Pure Silk Shaving Brush

[bbarton713]

I won an auction for $8.09 plus shipping for an Old Spice mug (wanted another for my next VDH melt experiment) and it also had a brush that was made in France and had a label on it, Soie Pure or Pure Silk in English.

It looks like it has been lightly used or not at all. The bristles are pretty soft and it washed up easily. I'm guessing boar because it doesn't look like badger but I don't know for sure. The brush looks wet because it is freshly washed.

I like the handle and originally thought I'd get another knot put in it but now after seeing and handling it I think I'll just keep it the way that it is.

 

[Gamma]

Very cool handle - nice kinda beehive thing goin' on there.
For a second I thought it was one that the bottom twists off of so you can put soap or powder or something in it.

 

[Thebigspendur]

If it says pure silk then maybe that's what it is. Synthetic hair made of silk. Of course it could just be a model name and it could be boar , it looks like boar but only you the owner can tell. Silk would be very different feeling than boar.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Soie not only means silk, but also bristle, so this brush is made from swine's hair and not from silk!

 

[Darjeeling Express]

Bob, give it a try. Isn't there an old saying about a silk purse and a sow's ear. What the heck, have fun!

 

[bbarton713]

Yeah, I figure why not? I'm going to give it a try tomorrow morning. It is very soft to the touch but good backbone so I'm going to see how it likes MWF.

 

[Darjeeling Express]

So how was the shave?? (I think I have a few ties made out of badger hair.)

 

[djmike523]

So wait. . . is this silk or silk / bristle?


Either way...lets hear about the lather!

 

[dpm802]

For a second I thought it was one that the bottom twists off of so you can put soap or powder or something in it.

Those brushes with the screw off bottoms had an entirely different purpose for WW2 espionage agents. Watch this short film from the BBC for more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11383496

 

[dpm802]

I like the handle and originally thought I'd get another knot put in it but now after seeing and handling it I think I'll just keep it the way that it is.

Congrats on retaining the original knot. I think you'll get a lot of good shaves from that old piece of gear.

Too many people destroy good vintage brushes without even bothering to wash it first and see if the original will spring back to life.

 

[bbarton713]

The shave was not good with the honey blade SE and the lather was a little difficult to use. I face lathered and I don't think this is the right brush for that. I'm going to do a bowl lather tomorrow and see how it goes.

 

[bbarton713]

Well...I tried the brush again this morning and did a bowl lather of my doctored up VDH (melted, added menthol drops and some Royal Lime) and it was ok, but not great.

The problem with this brush is that not only is the handle tiny, but the brush itself just doesn't have much to it. I felt like I had to load the brush an inordinate number of times to get enough soap on it to start building a lather and then it was hard going to get some.

The thing is, I've used this soap before and I know how it behaves and know how to get a good 3 pass with plenty leftover lather out of it and it wasn't happening.

I'm thinking of a replacement knot of super soft badger that has a nice, wide bloom...we'll see.

 

[Belmont4]

This thread was started years back, so I hope this message will enlighten someone. Thanks to bbarton713 for piquing my curiosity. 30+ years ago I bought a shaving brush in Paris for my toiletry kit. It had stiff bristles compare to an English brush I left at home. I noted recently that it said "soies pures" on a sticker, still stuck on after all these years. The plural form is significant. The French don't use a non-count word for hair. They say hairs. Silk, however, is non-count, as in English. So, it can't be silk. The brush is made of boar hair.