Favourite brush of All Time" we'd probably still get the very same list of names...

Yes, I love my Rooney 3/1. I like it much more than my Duke 2. Both brushes were under $100.00, but I just like the Rooney better.

My vote for the most over-hyped brush is the Muhle Silvertip Fibres. Synthetics have a looooong way to go before they reach the performance of real animal hair. I'll take a boar or a badger over even the best of the modern synthetics any day.

 

[shave~extacy]

I was not impressed with Rooney, as it was unique I can also say it was not for me. (2xl was the brush in particular)

 

[takeshi]

In your learned opinion, what is the most over rated brush you have ever used?

I don't really think in terms of over/under rated. I find the words themselves to be overrated. I've certainly used brushes that didn't work out for me but that didn't make them overrated in my opinion. The very nature of everything here is that what does or doesn't work for one may work entirely differently for the next. In other words, YMMV.

I've found that looking for what sounds like it would fit my preferences rather than simply relying on popularity works for me and I haven't run into anything that I'd call overrated. Then again, popularity doesn't matter to me. What works or doesn't work for me does.

To me, broadly proclaiming that anything is over or under rated implies that the person making the statement either suffers from tunnel vision or has decided to make him/her self the arbiter of such things. I just don't see the point in making such statements on highly subjective/YMMV topics. If you mean "didn't work for me" then say so. Don't assume that one person's experience somehow defines an overall trend.

So often posts are written about what a spectacular brush this is and what a great performer (such an odd metaphor)

It's an odd metaphor if you're using the definition of performer that means "one who gives a performance, as in a show". The other definition (the one I'd use in reference to a brush) isn't even a metaphor.

Price really should be a commanding factor in this evaluation. Let's face it, a $5-$10 brush cannot lay claim to being all that pretentious regardless of how well it is regarded. Actually such a brush can be considered on the opposite end of the "OVER" rated spectrum.

I see what you're getting at but the closest I've come to considering brushes as overrated have been the boars that I have tried and none of them are brushes that I would consider expensive. Are you asking which brushes people consider overrated or overpriced -- or pretentious, for that matter? There's certainly overlap with those words but they mean different things.

It's interesting to consider that if we edited the thread title to "Your Favourite brush of All Time" we'd probably still get the very same list of names...

That's the nature of subjectivity/YMMV.

I don't see much point in threads that just generate lists (whether it's best, worst, overrated, underrated, overpriced, underpriced, etc) but actual discussions on the "why" behind these preferences can be beneficial to those shopping and researching.

 

[beginish]

Hype? I'm positive I could kill someone with the knot on my Rooney finest if I were to try. I can certainly understand people not liking Rooney Finests, but I wouldn't call them "hyped". They are a kind of brush that no other maker (other than possibly M&F) has anything even remotely similar to. Are they worth $300+? Well, is any shave brush worth $300+? To me, hype is people saying "Go buy this brush, it's the best in it's price range." I don't see that with Finests (other than the occasional: "OMG ClassicShaving just found a secret stash of Finests... they're the last ones ever... again" - thread). Their "hype" is people calling them their favorite brush- which isn't so much hype as just stating your taste in brush, because they are really their own style of brush. They are about as similar to other two band brushes as boar brushes are.

I like my Rooney Finest just fine, and perhaps our disagreement about Finests stems from what we each interpret hype to mean. There are brushes with similar density, and hair like the Manchurian in the latest crop of Simpsons is pretty similar IMO. I can't comment on M&F, as I haven't tried them. It's great with soaps, not so great with creams, is a bit of a lather hog, but gets the job done just fine. As with any rare brush, it achieved a grail status that really gets lubricated every time Classic "finds" another batch of brushes in the warehouse (yeah, over there next to Mr. Hoffa). Much of the discussion in this thread has heaped scorn on Plisson, most likely due to the price tag. Rooney Finests were and are no grand bargain either, and I do stand behind my assessment of them as overrated, but I do grant that it probably can destroy a horcrux.

 

[ThePatrician]

I've seen Plisson on here and agree, although I have never used one. Considering they go for a few hundred dollars, that's not likely to change. I can't justify spending that much on a brush just to say I have one. I have read tons of reviews saying that they actually perform under every other brush out there.

I picked up a Semogue 2011 LE, and while I liked the handle I felt like I was trying to scrub my face with a wicker broom. I gave it the good college try, but it just kept tearing up my face. I had read rave reviews of it, and thought that it would blast me out of my Shave Cave. Saying "it didn't" isn't doing justice to how underwhelmed I was. Every now and then I pick it back up, wondering if I'm finally ready to tame this wild beast, but every time I pick it up, I end up rinsing it clean in disgust and going back to my Duke 2 or customs.

 

[Henrik]

2-banders..

 

[Mike_P]

Simpson Duke 2 in Best.

My face is sensitive and evvvveryone in the world of B&B talked this brush up. I used it twice and it just was not for me. It hurt and just... no. Over rated in my opinion.

LOVE Simpson brushes but that specific one? No thank you.

 

[Henrik]

,,,and there you have it our dear readers. YMVM!
After all- is it not the reason of why we- we ALL constantly checking this section of the site reguraly (me included)?