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Simpson polo 12 Super - Old stock?

So here are the pictures of the brand new old stock brush I received

Is this pre-vulfix era brush?
Or the famous 2 band brush?
E876E957-DE52-4717-8F61-3F6DBA66C65D.jpeg
97FD7855-FF96-475F-8C17-B8FFB3E282E4.jpeg
07F142BC-A801-4B35-8DA1-84DD6A2DFA94.jpeg
 
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I have to say - I thought my polo 12 in best was awesome for face lathering - and it is - but the polo 12 in super takes it up a notch.
I use all my brushes exclusively for face lathering.

Some things I don't understand
  1. pl 12 in super has more backbone than CH3 in Manchurian
  2. T3 and CH3 super have fine / jelly like tips and PL12 super does not but is very very soft tips but fantastic backbone, not like my 2 band Manchurian from Manseto (made in china)
  3. Pink Hue to PL12 in Super

All said - love PL12, and I think Mark, though he is an expert, has misunderstood this brush - it is not the monster people have made it out to be - don't be intimidated by it.

I am going to have to sell the PL 12 and T3 to make funds for PL14 in Super because - well just because .....

I would love to hear from someone who has PL12 or PL14 in Manchurian
 
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nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
My Somerset brushes have a pink hue in the handle if that's what you're referring to in #4 ... some old rod stock for sure.

Definitely an old stock brush, congrats! That thing is huge! Can't help with the hair but it does look dense. Where did you find it if I may ask?
 

Rudy Vey

Shaving baby skin and turkey necks
Looks like three band to me, the old two band super was really showing only two bands, the dark band is much broader than the one you showing. My Polo 8 is one of the old two-band super.
 
Looks like three band to me, the old two band super was really showing only two bands, the dark band is much broader than the one you showing. My Polo 8 is one of the old two-band super.
My Somerset brushes have a pink hue in the handle if that's what you're referring to in #4 ... some old rod stock for sure.

Definitely an old stock brush, congrats! That thing is huge! Can't help with the hair but it does look dense. Where did you find it if I may ask?
Thank you Nemo - I got it from Pasteurs in NYC.

I honestly wish I could pass around the brush, I may think about it in future.

it truly is not that big. After 3passes I have left over lather for one pass.
that may be in part due to - I never ever smash the brush, always paint strokes when loading and allowing the tips to work the lather.
 
I like the brush so much - I am thinking about buying a backup - any recommendations - should I ask for the old stock or request new stock?
 
The colour of the box alone is not determinative. Whilst to-day they all seem to be stocked in red boxes, there was a time when the packaging differed depending on the "quality" of the brush and the intended retailer. Lower grade brushes in a chemist's or corner shop might be housed in a basic display box, with a plastic window-sleeve to show the brush. Better brushes of gift quality were housed in more handsome boxes for luxury stockists. Hinge-lidded boxes were also common at some time back then. Although red boxes may have been used before the Vulfix take-over, I don't remember them from the 1960's to 1990's.

Bar-coding was introduced to the UK at the end of the seventies but took a few years to catch on. The original printed bar-code suggests the product was registered in the early eighties, by virtue of its very low number, but it doesn't mean that particular brush was made or sold then. The other (affixed) bar-code label suggests either a price change, ownership change, or an import code.
The original retail price seems to place it in the late nineties at the earliest.

At any rate, I believe it pre-dates the Vulfix acquisition of 2008.
 
When Vulfix took over Simpson’s they inherited the grey boxes (and presumably decals)

Those barcoded labels are just something they put on at pasteurs.

There is an old thread somewhere on this forum where our friend from Simpson’s points to a change in the way the brushes where stamped as a way of telling if it’s somerset era or not. I think he called it “lamp lighter”?
I may have they term wrong but whatever it was called apparently it wasn’t possible to continue.
 

Rudy Vey

Shaving baby skin and turkey necks
When Vulfix took over Simpson’s they inherited the grey boxes (and presumably decals)

Those barcoded labels are just something they put on at pasteurs.

There is an old thread somewhere on this forum where our friend from Simpson’s points to a change in the way the brushes where stamped as a way of telling if it’s somerset era or not. I think he called it “lamp lighter”?
I may have they term wrong but whatever it was called apparently it wasn’t possible to continue.
It was called "Lamp Black"
 
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