Please tell me what I'm missing

[onadraw]

I've been doing the Traditional Wet Shaving thing for about 3 years now. I have tried lots of Razors, Soaps, and Blades. I am, however, still using the first Brush I bought, a Tweezerman Badger Brush.

Now, I see lots of posts that say my brush is not considered any good but I haven't had any problem with shedding and I've been happy with my lather.

So, I'm genuinely curious, what is gained by buying one of the more expensive Brushes?

What do I need to know and what am I missing?

 

[mblakele]

Simply put, you are SBAD-deficient. Some might even say "normal".

I confess to a little surprise that a Tweezerman will last three years. My original one made perfectly good lather, but I always felt that the wooden handle was like a ticking bomb. So I left it for a trophy brush. And then another, and another, and....

 

[SilentTuba]

You're not alone. I've been at this for four years, using only the Tweezerman. It's starts to get pretty ratty, so I have finally decided to upgrade, and will be ordering a Whipped Dog Silvertip as soon as they're available again. I'll let you know what I think, but I'm excited to see the difference.

 

[Dave Colangelo]

I got my brother a Twezerman when I started him on a DE he seems to like it and it seems to be a common decent starter brush. On one hand you are really not missing anything. If the brush does what you want it to do then there is no reason to change it. On the other hand there are lots of brushes out there that server lots of purposes. Lets break it down a few ways,

Softness:
As you know there are different grades of badger hair, each one has its own characteristics and will lather differently. Some are softer and some have a bit more back bone which will exfoliate a bit better.

Knot size:
I have been doing a lot of reading on this recently, you have a brush like the Chubby which is very large and some people like, and then you have a brush like the wee Scot which has a tiny 14mm knot and is the size of an average mans finger. Both brushes are at opposite ends of the spectrum but have religious followings in their own right.

Handle:
There are loads of handle designs, every one likes them for different reasons and it may take a few tries to find a brush you really like. Some people prefer a bigger one, typically if you have bigger hands you may like something like the Semougue. Otherwise there are lots of shapes you can check out.

As for what you will get out of a new brush, maybe nothing. If you are getting good lather and you like the way it all comes out then a pricy brush may not be the answer. Personally I enjoy the build quality, soft bristles, clean feel and performance of some of the more expensive brushes. I do find my Semogue owners club in silvertip makes better lather than my edwin jagger boar that I started with. It is only slightly better than my Semogue 610 and similar but far bigger than my Simpson Duke 1. The hardest part about answering this question is that you may be looking for a "better brush" but that is subjective. What I would advise doing if you are looking to spend the money, get a nice boar, they are less expensive and a good place to start experimenting with. Then you can move into lesser badgers like maybe a Simpson Case or something in the 30-50 range. From there the sky is the limit, its going to be some time before you settle on something. in the end you may find the twezerman was the answer but the only way to find out is to try.

Regards
Dave

 

[jay67212]

I thought the same until I tried a high-priced Omega in silvertip. Now I have a small (7) collection of brushes, but they're all in the same category when it comes to scritchiness, size, shape and handle. I will say that a Vie-Long Horsehair brush feels like nothing else, IMHO.
If you like what you're with, stay with it. Nothing wrong with it. Granted, it's rare, but it happens.
BTW, I have to make sure SWMBO never reads your post, or I'm toast!

 

[martym]

You're not missing anything. If you are satisfied with the performance of your "tools" then that is all you need.

 

[Havok305]

If you are happy, leave it be. Reading this forum will make you wonder about all sorts of hardware, software, pens, tobacco, etc. Don't open Pandora's box. Ignorance is bliss!

That being said, the B&B Essential Boar would be a great, inexpensive addition to your arsenal. You should try a boar.

I also started with the tweezerman, it wasn't as bad as folks made it out to be. Mine was a shedder so it was given away to someone who wanted to try wet shaving.

In my journey I picked up an expensive brush, a Kent bk8. It made me realize how good the B&B Boar was. The BK8 was sold on B/S/T last week.

 

[Icarium]

you are way ahead in this game if you like your brush
i love my $25 ebay finest badger, 26mm knot, very dense, firm, scrubby, no scritch, shed only a few hairs on the first couple of uses then no more in the last 18 months
i thought i'd buy a backup a year later
same brand, seller, size and type of brush
sadly it had a completely different feel, not dense enough to be scrubby
wasted $25, gave it away
did it again, another wasted $25
cut some off the top to try to make it stiffer, now its scratchy and in my tool kit for cleaning things
read a lot of brush reviews, decided a Simpsons Colonel X2L Best Badger Shaving Brush was what I wanted
$80, i still don't have a backup brush I love
put a few o-rings on it to make the loft shorter and stiffer, read that tip here
still not my dream brush
sold it to a friend at work for $30
if you like what you got and can get a spare, do it
if not, get ready to spend a lot of time reading reviews and hopefully you will pick the right one for you first try
when my loved brush is near death, i'll start a thread here describing as best i can what i'm looking to find in its replacement and hoping i pick the right one for me
with brushes, like most things, YMMV

 

[FL shaver]

Different qualities. One day you might want a little more scritch. Another day softer tips. The next day you want to grind through a hard soap. Then you want to face lather a cream. Each brush has a little something different to offer.

 

[Foyle]

If your brush is working well and you're happy with it there is no reason to make a change. A nice silvertip badger will be much softer and more luxurious than your Tweezerman, but it won't give you a better shave or anything.

 

[onadraw]

I really know nothing about brushes. How would my Tweezerman Brush be described properly in terms of Loft, Knot Size and such?

