Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
My Semogue SOC Mistura arrived yesterday.
The SOC is my third brush with a knot which is a mixture of badger and boar. The other two are the little lather monster but very scritchy Omega Mixed Midget, and the 26mm Maggard 70/30 knot which I put in an old Thater beehive handle.
I have about thirty shaves using the 70/30; it's breaking in, but it's still has some prickliness. I'm not saying that's bothersome to me because it does not show itself when I use the brush as I think it should be used. In other words when the 70/30 is splayed or used to paint there's no hint of prickliness.
Compared to the 70/30 after thirty shaves, the new Mistura is, on its first shave, less prickly. Yes, it has some prickliness when it's softly pushed against the skin. That prickliness is invisible when the brush is splayed or used to paint, so it's no problem at all for me, but I'd still be happier without any prickliness. I expect the brush will break in and it'll go away or turn into what I call good scritch.
I'd say the knot is significantly less dense than the knot of the 70/30. That's neither a bad nor a good thing in my view. The Mistura knot is certainly not deficient in density and it probably has better flow through than the 70/30. I experienced the scrub of the Mistura as very good, but it doesn't fall into the deliciously scrubby category like the 70/30. Splayed or used for painting the knot feels like a dense silvertip (kinda sorta) and not so much like a two band; that sounds critical of its scrub but I don't mean it as a criticism as much as I mean it as a compliment to the knot's soft feel.
The knot, which I washed before using, was clean to begin with. It lost not a single hair or bristle during its first use.
The handle has in my opinion great ergonomics. I've always liked the handle on my SOC boar, too, so it's no surprise that I'd like this one. It's not slippery or hard to manage in any respect. It seems to be a high quality resin handle. It does not feel cheap at all.
None of my photos have perfectly captured the handle's color. The top photo in this post comes closest to the color the handle appears to me to be in all but very bright light. It's not a super bright orange color at all except when the light is very bright. I like the color. I'm a fan of butterscotch but not so much a fan of actual orange. I wouldn't call this the perfect butterscotch but it'll do.
If you search for butterscotch candy you'll find that even the candy appears in many colors. Butterscotch is, I think, a color range and not a color.
With my calipers, the knot measures at 26mm as it leaves the ring. The loft is 51 mm. It's a 24mm brush as described by the manufacturer.
According to how I view knots this is a rather smallish or maybe medium sized knot. If it were any smaller I'd be critical of the brush. As it is, it's a brush I can certainly use, and will use and enjoy I think, but I'd much prefer the knot to be 26mm or even 28mm.
I think you can see in the photo how much smaller the Mistura knot is than the 70/30 knot.
For the record, the brush has a resin handle. The knot is said to be a mix of 50% premium boar & 50% Semogue Finest Badger. Someone mentioned that the boar is dyed (which I don't normally favor in a boar although it looks fine in this brush).
The Semogue SOC Mistura has made a very good first impression on me. Wish it came in a larger knot, but it doesn't. I should have purchased one of the 26mm Semogue LE brushes with the ugly barrel shaped wooden handle when they were available, but that ship has sailed.
Your impressions of this brush? My guess is most anyone would like this brush.
Happy shaves,
Jim
