Hey guys,
I haven't read much of Pills brushes on B&B so Ithought I would put up a quick review for those interested or considering one.
The brush is made from high mountain silvertip badger hair held together with a ferrule. The grip is made of matte finished stainless steel. Brush Dimensions are approximate.
Knot Diameter: 21mm
Total Height: 114.3mm
What lead me to the brush originally was that I wanted a brush that was finished in a similar style to my feather razor, which was stainless that didn’t blemish and had a longer handle for use with a scuttle.
So far this brush has replaced my previous brushes which were a Dovo Silvertip and a Simpson Emperor 3 Manchurian. I like to think this brush is smack bang inthe middle and possess qualities of both brushes.
The Dovo:
- Very soft with little backbone
- Bit of a lather hog
- Short metal handle suitable for face lathering
- Medium density
- Required more water
- Held together well with little to no shedding
- Tiny amount of glue present as base of knot
The Emperor
- Tiny bit scratchy otherwise soft with good backbone
- Released lather well
- Long handle suited to bowl lathering
- Held a lot of water (at the beginning I added tomuch water to my scuttle, not realizing the brush still had plenty)
- Very dense
- Held together well with little to no shedding
The PILS
First impression… what have I done (my wife going kill me)this is not a cheap brush!
It arrives in the mail…. this look like an amazing brush!
First use… I think I like it. Seems to hog the lather!
Now that I have been using this brush every day for a little while now I have really developed a love and understanding of this brush. Now in my experience this raises a very important point. Every piece of shave gear youget requires a little bit of patience as you seduce it into giving you that great shave you seek! Not always the case and sometime things are just crap =) but most of the time!
What makes this brush, the brush for me is that its construction is really top notch.
Since using it everyday only a few hairs shed at the beginning and to me these didn't come out of the knot but appear to be shavings left in the bloom.The use of the ferrule to secure the hairs also means no trace of glue anywhere in the loft.
As for the feel, this is a unique one. The knot is constructedof silver tip hairs but also has much darker hairs mixed in throughout the knotwhich cover the entire height of the loft. IMO this provides an extremely softbrush with some of the backbone I experienced in the Manchurian. I would suggest this brush is more suited to bowl lathering as IMO it works best with painting strokes, as when doing circular motions this exposes some of the tough hairs and causes it to lose some of the pillow softness.
Regarding performance; this thing is a lather machine! +) I’lladmit on first use I thought my search hadn’t ended for what I considered ‘mybrush’. After a few uses though it has quickly earned a place in my heart. Itholds a lot of water and is great with both creams and soaps. Due to its unique construction doing circular motions on a soap exposes the thicker hairs, whichaids in scooping the soap up off the top of the puck. In addition the extra backbone is great in a bowl for a whipping action.
As for rating:
Dovo
Softness: 10
Backbone: 4
Density: 5
Lathering: 5
Emperor
Softness: 6
Backbone: 10
Density: 10
Lathering: 9
PILS
Softness: 9
Backbone: 7
Density: 7
Lathering: 8
I haven't read much of Pills brushes on B&B so Ithought I would put up a quick review for those interested or considering one.
The brush is made from high mountain silvertip badger hair held together with a ferrule. The grip is made of matte finished stainless steel. Brush Dimensions are approximate.
Knot Diameter: 21mm
Total Height: 114.3mm
What lead me to the brush originally was that I wanted a brush that was finished in a similar style to my feather razor, which was stainless that didn’t blemish and had a longer handle for use with a scuttle.
So far this brush has replaced my previous brushes which were a Dovo Silvertip and a Simpson Emperor 3 Manchurian. I like to think this brush is smack bang inthe middle and possess qualities of both brushes.
The Dovo:
- Very soft with little backbone
- Bit of a lather hog
- Short metal handle suitable for face lathering
- Medium density
- Required more water
- Held together well with little to no shedding
- Tiny amount of glue present as base of knot
The Emperor
- Tiny bit scratchy otherwise soft with good backbone
- Released lather well
- Long handle suited to bowl lathering
- Held a lot of water (at the beginning I added tomuch water to my scuttle, not realizing the brush still had plenty)
- Very dense
- Held together well with little to no shedding
The PILS
First impression… what have I done (my wife going kill me)this is not a cheap brush!
It arrives in the mail…. this look like an amazing brush!
First use… I think I like it. Seems to hog the lather!
Now that I have been using this brush every day for a little while now I have really developed a love and understanding of this brush. Now in my experience this raises a very important point. Every piece of shave gear youget requires a little bit of patience as you seduce it into giving you that great shave you seek! Not always the case and sometime things are just crap =) but most of the time!
What makes this brush, the brush for me is that its construction is really top notch.
Since using it everyday only a few hairs shed at the beginning and to me these didn't come out of the knot but appear to be shavings left in the bloom.The use of the ferrule to secure the hairs also means no trace of glue anywhere in the loft.
As for the feel, this is a unique one. The knot is constructedof silver tip hairs but also has much darker hairs mixed in throughout the knotwhich cover the entire height of the loft. IMO this provides an extremely softbrush with some of the backbone I experienced in the Manchurian. I would suggest this brush is more suited to bowl lathering as IMO it works best with painting strokes, as when doing circular motions this exposes some of the tough hairs and causes it to lose some of the pillow softness.
Regarding performance; this thing is a lather machine! +) I’lladmit on first use I thought my search hadn’t ended for what I considered ‘mybrush’. After a few uses though it has quickly earned a place in my heart. Itholds a lot of water and is great with both creams and soaps. Due to its unique construction doing circular motions on a soap exposes the thicker hairs, whichaids in scooping the soap up off the top of the puck. In addition the extra backbone is great in a bowl for a whipping action.
As for rating:
Dovo
Softness: 10
Backbone: 4
Density: 5
Lathering: 5
Emperor
Softness: 6
Backbone: 10
Density: 10
Lathering: 9
PILS
Softness: 9
Backbone: 7
Density: 7
Lathering: 8
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