Opinions on Ace Shaving knots, good and bad.
- Thread starter TobyC
- Start date
I've used a 20mm finest and it's not bad. Not as full as what you might get from TGN. I also have 24mm Finest from ace that I haven't used yet, but seems comparable to Vig Shaving 24mm that I have.
- Thread starter
- #3
How about knot to hole size, do you have to get an 18mm knot for a two inch hole like Vig?
I'm very happy with this.
Ilrasoio.com • Leggi argomento - Progetto minimalista
Ilrasoio.com • Leggi argomento - Progetto minimalista
Yeah, you do have contend with the hair portion right above the plug to require a larger hole to be drilled, at least for the 24mm, in order to set the knot deeper than the plug. A 25mm/1 inch hole with the top part or hole sanded down a little more in a taper will allow a proper fit.
I wouldn't bother. Of the 5 Chinese vendors I tried, Ace were by far the worst of the bunch. Horribly underfilled, and a prominent glue bump though not as bad as Sheng. A 24mm still won't fit in a 1" hole, so that's a moot point. It either fits or it doesn't. I'm pretty sure my 22mm TGN has more hairs than the Ace 24mm, it's that bad. The release may make up for the lack of bulk, but I'm not willing to sacrifice a handle for one of the two knots I wasted my money on.
- Thread starter
- #7
Well OK then! I'll just delete them from my bookmarks!
Thanks for the honest heads-up brother!
+1
I just set two Ace Shaving Silvertip knots and they felt a bit thin. After test lathering...I should have used them for something else as they lack backbone. Lesson for me: wait until you can spend a little more.
@TobyC - anytime! I feel kind of bad for bashing them, but I'd feel even worse if you wasted your money on one. Two knots for less than $30 may seem like a great deal, but in this case you definitely get what you pay for. I'll take one TGN at the same price over two Ace.
Did you let then know you weren't happy with their knots? I have made several brushes with Ace knots and I like them just fine. I have used TGN and shengs and I think Ace is my favorite. I guess YMMV, but I'm surprised you got bad knots.
I think the Frank Shaving knots I got earlier this year were about the best balance between price and quality.
Ace were cone shaped. I almost feel like if they were tighter and less flared out they would be better. It is aggravating when you have to have a 28mm socket for a knot that's 24mm at the bottom and only has as much hair as other brands 22mm knots.
I think they have nice enough hair. If you like a two band that won't hog lather no matter what. Ace is a good choice.
V Sheng is nice.
For money ain't a thing knots, I would buy from Scott again first. Highest quality bespoke shaving brushes by life2short1971
Then Elite Manchurian from Bob Quinn.
Then Maseto from eBay. The shop selling the MS brushes. Their loose knots are outstanding. They take the slow boat to get to the States though.
TGN Finest is what other knots are judged against for me.
Then V Sheng, Ace, or Shavemac. I don't think I get the Shavemac experience. Just not my thing. I love the bulb shape and all, but the feel just doesn't do it for me. The price is also a tough point.
I will be buying from Maggard next. They recently started selling loose knots. US shipping. Nice.
I always say I'm going to get another Whipped Dog too.
My top three 2 band favorites are Elite Manchurian from Elite Razors, Highest quality bespoke shaving brushes by life2short1971 from Scott if he ever offers them loose again, and Maseto.
I have 4 Frank Shaving knots that are splendid. The fan shaped ones, and you don't exactly get to choose which shape you want, are all textbook gel tipped. I messaged Ian and he made a flat top 2 band finest knot for me. Gel tipped too. I reknotted a Colonel Conk brush with and it's very nice.
I hate waiting for the ones from China. It's why I'm going to go with Maggard the next time I need knots. They look good enough.
TGN Finest is a decent and safe bet at an affordable price.
Ace is very budget basement as an option. It's not garbage, but it's not got a lot of things to brag about.
Ace were cone shaped. I almost feel like if they were tighter and less flared out they would be better. It is aggravating when you have to have a 28mm socket for a knot that's 24mm at the bottom and only has as much hair as other brands 22mm knots.
I think they have nice enough hair. If you like a two band that won't hog lather no matter what. Ace is a good choice.
V Sheng is nice.
For money ain't a thing knots, I would buy from Scott again first. Highest quality bespoke shaving brushes by life2short1971
Then Elite Manchurian from Bob Quinn.
Then Maseto from eBay. The shop selling the MS brushes. Their loose knots are outstanding. They take the slow boat to get to the States though.
TGN Finest is what other knots are judged against for me.
Then V Sheng, Ace, or Shavemac. I don't think I get the Shavemac experience. Just not my thing. I love the bulb shape and all, but the feel just doesn't do it for me. The price is also a tough point.
I will be buying from Maggard next. They recently started selling loose knots. US shipping. Nice.
I always say I'm going to get another Whipped Dog too.
My top three 2 band favorites are Elite Manchurian from Elite Razors, Highest quality bespoke shaving brushes by life2short1971 from Scott if he ever offers them loose again, and Maseto.
I have 4 Frank Shaving knots that are splendid. The fan shaped ones, and you don't exactly get to choose which shape you want, are all textbook gel tipped. I messaged Ian and he made a flat top 2 band finest knot for me. Gel tipped too. I reknotted a Colonel Conk brush with and it's very nice.
I hate waiting for the ones from China. It's why I'm going to go with Maggard the next time I need knots. They look good enough.
TGN Finest is a decent and safe bet at an affordable price.
Ace is very budget basement as an option. It's not garbage, but it's not got a lot of things to brag about.
@alpster - It's not worth the hassle of trying to return knots to China imo. I gave them an equal chance, they failed, so I'll order elsewhere. I'm glad your experience was better than mine, but it seems bakerbarber's opinion isn't much better than my own.
