New Maggard 24mm bulb knot in Maggard 17mm deep handle.

[WalkerTM]

Just had my first shave with this! Only been on-and-off wet shaving, but since ~2013. Been working with a well-loved C&E BBB, which is great. This is a whole different world! LOTS of backbone, very soft tips even on first use, some splay. The loft was higher than I planned for, but that's a good thing in my opinion. Lower might just be a little too much change all at once given the setup I was coming from.

Measurements for whom it may concern: 9mm plug height, 63mm loft, 24mm knot in a 25mm handle with 17mm hole depth. Came out to a 53.5mm loft after setting.

I did a lot of research and I know there were many other equally good options for different preferences. I like how this turned out though. I load to a proto-lather in the puck container and then finish with a face lather and it worked great for me. Used Tabac today with a (new) Schick Krona. I wasn't particularly careful, and the shave was fantastic and much more comfortable compared to my EJ BBB & 40s SS (although I doubt the setup is at fault, merely saying the Schick & Maggard were much more forgiving).

Quick picture of the setup as is (no clean-up done, sorry!) attached.

 

[BigJ]

Congratulations!! Enjoy!!

 

[Big Jim]

Looks and sounds great. It appears to be a two band finest. Maggards has two of those, a regular and a super dense one. Which one did you get? I have a few brushes with the regular one and they are great. I like them so well that I have no desire to try the super dense one, but many people here tell me I'm missing out.

Whichever knot it is it looks great and you are enjoying it, and that's what counts.

 

[WalkerTM]

Hey, glad you asked! I had SHD in the original post title but when editing somehow clipped it out! Alas, can't fix it now. So it is the SHD, which does add some nice density and backbone. I expect all other factors would feel the same to me whether I'd gotten this or the normal knot. I doubt I'd pick up a normal Maggard knot and not be happy.

It is a two band finest. Very soft tips. Quite firm backbone (for me). I imagine the only difference is a little less time picking up soap and a little more firm on the face. Maybe slightly too firm -- if I traveled back to a week ago, I'd probably be on the fence between this, the same knot in a fan shape, or the same knot but NOT SHD (the latter two to help get it a bit floppier on the face). I did buy this without factoring in plug height (!!), so the plan was to loft this at 24/48. I expected to have to "grow into" the brush since it would have leaned toward the lower end of the loft scale that other face latherers seem to love. As it is, right now, I wouldn't want it lofted any lower with the density of the hairs.

Feel free to ask me anything! The research on this purchase was a chore so with luck I could save someone else that.

 

[dmshaver]

Thank you for the great review. I really like my Maggards SHD knot, soft, dense, good backbone, it checks all the boxes!