 

[Kingjimmi]

I started with the Escali brush, which is supposedly the same thing as the Tweezerman. I thought the brush was perfectly fine and would have probably stayed with it except mine shed about 5-10 hairs everytime I used it.

If you're happy with the performance of your Tweezerman and it doesn't shed you probably won't see much benefit to going to a brush that costs 10x more unless by a minor miracle you find your ideal brush with your next purchase.

I went with a Kent brush as a replacement for the Escali and while I think it's great I have to admit that the Escali, besides the shedding issue, performed almost as well.

Of course, the Kent brush provides a bunch of intangibles that make me appreciate it more. Such as the excellent craftsmanship, the best in class packaging, and the heritage behind it.

As always YMMV.

 

[Danricgro]

If your not missing anything your not missing anything. I have seven "high end" badger brushes and enjoy all of them. Each is different from the others and I enjoy the variety. I also have several boar brushes that added together don't cost as much as some of the most expensive badgers I have. They also make great lather and are enjoyable to use. If you are happy with what you have you are not missing anything.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

If it aint broke don't fix it.

 

[Snargle]

If it aint broke don't fix it.

+1 But...and there's always a but...if you don't try other brushes, how do you know that you're not missing a life-changing experience?

 

[Jarick]

Yeah if you're not wanting to try anything else, keep at it. My Tweezerman died after about three months. Handle split and the hairs were falling out in clumps by the end. Once I tried a silvertip, the Tweezerman felt very prickly. I had to adjust my technique though.

I think if you wanted to try something a little nicer, find something with similar dimensions (20-22mm knot, 52-55mm loft) in a best badger. You might find a silvertip a little floppy and dense at that size.

 

[takeshi]

What do I need to know and what am I missing?

Experience with other brushes. If you're happy with the Tweezerman there's nothing wrong with it. That said, if you haven't tried anything else then you won't know if there's a better suited brush for you out there.

So, I'm genuinely curious, what is gained by buying one of the more expensive Brushes?

Depends on both the person and the brush. For some, nothing is to be gained. For others, a better experience is to be gained. Better and/or rarer materials. Better build quality. Better lathering. Better feel -- whether softer or scritchier. More or less backbone. Better dimensions whether it's knot size, density, loft, etc. A given brush may offer one or more of these things. A given person may value some, all or none of these things. Two different people can have entirely different priorities when it comes to brushes so it's difficult to make broad, sweeping generalizations about whether everyone will benefit or not from a more expensive brush. Just keep in mind that better is a subjective matter and it is not synonymous with expensive. Price is just price. Most of the pricier brushes are pricier due to materials being more rare.

You're really going about it backwards. Tell us what you're looking for. Read the better brush recommendation thread linked in the sticky at the top of this subforum and use it to give people information they need to give you suitable brush recommendations.

Now, I see lots of posts that say my brush is not considered any good but I haven't had any problem with shedding and I've been happy with my lather.

Good is always highly subjective. Again, nothing wrong with being happy with what you have and your wallet will thank you for it. However, you can't assess that which you haven't experienced. If you're curious then look into brushes that sound like a good fit and try them out. If you haven't tried a boar then definitely try a boar. If you haven't tried different grades of badger then definitely try some different grades. If you haven't tried different knot sizes, lofts, etc then try brushes with different dimensions.

I moved up to my M&F blonde because I wanted a brush with a horn handle and a denser knot with soft face feel. It lathers very well though I also had no complaints about lathering with my prior brush. I would say that it was worth the price but the next person may not care at all for the grade of badger used or for the density or size of the knot or even for the price.

 

[Ashley Rosser]

+1 But...and there's always a but...if you don't try other brushes, how do you know that you're not missing a life-changing experience?

You've got to know what results you want to change before spending money on brushes just for the sake of brush exploration.
Me I went from a boar brush to silvertip because I wanted a softer brush not because I wanted to explore the shaving brush universe, that can get downright expensive.
As usual it's a YMMV thing and also it's a your money thing.
I went from one cheap boar to two Kents so I may not be the best example to follow.

 

[ChiefBroom]

There is nothing you need to know that you're missing.

What stands to be gained by trying different brushes depends on individual experience, how that experience is interpreted, and what it leads to in consequence. It's difficult, if not impossible, to predict any of that for a particular individual.

I was perfectly content with two brushes (I traveled heavily) for most of my first year of DE shaving. Then I impulsively decided to try a brush some others here regarded as mo' special. That brush triggered a temporary loss of sanity, and I subsequently bought 30 brushes in the span of about three months.

I don't believe I get better shaves now, and neither do I have a sense of enhanced well-being as a result of using superior brushes. But the discovery (whether real or imagined, and it's probably some of both) of the subtle differences between brushes has certainly transformed my shaving experience, and, in turn, significantly altered how I relate to the B&B community (e.g., I am now a Steward in the Shaving Brushes Forum -- how weird is that?).

Although there are clearly objective differences between brushes -- and I'm convinced that some of those differences can influence the observable outcome of a shave (most notably skin condition) -- the greatest part of what importantly serves to distinguish any two otherwise reasonably functional shaving brushes happens, in my opinion, between the ears not on the face. It's interesting (at least for some of us) to ponder and debate whether and to what extent differences are real or imagined. But what matters to me at the bottom-line is what I subjectively experience, irrespective of what about that experience is based on the real vs. the imagined.

Delightfully, not much about my bottom-line subjective experience can be relied up to predict your or anyone else's bottom-line subjective experience. I think it's much more interesting and fun that way.

 

[Snargle]

Yeah, what Ken said!