New Boar Brush smell......(woooooof!)

[penmanship]

a friend gave me an Omega Boar Brush.

i tried washing it, lathering it up 3 or 4 times but it still smells.

my badger brush didn't have this issue.

i'm new to boar brushes, so not sure if there is something else i should be doing to get rid of the smell.

any assistance is appreciated,

Tim

 

[bladebuff]

Just keep washing, sometimes it takes a bit of time and more than a few wash and dry cycles. I used a mild dish detergent with a lavender scent, soak, wash, rinse and dry and most of the smell is gone after a few cycles.

Rest assured the smell will dissipate with use, be patient.

 

[flycbyrd]

a friend gave me an Omega Boar Brush.

i tried washing it, lathering it up 3 or 4 times but it still smells.

my badger brush didn't have this issue.

i'm new to boar brushes, so not sure if there is something else i should be doing to get rid of the smell.

any assistance is appreciated,

Tim

from another thread on how to get the funk out. Get some dawn dish soap and put in on the bristles and build lather in your palm with it, then get a big measuring cup make a warm soapy water solution, if you have real hard water you can add a little borax to the mixture. Let your.brush sit in the mixture for and hour. Take it out rinse all the soap from its bristles. Get your fav soap or cream build a lather leave the brush sitting upright with the bristles lathered for 24 hours. Then rinse it off the next day and no more funk.

 

[Drubbing]

Get a Semogue? Must be an Omega thing.

I've bought 4 Semogues and not one of them had any animal funk.

Boars aren't instant gratification on a number of levels, they need a bit of patience till they give up the goods. I think they're worth the time.

 

[kingfisher]

Get a Semogue? Must be an Omega thing.

I've bought 4 Semogues and not one of them had any animal funk.

......

Wish it were this simple. My Omega smelled great immediately. No funk at all. Then I got the 2009 Semogue LE brush, and it smelled fine, too. In fact, it was slightly perfumed. Smelled BETTER than fine.

Well, then it had a problem and I sent it back for some work. Ultimately it got re-knotted and came back to me. Whew! Stunk to high heaven. Lathered it up every day for a week and a half and it still stunk. Put it into the rotation anyway, and here it is about a month later and it still stinks a little. I also got the smallest Semogue and it had a serious funk, too.

Bottom line? I don't think the funk is predictable based on brand alone.

 

[takeshi]

Get a Semogue? Must be an Omega thing.

I've bought 4 Semogues and not one of them had any animal funk.

Nope. Just got my Semogue custom boar and it really reeked.

 

[Mike'sWorld]

My Semogue 2000 just plain stunk right out of the box.

It was a gut wrenching, stomach churning stench. Really.

The good news was that after a few test lathers with shave soaps, the smell quickly dissipated.

 

[kg4ghn]

My Semogue Custom boar doesn't stink if you smell of the brush it just smells like whatever lather I am using. But while I am rubbing the brush on my face I can smell the funk over the lather...

At any rate, it isn't as bad as it was and seems to be getting better with every use. My shave last night I just caught a wiff or two instead of smelling it the entire shave.

 

[blacdisco2000]

The Omega brushes smell very ugly you can wait o couple of weeks with washes of soap continuosly.

 

[JPDyson]

+1 (Omegas are stinky)
My Semogues were far less stinky upon receipt.

 

[SSGDPM]

My Omegas had a horrid stench when new. Do a wash with dish soap or shampoo and then lather them up with shave soap/cream and let them sit overnight. One or two times of that and the smell should be diminished enough to actually use the brush on your face. The smell completely went away after about a week with mine. Small price to pay for the fantastic performance of a good boar brush.

 

[nehpets4627]

My Shaving Factory XS Boar had funk from hell like this. It took three nights of dried-lather break-in just to get 90% or so of the funk out. Another 8% or so has dissipated over 2 weeks of use, but there's still a tiny bit lingering. It may not get much better because it is likely to see a lot less use as my Parker Deluxe Pure Badger arrived today, and so far it just blows up creme in a way the boar can't come close to. I will, however, keep the boar around for travel and if I ever become a soap guy.

 

[ckirk]

I know the feeling...I face lather and there's nothing better to wake you up in the morning than rubbing a boar's butt across your face.

Hang in there, the smell goes away.

 

[jhooking]

After about 15 shaves the smell on my boar decimated. It just takes some time. I have seen people buy a brush and have it smell fine out of the box.

 

[htownmmm]

"Break me off a piece, of that funk"(Thank you Steve Harvey!)

Ah, yes, another boar lets a new wetshaver know that his olfactory sense is working.


marty

 

[DFrancis]

A fresh Omega Boar is funkier than George Clinton.

 

[brucered]

i told you it was stinky tim (wasn't me who gave it to him ). soak it in some hair conditioner over night, rinse and repeat. after a few days, the smell will go away and it takes on a slight scent of whatever soap or cream you use. i had the same issue with my omega pro 49, stunk for a few days (uses), not it's fine.

ps, if you don't want it, i know someone who would take it off your hands (me )

 

[hometownhero]

The newest omega I bought had a stink like I never smelt from a brush, after 50+ washes and lathering it still has a bit of stink in it still.

 

[AlgebraicMirror]

from another thread on how to get the funk out. Get some dawn dish soap and put in on the bristles and build lather in your palm with it, then get a big measuring cup make a warm soapy water solution, if you have real hard water you can add a little borax to the mixture. Let your.brush sit in the mixture for and hour. Take it out rinse all the soap from its bristles. Get your fav soap or cream build a lather leave the brush sitting upright with the bristles lathered for 24 hours. Then rinse it off the next day and no more funk.

Thanks so much for this advice! I'm a new wetshaver getting started for the very first time, and this just worked for me!

I ordered a new Omega Boar Brush on the advice of this forum, and yep, when I got it wet it definitely stunk. It wasn't enough to make me start gagging or throw up (perhaps it's because mine wasn't as bad as some, or just the fact I was born and raised in Iowa, where pigs outnumber people 4 to 1), but I definitely wasn't excited about rubbing it all over my face.

I followed these steps as described, letting it sit in Taylor of Old Bond Street - Jermyn Street scent overnight, and now when I get it wet it just smells like posh English gentlemen. Thanks so much guys!

 

[speedwell]

Live with the stink. It's part of the charm.