@bakerbarber - I was going to set an Ace but as you mentioned, it needed a large hole yet has no more hair than a 22mm. It looked ridiculous when I test fit it to the handle, almost like the diameter of the handle was larger than the bloomed knot.
My favorite knots are a silvertip and a wonderful finest with hooked tips, both from the now defunct Shave Revolution. I discovered them too late and only got 3 knots, if they were still around I wouldn't buy knots anywhere else.
@bakerbarber - I was going to set an Ace but as you mentioned, it needed a large hole yet has no more hair than a 22mm. It looked ridiculous when I test fit it to the handle, almost like the diameter of the handle was larger than the bloomed knot.
My favorite knots are a silvertip and a wonderful finest with hooked tips, both from the now defunct Shave Revolution. I discovered them too late and only got 3 knots, if they were still around I wouldn't buy knots anywhere else.
- Thread starter
- #13
Thanks @bakerbarber and @CigarSmoka. The TGN Finest sounds like a sure thing. Silvertip sounds like a crap shoot. To bad. I'd like to try a nice Silvertip someday.
@Hoka Hey - I'll let you know if I find a nice silvertip at a good price. It kills me to know Shave Revo is gone for good, the silvertip I have from them is a thing of beauty. It was just under $40 IIRC but if I paid $50 or even $60 I'd be happy. I wish I could find out what company in China made them, I'd do a one time bulk purchase.
Thanks Jay.
I concur with CigaSmoka on this one: I tried a couple of the Ace Finest/Two Band knots and they were a disappointment. The density of the knots I received was low, and the tips weren't especially soft. Overall performance was mediocre. When I go to the work of prepping a nice vintage handle, I need a better knot.
I pretty much agree with what everyone has said so far. I have one Ace knot, a short loft finest that I used on a travel brush, and it's okay but of the Chinese vendors I prefer Virginia. And aside from price I like TGN knots more.
I really wish I had come across this thread sooner! I was going to post my own thread about being disappointed with an Aceshaving finest two-band knot. But ususally I'll search before posting to make sure I'm not duplicating things. So, I found this thread. And here I am, Johhny Come-Lately...
The Aceshaving finest two-band knot is not good. Not good at all. My journey with the two-band knot started with a recommendation from @CigarSmoka to try a finest knot from Vigshaving. I dropped one into a restored 650PB handle and was amazed with the quality of the knot:
I still had a handful of other old handles to restore so I decided to use the two-band finest knot in two other restoration projects. Unfortunately, Vigshaving did not have a 19mm knot for my 250 handle so I went with Aceshaving's two-band finest knot:
In retrospect, I can already tell from the photo above that the knot isn't high quality. Here's what it looked like right after finishing. From L to R, 100T with a Vigshaving knot, 100T with a Whipped Dog silvertip knot, and the 250 with the Aceshaving knot.
I immediately knew there was something "off" about the Aceshaving knot. First, I set it deep. REALLY deep. And it still had a lot of loft. It was too late to adjust the depth because it was filled with resin already and I didn't want to mess around with boring it out. Second, the knot is lopsided. I set the resin in the handle perfectly level, and I could not get the bulb to rest symmetrically. Because it's not symmetrical! That was much more apparent post-bloom.
The last two let-downs were realized after I used the brush to shave. The knot is sparse and lacks density. This, coupled with the lack of backbone, resulted in an extremely floppy brush. I bought a silvertip knot from Aceshaving for another restoration: KLENZO B 985 and my only complaint was that it lacked backbone. But their two-band has even less backbone! It's really only good for creams:
I'm really bummed about using that Aceshaving knot because I like the handle a lot. I thought about keeping it and using it for soft creams. But now I'm actually considering a re-restore and digging that junky knot out of it. Oh well. I wouldn't have used it if I saw this thread earlier. Next time I'll do more research.
The Aceshaving finest two-band knot is not good. Not good at all. My journey with the two-band knot started with a recommendation from @CigarSmoka to try a finest knot from Vigshaving. I dropped one into a restored 650PB handle and was amazed with the quality of the knot:
I still had a handful of other old handles to restore so I decided to use the two-band finest knot in two other restoration projects. Unfortunately, Vigshaving did not have a 19mm knot for my 250 handle so I went with Aceshaving's two-band finest knot:
In retrospect, I can already tell from the photo above that the knot isn't high quality. Here's what it looked like right after finishing. From L to R, 100T with a Vigshaving knot, 100T with a Whipped Dog silvertip knot, and the 250 with the Aceshaving knot.
I immediately knew there was something "off" about the Aceshaving knot. First, I set it deep. REALLY deep. And it still had a lot of loft. It was too late to adjust the depth because it was filled with resin already and I didn't want to mess around with boring it out. Second, the knot is lopsided. I set the resin in the handle perfectly level, and I could not get the bulb to rest symmetrically. Because it's not symmetrical! That was much more apparent post-bloom.
The last two let-downs were realized after I used the brush to shave. The knot is sparse and lacks density. This, coupled with the lack of backbone, resulted in an extremely floppy brush. I bought a silvertip knot from Aceshaving for another restoration: KLENZO B 985 and my only complaint was that it lacked backbone. But their two-band has even less backbone! It's really only good for creams:
I'm really bummed about using that Aceshaving knot because I like the handle a lot. I thought about keeping it and using it for soft creams. But now I'm actually considering a re-restore and digging that junky knot out of it. Oh well. I wouldn't have used it if I saw this thread earlier. Next time I'll do more research.
@Chango - Sorry you had the same experience as me. Generally when the price seems too good to be true, it is. I still have 1 or 2 Ace knots from my purchase about a year ago. I’d like to say they’re so good I hate to use them until I make that perfect handle, but in reality I’m embarrassed to give them away.
