Semogue 2000 first impression and questions.

[SliceOfLife]

So I ordered a Semo 2k from VintageScent. It arrived quite quickly (about a week). I took it out, soaked it and soaked a puck of colgate.

Here's my history with Boar. I started with a VDH boar, moved to a Rex Boar (similar to omega's but pretty floppy), never had a huge amount of success lathering with them. Great soaps, such as tabac, worked. Glycerins were all but worthless. Since then I've bought ten badgers from TGN, and have found that soaps I had written off as garbage using my boars are actually damn good soaps. But I started to think that maybe I'd just not had a good boar. So I bought the 2k, that brings us here.


First, I checked the brush when it got here. Many bristles already were split ended, which explains the first thing I noticed, the brush was plenty soft. In fact, I'd say the tips are softer than many of my badgers. So on that count, it's a winner. The problem is that it doesn't seem to lather as well as my badgers. Sure, it made good lather, but it took a good bit more work than even my more floppy badgers do, and it didn't produce anywhere near the amount of lather. With the same loading time that would have given me enough soap for 3 passes with a half a cup of lather left over on my much smaller badgers, I barely managed to squeeze out two passes from the boar.

So do you boar latherers have any tips, tricks, or comments that might help me get the hang of using a quality boar brush sooner rather than later?

 

[kooshman7]

Boars take a long time before they start to show their true colors. You have to give them many uses to break the brush in and get the hairs to split. I've gone through some boars and I've found that for the most part I just prefer the Semogue brushes. I have a 2000 I had to send back it was an older brush with lacquer problems that was starting to do much better and I had used it 20 times.

Thankfully they put the knot into a new handle to spare breaking it in further. They even threw in a Semogue 1460 as a goodwill jesture! I was just happy to have my brush getting fixed up, but the little guy looks really good too so I look forward to using that one too. My only other boar is an Omega 31064, and while not my exact preference, it is a great boar brush in it's own respect too. I find that it is more willing to lather my soaps and creams, but at times it feels like it's bordering on not dense enough. I would get another Omega boar again though. The Pro models are simply phenomonal for the price as well.

Give it more time to break in. Make it a point to test lather with the brush every other day is what I usually would do. The lathering, and the drying are what helps to break the brush in. I hope that you come to enjoy the brush!

 

[SliceOfLife]

That's great news. I test lather every day, so I'll break her in in record time.

 

[kooshman7]

Boars love their attention.

 

[jkh]

After a month report back

 

[Klarion]

Yep, kooshman's right on the money. Lathering with it every day (even if you don't use it for your face )will help the break in process, assuming you allow it to dry properly between latherings.

 

[Tech 62]

I found I had the same problem with my Semogue boars(LE & 2000) when I first tried lathering with them & this works for me. If I don't shake them as much as my TGN or any other badgers thereby leaving some water in the brush,usually one small shake & hit the soap I get much better results.YMMV.

 

[kooshman7]

I found I had the same problem with my Semogue boars(LE & 2000) when I first tried lathering with them & this works for me. If I don't shake them as much as my TGN or any other badgers thereby leaving some water in the brush,usually one small shake & hit the soap I get much better results.YMMV.

+1 Yeah this has helped a lot with several boars leaving more water than you usually would.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I found I had the same problem with my Semogue boars(LE & 2000) when I first tried lathering with them & this works for me. If I don't shake them as much as my TGN or any other badgers thereby leaving some water in the brush,usually one small shake & hit the soap I get much better results.YMMV.

Thank you. That WAS the problem. Tried a quick test lather with a sopping brush and boom, loads of lather. Funny how my badgers need to be all but wrung out and the boar needs to be dripping, but hey, it works. I can't wait until tomorrows shave when I see what this brush can do.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Ok, Had a Tabac shave today. Brush was huge and soft, made loads of lather, and the lather was moister than it usually is when I use my badger, but the brush has trouble keeping a hold of enough of the lather for the third pass. First pass I looked like santa I had so much white on my chin, any tips on how to get the brush to keep a hold of more lather and leave less on my face or is that just something that will improve as it breaks in more?

 

[Klarion]

It really just needs to break in, in order to hold the water and lather juuust right. Just give it a couple weeks time, and it'll be right as rain. All of the boars I've used have had that problem in the beginning, then the problem gets corrected once they've conditioned and can absorb water more readily.

 

[vitaman]

When lathering my Semo 1305, I splay the bristles out when charging w/ soap. This has helped w/ holding more lather. Hope you enjoy your Semo, they are great performers!

 

[du212]

I found I had the same problem with my Semogue boars(LE & 2000) when I first tried lathering with them & this works for me. If I don't shake them as much as my TGN or any other badgers thereby leaving some water in the brush,usually one small shake & hit the soap I get much better results.YMMV.

Apply a light pressure with your fingers to drain the brush before use, the boar brushes load more water than the badger brushes, it's better to add water to the pre-lather cream.